Hiring Halls Offer Work--and More : * They Give Laborers Chance for Job and Education

Laguna Beach and Orange have made commendable efforts to establish a central place for day laborers to get hired, rather than having contractors cruising city streets in pickups looking for help.

Unfortunately, the issue remains complex, controversial and not given to an easy solution.

For several years, Laguna Beach has had an outdoor hiring site in an industrial and commercial area on Laguna Canyon Road. But some residents complained that job-seekers didn’t always use the site, moving instead to areas near their homes to flag down would-be employers and using their yards as bathrooms.

In response, the city passed an ordinance four months ago barring contractors from hiring day laborers outside the Laguna Canyon Road site.

The Police Department warned that a better law would not just bar people from hiring people elsewhere, but would also prohibit the laborers from seeking work other than at the designated spot. A city task force has concluded the police were right.

A minority on the council argued that any ordinance wrongly punishes people for seeking jobs. But the council majority decided on the hiring area and now has given initial approval to extending the ordinance to cover employees as well as employers.

It is regrettable that a tougher law is needed, but it is understandable that cities do not want laborers wandering along busy streets and disrupting traffic as they flag down motorists who may hire them. And Laguna Beach has a good record in trying to solve the problem without mistreating the laborers, virtually all of whom are Latino.

Still, the city needs to continue its good work in emphasizing education rather than punishment, letting both employers and workers know that they are at risk if they don’t use the hiring area.

The problems in Orange are different. Rather than having laborers congregate on city streets, Orange has a hiring hall. But the hall may close in September because the cash-short city thinks the move will save it $60,000. However, the police chief has warned that any money saved by shutting the hall will be spent by law enforcement, because with nowhere to go, the laborers will be back on the corners, and his men will have to chase them.

Shutting the hall down would be a mistake, especially if it causes a recurrence of the city’s wrongheaded policy, followed several years ago, of harassing and rousting day laborers.

The hiring halls in Orange, Brea and Costa Mesa not only offer a chance for jobs but also classes in English as a second language, ways to stop smoking, and planned parenthood. The worth of the hiring halls has been obvious to many, so much so that one Laguna Beach group hopes to raise money to set up a hall and resource center similar to the other three. These halls are needed and should not be shut down.