Day Labor  Research

CONSULTING SERVICES

Although day laborers may appear to have many things in common, we have discovered that each city or county is unique in both the challenges it faces with day labor, and the feasibility of different solutions. Our research and feasibility studies will help clarify the situation and offer different solutions that will inform good decisions.

We would be pleased to provide initial explanations and information at no cost. For ongoing assistance and consulting work whether simply investigative or to facilitate your program or program development, we will provide a specific costing scenario for your project. All requests are treated in absolute confidentiality.

We have over eight years experience in research, and in practical application: successfully organizing day laborers to ameliorate problems in their current location, opening and running day labor programs, auditing and evaluating existing programs, and relocating groups of day laborers and day labor centers.

Our legal department specializes in creating non-profit entities and anti-solicitation ordinances (our experts can also offer viable alternatives to anti-solicitation  ordinances). We also assist with the opening of non-profit bank accounts,  grant-writing, locating and renting/purchasing an appropriate site, lobbying,  gaining approval from community, local business, residential neighbors to the site, and community organizations.  Our mediation and intervention pre-opening can secure cooperation from all interested parties, from the day laborers themselves to employers, organized labor, and special interest groups.

Services

• Organizing day laborers to ameliorate problems in their current location
• Successfully relocating groups of day laborers and day labor centers
• Feasibility studies and geographically specific day labor studies
• Follow-up studies and evaluations.
• Day laborer-designed program development and implementation
• Successful marketing and outreach for day labor centers
• Self sufficiency for day laborer centers
• Training for police
• Advice on the issues of immigration status and taxes
• Evaluating and improving existing programs, audits, and problem solving
• Limiting liability for cities and counties
  

Day Labor Center Specialists

We are the only day labor center specialists in the U.S., and have eight years experience  in evaluating, auditing, and improving existing programs, including cost  reduction and improving levels of day laborer participation and employment for  day laborers.  We can help cities and  counties regain control of their local day labor program, and establish  realistic and verifiable program goals (and a simple system of reports and  program documentation to assure compliance).

Ethno - Organizing

Day Labor Research Institute uses the methods of Ethno-Organizing including consensus reaching meetings held  with day laborers to define the problems and decide on solutions, and consensus  reaching meetings with those effected by day labor to  obtain the information necessary for the day laborers to make successful  decisions.  We have years of experience listening to and organizing undocumented workers-- both migrant workers and day laborers.

Where they now stand

The Day Labor Research Institute has  experience successfully organizing day laborers to ameliorate problems in their current location. 

In addition, we have  had success dealing with small groups of day laborers to avoid future problems.

Small groups of day laborers

Small groups of day laborers often turn into big groups, with big problems.  We have  had much success dealing with small groups of day laborers to avoid future  problems.

Studies

We conduct studies of  unorganized day laborers, for local government, that examine why the day laborers are standing in that particular location to wait for work, map where  they live and how they travel to the day labor area, examine what the community  wants, conditions endured by the unorganized day laborers (level of employment,  unpaid wages and other abuses, access to resources), real and imagined problems  attributed to their presence, viable solutions and the impact of different solutions on the community, local government and police, and day laborer rights.

The studies identify sources  of funding for a solution and analyze the implications of different kinds of  funding. 

The studies identify those  who have a financial or political stake in a solution (local non-profits seeking  grants for day labor programs, local activists), discuss the characteristics of the ideal entity to run a day labor center, evaluate local and national  organizations and how they measure up, and discuss other possibilities, including labor unions.

Our studies discuss the history of day labor, the effects of unorganized day labor and possible solutions, and analyze the likely result of leaving the situation as it is.

The studies identify possible locations for a day labor center, discuss the impact of location on  the success of the program, and the positive and negative impact of a day labor  center on the immediate neighborhood.

Because research shows that  day laborers participate enthusiastically in worker-designed day labor programs,  but reject programs designed by others, the foundation of the studies is what  the day laborers want and how they propose to achieve this.  Consensus reaching meetings with day laborers  decide program policy, design, operations, rules, funding, vision and goals.  Presenting the opinions and commentaries of all others effected by the day labor problem to the day laborers allows  them a complete understanding of the problem so that they can make informed  decisions.

