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Work scarce for day laborers {Backlash?}
Concord Transcript ^ | 8/3/6 | Kellie Applen

Posted on 08/03/2006 7:41:16 AM PDT by SmithL

Hot temperatures, hot issue of immigration and cooler economy may be behind stifled market -

CONCORD - Juan Huerta leaves his wife and seven children in Mexico for the summers to work in Concord. The 57-year-old farmworker struggles to find work in Jalisco, his home state, because summer is the rainy season, he said.

Through the Monument Futures day labor program in Concord, he made $3,500 last summer. He returned to Concord this May ready to work again, but so far, there haven't been as many opportunities, he said.

"This year is very difficult. This week, I haven't worked at all," said Huerta last Thursday. "Last summer we had more jobs."

The slowdown started in May, said George Vallejo, manager of the day labor program. The center experienced its worst day of the summer July 24, when employers hired just 13 of its workers. On a good day, about 40 of the 80 day laborers who come to the center every day are sent out to work, he said.

The decline in work began around the same time as the one-day boycotts around the nation, Vallejo said. He and some of the day laborers, including Huerta, feel the protests may have created some resentment and have something to do with employers not hiring as many workers.

The unusually hot weather may also be a factor, Vallejo said.

"(Employers) are afraid something could happen to the workers," he said.

Day laborers in Concord aren't the only ones having a harder time finding work this summer. It's happening around the United States, said Abel Valenzuela, an associate professor of Chicano studies at UCLA who co-wrote a nationwide study on day laborers.

The slowdown is likely a combination of reasons, one of which could be contention surrounding the issue of immigration, he said.

"When people talk about the problems with undocumented immigration, they often paint a picture of a day laborer. But they are a really small component of the undocumented immigrants in this country," Valenzuela said.

In a recent survey of day laborers in Santa Monica, the laborers cited a "more chilled atmosphere with regards to immigration," Valenzuela said. Images of Minute Men protesting at day labor sites also turn off potential employers, he said.

"It scares people ... they don't want (to) hassle with protesters," Valenzuela said. "They don't want to solicit employment even though it's completely legitimate and legal to hire day laborers."

Day laborers could also be getting less work because some local economies have slowed, he said.

Concord-based Welcome Building Maintenance, which offers pressure washing, maintenance and day portering services to commercial buildings, is not hiring as many day laborers this summer because there isn't as much work, said Pam Hurley, operations manager.

"It's definitely slow," Hurley said. "I think possibly money is tight. ... A lot of commercial buildings don't want to put out the extra money for work that could be done."

That's trickling down to day laborers like Huerta, who is feeling the pinch. Although he pays just $100 in rent and can eat for about a $150 a month, he needs to send his wife $800 a month to pay their bills at home, he said.

But it's still early in the summer season and there's a good chance things will improve, Valenzuela said.

Vallejo is optimistic, too. Things have already picked up some this week at Monument Futures, most likely because the weather cooled down, he said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: againstthelaw; alien; aliens; backlash; daylabor; daylaborers; illegalimmigration; illegals; immigrantlist
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1 posted on 08/03/2006 7:41:20 AM PDT by SmithL
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The decline in work began around the same time as the one-day boycotts around the nation, ... He and some of the day laborers, including Huerta, feel the protests may have created some resentment and have something to do with employers not hiring as many workers.

That's called "CONSEQUENCES".

2 posted on 08/03/2006 7:42:19 AM PDT by SmithL (The fact that they can't find Hoffa is proof that he never existed.)
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To: SmithL

He and some of the day laborers, including Huerta, feel the protests may have created some resentment and have something to do with employers not hiring as many workers.


Ya think? lol Go back to Mexico to work.


3 posted on 08/03/2006 7:44:07 AM PDT by sheana
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To: SmithL
Boo frickin' hoo.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Hope they scared the, er, pants off 'em.

