Filed under: political issues
The New Faces of Day Labor
U.S. citizens are joining immigrants in store parking lots
by Timothy Pratt
It sounds like a George Lopez joke.
![[Ken Buchanan, left, waits for work at a Home Depot Thursday morning. Most weeks he’s there six days. The most he’s made in a week: $140. (photo: Steve Marcus)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/newfaces_daylaborers.jpg "newfaces_daylaborers.jpg")
Ken Buchanan, left, waits for work at a Home Depot Thursday morning. Most weeks he’s there six days. The most he’s made in a week: $140. (photo: Steve Marcus)“Times are so bad that I saw an Anglo day laborer standing outside Home Depot the other day.”
Except it’s true.
In the latest sign of the Las Vegas Valley’s economic free fall, U.S. citizens are starting to show up in the early mornings outside home improvement stores and plant nurseries across the Las Vegas Valley, jostling with illegal immigrants for a shot at a few hours of work.
Experts say the slow-starting but seemingly inexorable trend is occurring nationwide.
“It’s the equivalent of selling apples in the Great Depression,” said Harley Shaiken, chairman of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
But it is not only a sign of the times, they add. If the numbers of citizens among the day laborers in cities across the country continue to grow, it’s likely to increase the ire of followers of TV host Lou Dobbs and others who will see illegal immigrants as stealing food off the tables of the nation’s native-born or naturalized poor.
Or, it may flip certain canards upside down in the immigration debate, easing tensions in some communities.
In the Las Vegas Valley, where the most recent unemployment rate was 13.9 percent, one face of this phenomenon is Ken Buchanan. The 50-year-old describes himself as a “food and beverage” guy, most recently working for four years at Renata’s Sunset Lanes casino and, before that, 30 years in a string of restaurants, hotels and casinos here and in his birthplace, Chicago.
But in 2006 Renata’s closed for remodeling. When the casino reopened as Wildfire, the management did not rehire Buchanan, he said.
In the months that followed, Buchanan discovered the difficulty of seeking work in his fifth decade, eventually winding up at Green Valley Car Wash, where he stayed for about two years, he said.
The banks foreclosed on the house he was renting. In the attempt to grab his things two steps ahead of the constable, he wound up missing work. He lost his job. He became homeless.
A Hispanic man Buchanan met in Renata’s sports book told him he had picked up work standing outside the Home Depot on Pecos Road at Patrick Lane. One July day, Buchanan gave it a try. At first, he got nothing but sunburn. But then he started to get work. Now he’s at the Home Depot six days most weeks.
Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he has been seeing the same thing elsewhere. “It’s happening, though still not in massive numbers,” Alvarado said. In the past six months or so, he has heard of “americanos” on the street corners and parking lots of Silver Spring, Md., Long Island, N.Y., and Southern California locations.
“It’s just beginning,” he said. “But I think it’s only going to increase.”
…In the longer term, it may also lead to a more rigorous analysis of future labor markets, including revised estimates of how many immigrants would be needed under a guest worker program, as proposed in recent congressional bills.
At the same time, Shaiken said, the issue won’t become central to the debate before Congress over what is known as comprehensive reform, including a pathway for legalizing millions of workers. “The point is, do we really want a labor market with day labor work as a career path? It’s more a commentary on the economy right now,” he said.
Although Alvarado allowed that the change in day labor sites was an undeniable sign of the withering economy, he also sees a “beautiful irony” in U.S. citizens seeking work as day laborers.
That’s because his organization has defended the free-speech rights of day laborers in at least 10 court cases over more than a decade. Up to now, courts have ruled in favor of the laborers.
“We always knew (these cases) would be useful not only for immigrants, but also for U.S. citizens,” Alvarado said. “We knew there would be a time when the economy would reach this point, and they also would be looking for work this way.”