The DLRI staff works closely with police to assure that all of the workers’ consensus decisions are  legal. In fact, participation with and feedback from the police is key to a successful outcome  and to future good relations between day laborers and law  enforcement.

Our studies do not evaluate the day laborers’ immigration status in this country, but do discuss  the issue of day labor centers and possibly undocumented workers, including the legality of using government funding for such centers and the local government  liability.

Day Laborer Designed Centers

Using the method of Ethno-Organizing, the Institute works with day laborers to develop day  laborer-designed programs.  The Institute trains day laborers in consensus reaching, mediation, and to own and run their centers independently.  Day laborer designed centers typically have an average of 80% employment year round, with less than 10% of  the day laborers refusing to participate, and both cost less than typical day labor centers, and generate less complaints from surrounding residents and  businesses.  We are specialists in organizing Latin American Indian day laborers.

We believe that day laborers are able to know what they want, and that given the  tools:

• Consensus reaching with a neutral facilitator trained in mediation
• Access to police officers  willing to cooperate to solve the problem
• Local government willing to support their effort
• Complete knowledge of all  the facts including
• how their method of seeking employment effects others
• how others view them
• what the community, employers and potential employers, local government, and police really  want,

Day laborers can construct a worker-designed day labor program that will satisfy the day laborers, local  businesses,  employers, community, local government and police.  This method puts the solution entirely in the  hands of the day laborers.  The day laborers themselves define the problem, decide on a solution, and decide how to implement and fund the solution.

Other Day Laborer services

The Institute  has also worked with day laborers to set up English as a Second Language and  computer classes, to supply and set up a computer lab for day laborers, and to help day laborers set  up a program for domestic workers that would function out of their center.  We  have good relationships with banks and can assist day laborers in opening bank  accounts (instead of the dangerous but common practice of carrying all their  earnings in their pockets). We also have experience obtaining insurance for  hiring centers and non-profits.

The Day Labor Research  Institute is available to help study the problems and proposed solutions unique  to your community.

The Day Labor  Problem

When unorganized, Day Labor is generally a  "lose-lose" problem for all concerned parties.  Groups of men loitering on street corners, sidewalks, and parking lots all day, every day, contribute to a sense of public disorder.   They are often not well received by home owners and business operators in the area, who, accurately or not, may associate day laborers with  theft, drug activity, and unsanitary practices.  One newspaper columnist wrote that congregating day laborers created a "general blight on the community."

The workers themselves lose as well.  Chronically under-employed, unorganized day laborers get work only 10-30% of the time.  This  means they are left loitering on the streets, often without benefit of cash,  food, or facilities, 70-90% of the time.   During these long idle periods, they  are the frequent targets of law enforcement efforts.  When they do get work, day  laborers are often abused by unethical employers, who pay them below minimum  wage, or may even refuse to pay them at all.

The cities and police departments called upon to address complaints about day laborers also lose.  Caught between unending citizen complaints and the limitations of the law,  police often resort to "nickel and dime" enforcement efforts.  Much like INS  "raids," the impact of such routine enforcement programs is always short-lived.

Some cities have discovered they can become financial losers as well.  In most areas where Day Labor is an issue, it is a multi-faceted problem, involving several different stake holders.  Spending money on a "quick fix" instead on investing in a more well-researched, and better coordinated,  program has proven not just costly, but counter-productive in some cities.   One Southern California city recently spent  $240,000 in one year on their program, yet their Day Labor problem  persists.   In fact, a poorly designed  program can create new problems, including becoming a magnet for day laborers  from other areas, and turning the area into a hangout after hours for drinking and camping out.

Though tailored to each community's unique needs, all of the models developed by the Day Labor Research Institute have several key points in common :

• FOCUSED OBJECTIVES
• INSULATION FROM LIABILITY
• COST CONTROL
• ELIMINATION OF THE PUBLIC NUISANCE
• WORKER DESIGNED & FUNDED
• HIGH LEVELS OF DAY LABORER  PARTICIPATION
• HIGH LEVELS OF  EMPLOYMENT