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Show Thursday, November 22, m $mmim ' Page A9 mm"m hiring halls if rom sfaeett eortiers - &Vj'' 1 V THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, 1990 Guatemalans Ctestmo Temaji (left) and Oscar Garcia stake out &eir place for possib! hiring. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Hiring halls are being revived for the city's hundreds of day laborers, mostly immigrants, who now crowd street corners In the largely Hispanic Mission District hoping to catch the eye of passing contractors. Corner job lines provide the best work prospects for unskilled, often undocumented laborers with little or no English. But the gatherings draw complaints from residents and businesses who say men discouraged by a fruitless day of waiting intimidate customers and make neighborhoods unsafe. And labor advocates say disorganization and desperation leave day workers vulnerable to dislon-c- st employers. "When it's done in the chaos of the street, you have the problem of people being cheated and people being hurt," said San Francisco Supervisor Jim Gonzalez. "We're hoping to restore dignity to people who just want to get a job, if only for a day." A $70,000 pilot project expected to begin in February would provide access to jobs with fair wages, a record of one's employer, and services such as toilets, telephone numbers where a worker could be reached in an emergency, and a cup of coffee. Workers would show up at the hiring hall each morning and put their names on slips of paper that contractors draw from pools divided by skill, Gonzalez said. The system is patterned after a program In Los Angeles. About 60 of the 300 people who show up at two hiring halls in Los Angeles find work each day, said Bill Molina, coordinator of the Los Angeles day labor program. By comparison, Gonzalez estimates only 10 percent of casual workers in San Francisco get work by standing on a corner. Molina concedes that the program helps just a small fraction of the 3,000 workers who gather on Los Angeles street corners each day. The weak link, he says, are the employers. "It's the employers who still go to pick up day laborers and a lot of them are the unscrupulous employers who rip them off because they know the men on the street are desperate," he said. But Molina and program planners in San Francisco say success is not measured just by how many people find work each day, "I think the Intent is to provide a more secure place to look for a job, where more protection will be given thpni, community services will be given them, where contrac tors will be able to work in a much more orderly way," said Mauricio Aviles, a spokesman for the Mission Hiring Hall, one of the community groups working on the San Francisco program. 7 Chaos rules on street corners where wait for contractors. At the sight of a passing truck filled with lumber, clusters of men rush into the street. Some reach for identification and green cards, hoping to gain an advantage by their legal status. "How many people do you need?" they ask. "What kind of work? How much do you pay?" Workers have agreed among themselves not to work for less than an hour, and for some Jobs not less than $7 an hour, said Una Avidan of the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Services. fewer trucks By 1 pass and job prospects wane. "How can 70 people get a job with 10 or 15 contractors a day?" asks Jose Esparza, 21, who for the last 2 Ms months has been crowded out in the hustle for jobs by new immigrants from Central and South America. Before then, he worked an average of two days a week, said Esparza, who came from Mexico when he was 11. g, Encinitas unhappy over Mexican migrants ENCTNTTAS, Calif. (AP) - Mar-jor- ie Gaines and Andres Arriaga are neighbors, but don't expect them to Kit down for a cup ot coffee and discuss politics or the weather anytime soon. MexiArriaga is an can migrant worker who lives in raokeshlft camps in the hills above Ms coastal community. Gaines is a member of the City Council and a vocal critic of migrants, their advocates and immigration officials, whom she says are not doing their job of ridding the city of illegal aliens. She complains about the way aliens line the streets in search of day Jobs. "The migrant problem in our city is out of control,' said Gaines. "We're getting the problems and the federal government is oat dealing with it. The encampments are totally unkept and there is no law in those encampments and many in the encampments are armed," said the council woman. Arriaga and several friends recently were evicted from a makeshift camp near a flower field.. He said he would find another place to live. "Maybe 111 go live out on the streets like other homeless people, but I'm not like them. I want to think well just work," he said. find another place and set up our camp. What else can we do?' Encinitas, 20 miles north of downtown San Diego, has become the latest battleground for Hispanic migrants, their advocates and their foes. The battle represents a clash of sMn colors and culture. It also represents a dash between workers who say their jobs subsidize affluent lifestyles and locals who complain the migrants