Day Laborers Face Opposition From Merchants : Ladera Heights: Opponents support a county ordinance prohibiting solicitation of work on public property.

Dawn has barely broken, but Pedro Ortiz is already at his regular spot, hoping to be among the lucky few picked up for work that day.

It has been a week since his last job, yet the day laborer says he has little choice but to keep returning to the Ladera Heights street corner. He has a wife and three children to feed, and he has been unable to land a regular job.

The Salvadoran immigrant is one of about 25 to 100 men who gather daily near the HomeBase home improvement store at Slauson and Fairfax avenues.

Like fans spotting their favorite star, the men rush each vehicle that pulls over, competing for the day’s prize--a chance to earn $20 to $50 for anything from cutting grass to busting concrete.

The scene is repeated every day at street corners and vacant lots across Central Los Angeles, where hundreds of predominantly Latino immigrants satisfy a steady demand for cheap labor. But their presence has also fueled controversy and resentment.

At sites from Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles to Pico Boulevard in Mid-City, residents and business owners complain of what they say are unruly laborers.

Nowhere has the conflict been more intense than in Ladera Heights, where the complaints prompted a proposed county ordinance that would prohibit day laborers from many sidewalks and streets in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Ladera Heights residents say the workers litter the area, urinate in public, gamble, obstruct traffic and harass women. About 200 residents showed up at a community meeting in April, which organizers held to “take back” the neighborhood from day laborers.

“They are a major, major problem. No question about it,” complained Coula Fuller of the Ladera Heights Protective League.

The day laborers and their advocates counter that the workers’ behavior has been blown out of proportion and that they are being unfairly blamed for the actions of a few bad apples. They charge that some of the criticism is motivated by racism and intolerance.

“We come here because we have to,” said Ortiz, 26, who added that day laborers do the jobs that many others refuse to do. “We have a right to be here.”

The proposed ordinance was introduced last year by county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, whose 1st District includes Ladera Heights. Under the measure, which the Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on this month, day laborers would be prohibited from soliciting work on public rights-of-way within 500 feet of churches, schools or residential areas.

The ban would also apply to commercial parking lots, although it could be waved if a property owner authorizes day laborers to use the area.

In an interview, Burke said an enforcement mechanism is needed to prevent workers from congregating near homes and apartments. “A residential area cannot accommodate that type of activity,” she said.

But attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union say the measure would violate state and federal constitutional rights to work and solicit employment. They vow to challenge the ordinance in court if it is approved.

The ACLU, in the 2nd District Court of Appeal, is challenging a similar law in the west San Fernando Valley city of Agoura Hills. That law prohibits day laborers from soliciting work from public thoroughfares.

“I believe that this ordinance is designed and intended to ban the speech of those who are most unfortunate in our society,” said ACLU attorney Robin Toma. “You simply cannot outlaw people from a public sidewalk.”

The day labor phenomenon has its roots in the decades-old California tradition of relying on inexpensive Latin American labor, which dates back to the bracero program of the 1940s, said David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Alta California Research Center, a Los Angeles think tank that studies Latino issues.

Under that program, thousands of Mexican citizens were brought to the state to work the fields during the growing season. Hayes-Bautista said day laborers began appearing in rural areas in the early 1960s and had spread to urban communities by the mid-’70s.

For several years, the Ladera Heights day laborers have gathered at various sites in a parking lot of the shopping center that houses the HomeBase store. Groups also wait across the street on Slauson and Fairfax avenues.

Located between Baldwin Hills and Inglewood, Ladera Heights is an affluent, largely African American community known for its spacious hillside homes and sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean.

Ortiz and other day laborers gather there because the flow of HomeBase customers guarantees prospective patrones --bosses looking for workers.

Ortiz, who rents a small South-Central home with two other families, said he was laid off two years ago from his minimum-wage job making lamps at a Carson factory. Since then, he has lived the unstable life of a day laborer, working two or three days during good weeks.

“I do not want welfare. I want work,” he said as he pulled his jacket collar over his neck, guarding against a cold morning wind. Ortiz was the first person at the HomeBase site that day, arriving shortly after 6 a.m. Within two hours, he was joined by about 30 other men, mostly immigrants from El Salvador and Honduras.

Among them was Matias Bonilla, 51, a grandfather and a deacon at the evangelical Church of God of Prophecy in South-Central.

“We come here to earn our daily bread,” said Bonilla, who lost his job at a South Gate metal shop when it failed several years ago. His wife earns $80 a week as a baby-sitter to help care for their four children. “We do not do anything illegal--just look for work.”

Those finding work are often the ones who speak English or who reach a vehicle first.

About 10 a.m., a gray BMW pulled into the parking lot. Out stepped a mustachioed man who identified himself as Mikio, a Ladera Heights resident, offering $5 an hour to scrape and paint his home.

“Six dollars! Seven dollars!” shouted about a half dozen workers, pushing against the car as they bargained for more. Mikio remained firm, and only one worker jumped into the BMW.

Should the day laborers be outlawed from the area?

Mikio shrugged his shoulders. “It’s better than having them steal cars and batteries,” he offered. “At least they’re working.”

Minutes later, a blue Mercedes-Benz arrived. The driver, who said he was a contractor, offered $30 apiece for several workers to operate a rope pulley for eight hours, lifting cinder blocks up a two-story building.