…
Antonio Bernabe, day labor organizer for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said the appearance of more and more U.S. citizens seeking day labor work on corners and in parking lots poses new challenges for organizations such as his. In recent months, he said, he has found himself explaining to a whole new group the legal rights of workers, as well as approaching local authorities to discuss the entry of new people into what he called “the world of day labor.” That group includes blacks and Asians, he said.
…
Bernabe said organizers came across one case where a local sheriff had been sending officers to answer complaints about day laborers and then found one day that the sheriff’s neighbor, a citizen, was among them. Police in that area have been less likely to harass laborers since then, he said. These events will occur more, changing people’s attitudes in the process, he said.
“For a long time, people have looked at day laborers and said, ‘The problem is the immigrants.’ Now the economy is changing. Now people may see it’s a problem of the labor market, of the rights of workers,” Bernabe said.
Buchanan, meanwhile, looks forward to a future that includes a steady job and an apartment. “I’m trying to dig my way out of this,” he said. When he does, however, he sees himself as a changed man.
“Before, I was part of the majority. Now I’m part of the minority … I’m not going to forget this. I’m not going to forget any of this.”
See the full article here. © Las Vegas Sun, 2009
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Here is a comment that was made on CommonDreams that I thought was really good so I am posting it here.
Nietzsche November 2nd, 2009 12:59 pm
Good analysis, and judging by the coverage in the news, none of it is happening. The ‘recession’ is over. Wall street says so.
Still owned by the banks, our legislators are allowing business as usual, only without anybody bothering to deny any wrong doing. Hell, why bother? Without oversight, such laws as still exist are ignored by banks as well as law enforcement.
Another dark age is coming fast. The rich don’t care and the poor have neither hope nor the power to do anything.
The best that can be said about our President is that he is no worse than what has become the norm since 1980.
It took five hundred years to slowly emerge from the last dark age and only thirty years to piss away the progress.
Look for scapegoats to emerge, burnings of books and people, gang warfare. Mad Max is looking more likely than soylent green.
Comment by chrisy58 November 2, 2009 @ 5:15 pmHere is another comment that I thought really good too.
Galenwainwright… November 2nd, 2009 12:18 pm
The man mentioned in this article is not in the minority. He is just one of a rapidly growing majority. Think of him as just one cell in a fatally metastasizing economic cancer. He is a symptom rather than a cause.
He is the partner in homelessness of Brianna Karp (see CD from a few days ago). He is working pick up day labor where she is working an unpaid internship.
They are one of tens of thousands of formerly affluent professionals and tradespeople now living in tents and trailers throughout the US. Many of whom will start migrating to the warmer states during the coming winter, putting further strains on already taxed systems.
I know what it’s like to do temporary and day labor. It’s grinding, low paid, dangerous, soul destroying shitty work. You have no health care and no benefits. But you do what it takes to get by. Many day laborers and temp workers seek solace in drugs and alcohol just to face each numbing day.
I am not being defeatist. I am being honest, something the governments of the world are not. You are being systematically lied to by the Corporate Media (ABCBBCCBCCBSCNNNBC), the cable news MiniTru of today.
There is no ‘Recovery ™’, jobless or otherwise. This is not a Depression.
This is the opening of a Collapse.
We are looking at the opening round of the collapse of the US Empire. The government is corrupt beyond repair, the police responding to the increasingly brutal orders of the insulated elite. The economy has been stripped to the bone by the voracious predators of banking, and real employment has been shipped overseas to markets that use virtual slave labor. Entire cities are little more than shattered economic husks, with survivors picking through the ruins.
The governments of the world are spinning lies as their monetary policies are shown to be less than smoke and mirrors.
Iceland is BANKRUPT! They were a major player in the whole credit swap/derivatives ponzi scheme called modern banking. The Bank of England came within THREE HOURS of total financial collapse during October, 2008. The US dollar is about to become a junk currency as the Persian Gulf OIl States and their customers stop paying for oil in that blighted fiat currency.