4 posted on 08/03/2006 7:45:42 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: SmithL

"The influx of illegal immigrants has effectively "imported about 10 million high school dropouts into the United States,"

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1676824/posts?page=3#3


5 posted on 08/03/2006 7:46:30 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Sgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: SmithL

This guy can live off $250.00 per month? I'll give all of you about 2,000 guesses where the rest of his living and medical expenses come from and the first 2,000 guesses won't count.


6 posted on 08/03/2006 7:53:56 AM PDT by DH (The government writes no bill that does not line the pockets of special interests.)
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To: SmithL

If work is so hard to find, why the heck do you have SEVEN children?

***Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part***.


7 posted on 08/03/2006 7:55:37 AM PDT by bordergal (John)
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To: DH

Didn't he say $3500/summer? That's about $1200/month. If he's only here in the summer, it doesn't bother me.


8 posted on 08/03/2006 7:58:18 AM PDT by definitelynotaliberal
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To: martin_fierro

You can't run the country without us. Viva La Raza! -- May 1



It's unfair that you can run the country without us and are proving it. Viva La Raza! -- August 3


9 posted on 08/03/2006 7:58:54 AM PDT by sully777 (You have flies in your eyes--Catch-22)
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To: SmithL

Dang, only $100 a month on rent.


10 posted on 08/03/2006 7:59:08 AM PDT by Texas_Jarhead (Doing the jobs Americans won't do? Guess you haven't seen "Dirty Jobs")
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To: SmithL

Maybe he should go back to Mexico and help clean up that corrupt, failed hellhole of a country.


11 posted on 08/03/2006 7:59:35 AM PDT by tkathy (Einstein: Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance.)
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To: DH

Actually, he's saving $3,500/summer. At a minimum, he must spend at least $1,500 over 3 mos. That means $5,000/summer, approx. $1,700/mo., 170 hrs./mo., approx. $10/hr. Hmm, not quite minimum wage. If we have Americans on welfare refusing to work for $10/hr., ........


12 posted on 08/03/2006 8:03:31 AM PDT by definitelynotaliberal
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To: SmithL
he needs to send his wife $800 a month to pay their bills at home, he said.

Wait a minute. The poor peasant in Mexico has $800.00 per month in bills?

13 posted on 08/03/2006 8:05:36 AM PDT by PattonFan (Not me, I don't believe in paying for the same real estate twice." George C. Scott , "Patton")
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To: SmithL
"This year is very difficult. This week, I haven't worked at all," Someone hand me a tissue.
14 posted on 08/03/2006 8:07:37 AM PDT by roostercashews
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To: SmithL

"They don't want to solicit employment even though it's completely legitimate and legal to hire day laborers."
Abel Valenzuela, UCLA professor of Chicano studies

Maybe the CA Board of Regents might consider buying a copy of the US Code or computers and internet access for the Bruins' faculty. ("Title 8--mira, acqui! Aye aye aye!" Bumblebee Man)

On a clear day, USeeLA.


15 posted on 08/03/2006 8:09:17 AM PDT by tumblindice
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To: SmithL

The real estate market in CA is going in the dumps fast. That is affecting, or going to affect pretty much everyone.


16 posted on 08/03/2006 8:12:42 AM PDT by RobRoy (Islam is more dangerous to the world now that Naziism was in 1937.)
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To: sully777
"But we'll be running the country in 20 years."
17 posted on 08/03/2006 8:17:27 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: SmithL

Good!! Let them move on up to Canada.


18 posted on 08/03/2006 8:18:24 AM PDT by no dems (www.4condi.com)
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To: SmithL

Where is this? MA? NH? CA?


19 posted on 08/03/2006 8:28:45 AM PDT by expatpat
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To: SmithL
"They don't want to solicit employment even though it's completely legitimate and legal to hire day laborers."

Uh, no. It's not legal if the workers aren't. When you hire illegal aliens, you commit a crime. Too bad it's more important to persue revenue enhancing police work, like traffic duty than to detain and deport illegal aliens. If there isn't money in it, government (at any level) isn't interested. 

20 posted on 08/03/2006 8:29:54 AM PDT by zeugma (I reject your reality and substitute my own in its place. (http://www.zprc.org/))
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