“That’s a fair wage,” the man said to several grumbling workers.

There were no takers.

About seven hours after the day began, only five laborers had landed jobs. The rest--including Ortiz--waited.

It is that idle time, residents charge, that has led to many of the problems in the neighborhood.

They say the day laborers pass the day gambling, drinking, wandering the neighborhood and defecating and urinating in the bushes and at a church across the street.

“I don’t have a problem with them working, but it’s the manner that they are going about it,” said resident Keith Linden, complaining that the workers cause traffic jams and aggressively solicit customers at HomeBase.

Other residents allege that some of the workers deal drugs, break into cars and homes and make vulgar remarks to women. “The word harassment doesn’t even describe it,” Fuller said.

She said that day laborers have stolen gardening equipment from her home and that she has captured drug deals and other illegal activities on videotape. She declined a request to view the video because “it’s very demeaning to these people.”

Fuller said she caught the activities by accident as she was videotaping a piece on sidewalk improvements, but she added that she was considering sending copies of the video to county supervisors before they vote on Burke’s proposal.

The workers say the incidents Fuller complains about have been blown out of proportion. While they acknowledge that urination and littering did occur, they say they now use several trash cans provided by HomeBase and use the restroom at a nearby McDonald’s.

“It is a lot better here,” said worker Juan Carlos Ruiz.

HomeBase manager Frank Gomez said he does not have many problems with the workers. “They’ve been pretty well-behaved,” he said.

Capt. Jack Scully, commander of the Lennox sheriff’s station that covers the area, said residents have reported that day laborers have been involved in thefts. But he added that most of the laborers obey the law and are just looking for work.

The day laborers and their supporters charge that racism is behind some of the complaints. Many opponents are African Americans, who are showing the same intolerance exhibited by white residents when blacks first moved to Ladera Heights in the 1970s, said Nancy Cervantes, an attorney with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

“I think it’s an intolerance of poor Latinos,” Cervantes said.

Residents deny that race is a factor.

“How the hell can you call me a racist?” said Don Lopez, a Mexican American who has led the community opposition in Ladera Heights.

“It makes no difference to anybody what ethnicity or gender these people are,” added Fuller. “It’s an issue of conduct.”

Though nearly all the day laborers in Ladera Heights are Latinos, African Americans also occasionally seek work there and at other Central City sites.

Darryl Laws, 40, an African American who grew up in South-Central, has been a day laborer for the past six years. “If you do a good job, you can sell yourself,” Laws said as he looked for work at Pico Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. “I’m trying to hustle now, get me some money.”

Even in heavily Latino areas such as East Los Angeles, there are complaints about day laborers. Rick Esparza, who owns Manny’s El Loco Restaurant near Pomona and Atlantic boulevards, said the 50 or so workers who congregate near his business each day urinate and leave trash in an adjacent lot.

They have also scared away female customers with sexually harassing comments, he said.

“They’re not too discreet,” said Esparza, who said he has had several fistfights with laborers who attempted to bully him. “They tried to test me. But when I started throwing (them) out, they got the message.”

Other businesses in the area have reported similar problems, said Sgt. Glenn Peacock, a watch commander at the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station.

In Mid-City, at Pico Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, the manager of Lucy’s Drive In complains that day laborers loitering in the parking lot frighten customers when they rush toward cars.

“For all you know, they could be trying to carjack you,” said manager Fernando Alvarez, who recalled that a customer in a Mercedes Benz recently pulled a handgun on several workers as they surrounded his car. No shots were fired.

Alvarez also said the restaurant’s insurance carrier is threatening to cancel its coverage, saying it could be held liable if a day laborer is injured in the parking lot.

Cervantes said such problems can be addressed through communication on both sides. “No one denies that there are legitimate concerns,” she said. “It’s how you deal with it that is important.”

In Ladera Heights, she and others maintain, the proposed ordinance is an extreme response to a situation that could have been solved without government intervention. They say the law will not stop day laborers from congregating.

“Do you want to resolve the problem or do you want to pass a law?” asked long-time Ladera Heights resident Faz Elahi. He said the day laborers will remain so long as there is a need for their services.

Burke said she is attempting to persuade the HomeBase property owner to allow a day labor facility in a lower level of the parking lot away from the street, which would be permissible under her ordinance.

She said a private company has donated a trailer. And CHIRLA, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and several other organizations have offered about $1,200 to purchase portable toilets.

The site would be modeled after two that are operated by the city of Los Angeles in Harbor Gateway and North Hollywood. There, coffee is provided to laborers who receive work based on a lottery. Rules are posted prohibiting drinking, scrawling graffiti and harassing women.

The facilities were established in 1989 and 1990 after residents and business owners complained repeatedly about unruly workers. The City Council considered banning day laborers but approved the worker sites as a compromise.

On a recent afternoon at the Harbor facility, at Harbor Gateway Regional Park, 26 of the 106 workers who signed in had received work, said manager Richard Johnson. Workers who were interviewed said the site was more orderly than chaotic street corners where people scramble for work.

However, the possibility of a similar operation in Ladera Heights is far from certain. Resident leaders say their neighborhood is not the proper place for day laborers and vow to oppose a hiring site at HomeBase. “I will do anything it takes to stop this problem,” Lopez said. “I’ve had it.”