And as oil and gasoline prices edge ever upward, people this winter will once again have to choose between paying off the few remaining mortgages, or buying food/paying to keep warm. WHich will trigger another round of bank failures, and keep the whole Federal bailout scheme spiraling down the drain.
And through it all, Obama will keep giving pretty feel good speeches, while keeping the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting over access to the few remaining dribbles of oil to run a dying economy.
Comment by chrisy58 November 2, 2009 @ 5:15 pmHere is my comment to the article on CommonDreams.
Wow, your comment was really insightful and I believe true.
I think many of us look around us and we see the destruction of our nation, which we love happening. We try to keep hope alive that we the people can change things still and that the children and youth can have a good future. We sign petitions, email and write our elected officials, we vote and support for third party candidates because we know in our hearts that both the Democrats and the Republicans are corrupted beyond repair and will never be part of the solution. Yet, many people feel discouraged like their efforts are a waste of time and are loosing hope that we can change it around. I agree with you that President Obama will continue to give his great speeches and lie to the American people who belived and voted for him. He will continue the same policy that George W. did and the real change that he campaigned on was nothing but an illusion like David Copperfield and other great magicians do in one of their magic shows.
I asked a question on another blog of what can we do as people on a grass roots level to save this nation from going off the cliff that it seems so determined to go off of? Do we vote them all out and vote in an all new Congress? Yet, I think it is the system itself that is corrupted and not so much the men and women, so what do we do? Could we even pass real election campaign reform that takes the money out of the political process? I don’t think so, I think it will be the same ole same ole of they might pass a Bill so they can look like they are working to change things, but the real substance of the Bill that is signed in to Law will only be to continue the corrupt system that we have had for years that is ruining this country. What do we do? I believe in encourging and inspiring others to keep fighting and not to loose hope because when one is fighting they must keep hope alive that they can win the war. Yet, what is something new that we can try in this fight to regain the soul of America?
I may not be explaining this very well, but I am really worried that we are close to reaching the point of no return and that no matter what we try and do to save this country it will be to little to late. The children and the youth are going to curse us because we have left them a toxic wasteland with very little chance to ever achieve the American dream. They will be the first generation who will do worst than their parents and will be sicker than their parents because of our lack of concern for the environment. We are blasting away their hertiage with Mountaintop Removal Mining. We have committed torture and other crimes around the world and those who commit those crimes are never arrested or tried for war crimes. They continue to get the green light to go ahead. We remain silent when we see other countries commit human rights violations because I think we commit our own so to speak up against them would be having to face our role of bringing despair to people around the world. We are leaving them a world that is going to be a living hell for them if we as a human wave of people do not start fighting against this evil corruption that has taken over our government.
We need to really start thinking about their future and what we are doing on our watch of Americans? Are we fighting to take this country back? Are we doing all we can to make sure that the American people understand that we are loosing the war for the America that was founded by our ancestors the Founding Fathers? Are we willing to pick up their torch and be brave enough to fight this war that needs to be fought? Or will we continue to make excuses why we can’t fight? Will we continue to turn the other way while our fellow Americans are suffering? Will we continue to say it doesn’t effect us because we don’t know anyone directly who is homeless, sick and poor? We are leaving the children and future generations with a debt that they will never be able to pay back. The dollar is getting weaker and we have gone from a nation who wasn’t in debt to one that is going bankrupt because we have no money and have to borrow large sums of money from nations who hate us. The person who barrows money is over time enslaved to the person who gave him the money. We are loosing our sovereign strengh as a nation and are becoming nothing but a empty shell of a nation.
So what do we as Americans do to win the fight for the future of the next generation that follows us? What can we do to defeat those who by their selfish greed allowed themselves to sell this nation down the river?
I will end with this quote:
“The oppressed want to be liberated not only from their hunger but also from their masters. They are well aware that they will be effectively freed of hunger only when they hold their masters, all their masters at bay.” -Albert Camus-
Comment by chrisy58 November 2, 2009 @ 5:18 pm