loiter, litter, urinate ia public and harass passersby. lXj(Xffi (l ; j 150 mm ! SW- 1 Immigrant ;l2SLJj) (s r Pacific Ocean f U.S. Mexico 1 cauf. border 'II JJYsidro jo.' San rTijaria I MEXICO I "The thinking is, 'We want you 6 o'clock in the morning and bring your buddies here with you so you can bid your wages down. We want you to be inconspicuous. We dont want you to have bodily needs. And then at o'clock at night, we want you to disapshe said. pear, work"They want the low-pai-d force available, but they dont want to see it IT a most contradictory message. A few years ago, migrant advocates and city officials say, developers and farmers in this bustling city needed the cheap labor. A once-robu-st economy slowed and the number ef jobs has decreased, but the influx of documented and here at low-payin- g Critics complain the migrants are a drain on local social services and are responsible to numerous thefts and home burglaries. Migrants say they .are scapegoats, unfairly blamed by those who would build hysteria. :J1 is this conflict that has led to undocumented migrant workers continues. The city declared a state emergency in an effort to get federal officials to listen lo their complaints about the migrants. It sent a $280,000 bill to the federal anti-Mexic- are given a number. Shortly after 7 a.m., prospective employers begin to arrive, looking the cost, the city government says, of dealing with these uninvited guests. The government has not yet responded. But Border Patrol agents have started to crack down on the employers of day laborers who do not check workers' documents in compliance with the 1986 Immigration Eeforaa and Control Act With the help of San Diego County Sheriff's deputies, they also have rounded tup some undooimented workers. Agents warn, however, that the crackdown is only temporary because of budget constraints that also will prevent them from conducting frequent raids at migrant camps. The city recently was forced to rescind its street hiring ban ordinance after a San Diego federal judge, questioning its constitutionality, put a temporary freeze on the ban's eMorcemenL "Has this controversy divided the community as a whole? In a way it has," said Mayor Pam Slater. "We have retired people on whose land these camps are located. They feel powerless and frightened and there are ethers m the community who feel the same way. "Then we have people who employ them and others who feel that one of the missions of this country is to provide refuge to those who need it," she said. "We're trying to work together to find an equitable solution. In an effort to stem the number uf workers looking for work on street corners, city officials have established a permanent hiring hall for documented workers. This is a good resource to find a good steady workforce, said center worker Richard Corrales. "They're documented. There willing to do a good decent job, but for gardeners, ditch diggers, construction workers and bricklayers. The only requirement for the employers is that they must pay minimum wage, at least Rafael Alejandro, 32, CHRISTMAS PARTIES FOR 15 TO 85 recently went looking for work at the jobs center. ''There is a lot of discrimination for us," he said, "I've gone to some places, worked and then I don't get paid. What do we do? FREE GIFT CERTIFICATES 4 JJ j Not only do the documented workers have to be careful about their employers, they also have the undocumented competition laborers who line up across the street and elsewhere in the city, asking less than minimum wage. They also are the ones who live in canyons under the stars with only a blanket to cover themselves, in foxholes or in cardboard-walle- d shacks. -- s. Bring this ad when you make your reservation and get a free gift certificate from doc. Hot mm 'Where you meet the nicest people' YOUR CHOICE: FLOOR, WALL, MARBLE, MOSAIC QJII11 Five fabulous wall tiles! Cream, Ouick-siJye- 3t 31 colorful floor sometimes there are employers of the workers. Shortly before $ a in. each weekday and Saturday, workers line up in a parking lot in front of a recreational vehicle that serves as the hiring hall. They show the officials their work documents and tiles' The latest mi .Natural and Pastels. Assorted 9 sizes. ea who take advantage of Encinitas ', and other Sheet. No one knows how many aliens live in the canyons near Encinitas. Gaines said the number is close to 1,000, but migrant advocate Ozzie Venzor said the number is half that figure. Whatever the number, Encinitas, with a population of 55,000 in its 26 square miles, has hung out the "unwelcome" sign to migrants. "'Encinitas has gone after migrants with a vengeance," said Claudia Smith, regional counsel for the California Rural Legal Assistance in nearby Oceanside. ' 1 csare 'EVERYTHING'S luni iinrn I Hi LUUL.il SUPER BUY STAIHMASTER tf h fSri rttiS WW "fit?Gl09 SPECIALS csA'l INNER SPRING KATTRESSES )kA. 1339.96 OFF REAL WOOD 33-4- 2 Genuine oak parquet. Classic in Honey & Natural. Satin limsh. "6".REG. Incredible 50 savings on genuine DuPonl Saxony, fieg. 23.99 .59C-64- r Stunning solid oak plank. Two faBMaBKBDH lSIAINVSir:Kj u u Norma. Installation loua Pat) sq. limsh. 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