New Hiring Site for Day Laborers Has Its Work Cut Out for It

The midday sun was boring down like a hot iron, and Jose Azbar and his friends still hadn’t landed jobs. Many had arrived at daybreak. They were fed up, angry, their hopes dashed for finding jale--Spanish slang for work.

“This place is a good idea, a good concept, but right now it’s costing us time and money,” Azbar, 36, complained as friends nodded in agreement. “For most of us, if we don’t work, we don’t eat, our families don’t eat.”

It is a complaint being voiced this week at the new community job center in downtown Los Angeles, the latest experiment in managing the city’s legions of immigrant day laborers.

These workers for hire have become as familiar a part of the landscape as palm trees and freeways. Blue-collar workers negotiating curbside with upscale motorists are a signature image, a vivid symbol of Southern California and its dependence on immigrant labor.

An estimated 20,000 jornaleros, or day workers, ply street corners and parking lots throughout Los Angeles County, providing a ready labor force for homeowners and contractors.

Complaints about the workers range from blocked sidewalks and congested traffic to public drinking, bad sanitation and drug dealing.

“Certainly, no one wants to tolerate that,” said Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters, who was instrumental in setting up the new site.

So Los Angeles city officials began sponsoring hiring centers in Harbor City, Hollywood and North Hollywood. The newest site is at a vacant lot on 14th Place, between Main Street and Broadway, west of the fashion district.

Men at the job centers can find work in an orderly fashion, without fear of police harassment or raids by immigration agents. The centers provide portable toilets, work sign-up sheets, shade, water and, typically, coffee and pan dulce, Mexican sweet bread.

The other advantage, according to the plan, is that employers know where to find workers, and neighbors are spared trouble.

This orderliness is a shock to veteran workers accustomed to the more hostile nature of the street corner.

“The corners operate practically like social Darwinism: The strongest tend to survive,” said Pablo Alvarado, a former day laborer from El Salvador who now helps organize workers for the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles. “The hiring centers are fairer for everyone.”

At the hiring facilities, workers rely on a lottery system for job assignments. The nonprofit groups running these centers also provide assistance to cheated workers.

The new hiring post is meant to replace downtown’s more informal, though vibrant, employment venues. The corner of Main and Pico Boulevard, for example, has long been a rough-and-tumble magnet for day laborers.

Working that and nearby corners, men such as Azbar and his friend Herman Lagos say they could often earn $300 or more in cash each per week. Compare that, they say, to the $5.75-an-hour minimum wage paid in most restaurants and factories.

The freedom of unsupervised street corner hiring also allows for longer-term employment, jobs that run for days or weeks. Many workers wear pagers to stay in touch with favored bosses.

“It’s true that there is always competition for work” on the streets, said Lagos, 29, a native of El Salvador. “But if you hustle, you should be able to find work.”

Besides, the ethos of rugged individualism that permeates day-labor culture means that many simply prefer the anarchic way of the street corner.

“I could find a fixed job, but [day labor] suits me better,” said Antonio Prado, a bulky 32-year-old from Mexico City. “I earn more . . . plus I’m freer. I can set my own hours. I’m not a wage slave, punching a clock.”

There is not quite as much freedom at the job centers, however.

At the fashion district site, workers voted to cut off registration for the day’s labor at 8 a.m. Once employers arrive, site coordinators perform the wage negotiations on behalf of workers, insisting on certain rules--such as a $7-an-hour minimum salary.

Some employers drive away. They prefer the old system, in which they can pay $5 an hour or less.

“This is a lot less rowdy, but workers still complain that they aren’t getting paid enough,” said Kevin Neman, a garment maker hiring workers at the new center.

The city’s goal is to spread the word about its newest hiring facility. Volunteers are handing out fliers. Others wave flags directing employers to the center.

Still, the men say only about one-third of the 100 or so workers who showed up every day last week found employment. Some of the jobs, they complained, only lasted a few hours.

Organizers say closer to half got work, a percentage that will improve with time. Eventually the center will have English classes and other services for those waiting.

“It takes time to change old habits,” said Veronica Federovsky, a native of Argentina who coordinates the downtown hiring site.

Predictably, some workers lose patience and set out for familiar corners, risking police and other troubles for a better chance of employment. Others are inclined to give the new system a chance.

“I’m willing to wait my turn,” said Epimenio Romero, who, at 52, was among the oldest in line. “At least this way we don’t have to fight with each other in the streets over work.”