Waiting and hoping: Local dayworkers hit hard by weak economy

Immigrant day-workers are hit harder than any others in this economy. There is nothing for them to fall back on. Out of 50-60 who show up every day, 15 might get a job. DP

Written by Eliza Ridgeway - Town Crier Staff Writer

Work is hard to come by right now at the Mountain View Day Worker Center. Employers – most of them local homeowners – have less money to spend on housecleaning and landscaping, and the cool, damp weather limits outdoor jobs.

The constriction of the national economy has had a trickle-down effect, drying up work in the informal economy of men and women who work odd jobs on an hour-by-hour basis.

The dayworker center provides resources for day laborers seeking local employment. Recently, demographics outside of the center’s Latino base have arrived in search of work and social-services support. White locals are starting to pass through the center, and a worker from Ethiopia and one from Israel recently registered, according to center director Maria Marroquin.

The No. 1 challenge for dayworkers right now is just to find an employer.

“It’s very difficult for workers to be inside, just waiting and waiting and waiting,” Marroquin said.

“Yesterday, 25 workers went to work, but it’s not typical lately,” she said, explaining that recently it is usually more like seven or 15 jobs a day for the 50-60 workers who turn out each morning.

When Marroquin entered the country from her native Mexico in the late 1990s and worked as a dayworker in this area, she found regular employers who would have her return each week on a steady housecleaning job. Now, women dayworkers are lucky to get called in once a month, and Marroquin reports that employers seemed more stressed out.

“In the past, it was different. The relationship was closer and deeper,” she said. But looking at the center’s overall prospects, Marroquin was stoic. “We are going to be good in the end. It takes time.”

“I did a lot of work myself for years, but now I’m so old, I can’t do it anymore,” said one retired Los Altos man who dropped by the center last week to hire help to work on shelving in his home. He asked that his name not be used due to the sensitive political and legal issues surrounding dayworkers.

“It’s getting to the point where I couldn’t afford to get it done. Without them, I’d be in trouble,” he said. “The men I’ve gotten to know have been very nice people – if it wasn’t the way it is, I wouldn’t be (at the center) at all. They are compassionate people.”
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