Day Laborers Keeping to Friendlier Turf

WOODLAND HILLS —  It’s Thursday morning at the Home Depot on Variel Avenue, just south of Victory Boulevard, and the parking lot is filling up with the cars, trucks and SUVs of contractors and home remodelers. Signs warn against loitering, and at least one security guard keeps watch.

There’s not a day laborer in sight.

But two miles away, it’s a vastly different scene at the Canoga Park Home Depot. Next door to the hardware store on Roscoe Boulevard, about 100 day laborers line the sidewalk, eyeing cars and trucks for potential employers.

The contrast is visual testimony to the presence of a 1-year-old temporary employment agency at the Woodland Hills Home Depot lot. But it also highlights the larger challenge of responding to complaints about day laborers who loiter on many West Valley street corners.

One year ago, after requests from residents and politicians, the newly opened Woodland Hills Home Depot leased space to Labor Ready, a private temporary-worker agency, in an effort to prevent day laborers from loitering near the store. The project, which is also in place at the Monrovia Home Depot, was conceived as a way to match customers and workers in one location.

‘Working as It Should Be’

Officials had hoped the temp agency would attract other day laborers who gather on several corners in the area.

“On its face it’s working as it should be,” said Tom McCarty, a consultant assisting the Woodland Hills Home Depot with the project.

Largely because of increased police enforcement, after a year the program is successful at keeping day laborers from gathering outside the Woodland Hills Home Depot, officials say.

For years, neighborhoods have protested the opening of big-box stores like Home Depot because of perceived problems with day laborers, ranging from interfering with traffic to urinating in public.

But the larger problem of preventing such workers from congregating on other West Valley street corners remains. One immigrant-rights advocate says most day laborers in the area choose not to use the temp agency because the pay isn’t enough.

Labor Ready charges contractors $11.95 an hour; for residents, the price is $12.95 an hour, said Allen Fleisher, a branch manager. Workers take home about $6 an hour after the agency gets its cut and benefits are withheld.

Labor experts say that’s why many day laborers would rather find their own jobs and negotiate better pay than what the temp agency offers.

Aside from higher wages, day workers also prefer to find work on their own because they have networks of employers who know where to pick them up, said Victor Narro, a workers’ rights project coordinator of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, known as CHIRLA.

Narro also noted that in its first six months, Labor Ready did not have a Spanish speaker who could reach the workers, many of whom speak little English.

“They have been finding other people jobs, but not for day laborers,” Narro said.

Fleisher said Labor Ready places about 30 to 60 workers a day. About 25% are day laborers; the rest tend to be people who want to do construction work or who were recently laid off from regular jobs.

Not a ‘Complete Solution’

Los Angeles Councilwoman Laura Chick, who lobbied hard to get the temp agency, said she is pleased with the progress so far.

“My hope is because there is this service now, the ones who stood on informal locations will see the advantages and come here instead,” Chick said. “Certainly we knew this wouldn’t be the complete solution.”

Part of the solution also involves changing old habits.

On a recent day, in front of a 7-Eleven store at Fallbrook Avenue and Ventura Boulevard, groups of men waited for contractors to take them to work sites. It’s been a gathering site for about a decade.

Sometimes up to 75 men stand near the Woodland Hills convenience store, where the laborers, residents, police and local businesses agreed the workers could remain as part of an informal agreement, said Los Angeles Police Senior Lead Officer Steve Kegley.

The laborers agreed to stay on public property, keep the area clean next to an empty lot (a trash bag hangs on a chain-link fence), weed out troublemakers and stay only until about 3 p.m.

“Most are good at picking up trash and keeping the area clean,” Kegley said. “There are just a select few who drink or are intoxicated and cause problems.”

Cesar Chicas, who hunts for jobs in front of the 7-Eleven, said he has used the location for eight years. He said he isn’t interested in using Labor Ready.

“We all know about [Labor Ready]. Nobody goes there,” said Chicas, 22, of Reseda. “I don’t like it. They pay you the minimum wage. If it paid more it would be fine.”

Chicas said he can make up to $14 an hour on his own.

‘A Steady, Safe Environment’

Labor Ready’s Fleisher said the Tacoma, Wash.-based company helps workers find long-term jobs and also provides them with protective equipment, including boots, back braces, hard hats and goggles. Workers’ compensation and health coverage are withheld from their checks.

Fleisher said he and a full-time Spanish-speaking employee recruited day laborers at several informal sites last summer and persuaded some to visit the temp agency.However, he said, “There’s a large percentage of day laborers who are not eligible to work here because they do not have legal documents.”

Narro thinks the best alternative for day laborers is a program like the one in North Hollywood run by CHIRLA that attempts to improve workers’ skills.

Started in 1990, the program, funded through community development block grants, now offers English classes, occupational training and a library.

The best benefit offered by the center, Narro said, is that workers don’t have to compete for jobs and instead enter a lottery system for work. More than 100 laborers register daily at the center, about 50 of whom will get work that day, he said.

The workers have agreed among themselves that they won’t work for less than $7 an hour. The center does not get a cut of whatever the workers earn and charges no fees for its services.

Few of the workers end up standing around the Home Depot in North Hollywood.

“They have a steady, safe environment,” Narro said, “where they can wait for employers to pick them up.”