Reopen Dayworker Center for health and safety reasons
The men who call themselves “jornaleros” and who gather outside the South County Dayworker Center in Morgan Hill will still be there this week even though the facility officially shut its doors Friday.
The reasons behind the center’s demise are many. Among those cited by leaders of the South County Dayworker Center Committee are donor fatigue, the future use of the land for a single-family housing development and the expiration of the lease.
Who will advocate for their rights now that funding has dried up? What will happen to them and to the employers who hire them to do quick and backbreaking work for cheap?
The workers’ employers – from homeowners to contractors – will continue to demand their services. Anti-illegal immigration proponents may argue that most, if not all of them, are here illegally, without work papers, and that support for continuing a place to provide services for them should end.
Most members of the committee say many of them have been residing in the country for 20 or more years and have valid green cards and pay taxes.
The center’s services were not wholly funded with taxpayers’ money. They were being subsidized with donations, which dwindled. The Cinco de Mayo celebration, which raised money for the center, was canceled this year.
Advocates for the “jornaleros” fear without a place to represent them, their employers, not homeowners, but professional contractors and landscapers, will exploit them even more.
The timing of the center’s closure is also puzzling. Is it due to the growing anti-immigration sentiments across the state and country? If we’re going to target the undocumented workers, we, too, must go after their employers who are equally breaking the law by hiring from the illegal work pool. Unfortunately, immigration agents don’t.
Undoubtedly the majority of the “jornaleros” are undocumented, one of the reasons why many would not enter the facility to register their name for fear of deportation or of becoming known to the authorities. But at the center, they received English classes, a warm meal and advocacy services.
Finding a center for them will help authorities assess the labor pool; find out how many are working, the amount of employment being provided and information about this population. Today we have a couple dozen “jornaleros” gathered on Depot Street and East Main Avenue, tomorrow we could have 500. We need a way to manage them. If they’re spread out across the city and county, with no agency or group to watch over them, there’s a high probability that they’ll be injured, abused and exploited.
Give the day laborers direction. Help them to learn and follow the rules of the community. Don’t ignore their dire conditions. The day laborers and the public will benefit from the continuation of the services.
Raise the funds to find an alternate site. The committee should seek nonprofit status to receive grants to continue the services and they should study ways to partner with another nonprofit or agency such as the One-Stop Career and Industry Development Center to continue to advocate for the “jornaleros.”
