Testimony before the Temporary Commission on Day Laborer Job Centers
Maria Mottola, Executive Director, New York Foundation
June 20, 2006

Thank you Commissioner Linares and other commission members for inviting us to speak on this critical issue.  The New York Foundation supports groups in New York City that are working on problems of urgent concern to residents of disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods. We are particularly interested in start-up grants to new, untested programs that have few other sources of support. Enthusiastic admirers of the resilience and energy of New Yorkers, we believe that the vitality of its neighborhoods is the city's greatest resource.

The questions you are wrestling with are not new.  The New York Foundation, since our founding in 1909, has funded organizations that support workers and immigrant workers reflecting the City’s long history of welcoming newcomers from around the world who struggle to make a living here.  Looking back through our grants history, one can find grants for (what were then considered new) settlement houses at the turn of the century, grants that focused on women industrial workers in the 1930’s, groups that aided European emigrants and refugees before World War II, schools for unemployed workers during the Great Depression, groups aiding Cuban refugees and Puerto Rican immigrants, hiring halls for Black and Hispanic workers, and groups that assisted Chinese garment workers.

It won’t come as a surprise then that the foundation has supported the work of several local grassroots groups whose efforts are not only relevant to the issue before you but who in fact have laid its groundwork. 

In 1998, our grant helped to start the Latin American Workers’ Project in Bushwick, the first we knew of to specifically address the needs of day laborers.  Oscar Paredes, their founder, spoke to us about that neighborhood’s day laborer market, which was ripe with violations:  day laborers regularly denied payment for their work, are subject to hazardous work conditions and endure abuse by employers. Workers they met reported being compelled to work over 100 hours each week without the guarantee of a minimum wage, overtime pay, or benefits. They are subject to numerous health and safety hazards. 

Over the years, the Latin American Workers Project has grown tremendously. Contact with thousands of workers has enabled them to build a strong membership base.  Their model has been replicated by other organizations and they have built ties with street vendors, day laborers, and numerous community organizations.  LAWP has grown into a well-respected workers’ rights organization that will continue to create organizing campaigns benefiting thousands of immigrant workers.

An estimated 30,000 undocumented Mexican residents work in Staten Island, primarily as day laborers and housekeepers.  A coalition consisting of Project Hospitality, local churches, synagogues and civic organizations formed El Centro de Hospitalidad in 1998 to provide services to Mexican immigrants.  The New York Foundation provided start-up support in 1999. Through their entitlement assistance, food pantry, daily meals, and legal, medical, and social service referrals, El Centro works with thousands of day laborers and their families each year.  They developed a workers’ association for the day laborers and a collective for women who are domestic workers. 

Day laborers in Staten Island face daily harassment and even violence from local residents.  Early on in our grant to El Centro, someone threw a brick through their storefront window and a series of beatings and robberies of day laborers culminated in the shooting of two Mexican day workers in 2004.  El Centro has convened a taskforce to respond to these violent incidents that includes representatives of schools, churches, public offices, and community organizations. 

Both El Centro and the Latin American Workers Project sought to develop a safe space where workers can seek employment without being harassed.  The Latin American Workers Project, as you know, operates several successful hiring halls both in Brooklyn and in Queens.  There, workers have been able to provide support to one another, organize to demand fair wages and negotiate collectively and more effectively with prospective employers.

Two important recent studies help to illustrate on a broader scale what we have witnessed in our local communities here in New York.  A study and book done by Dr. Janice Fine through the Economic Policy Institute called Worker Centers:
Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream documents a grassroots movement of immigrants in the American workforce who face poor pay, bad working conditions and few prospects to advance to better jobs, and the creation of immigrant worker centers- institutions that improve the lives of immigrant workers through service, advocacy and organizing.

Another study, On the Corner: Day labor in the United States by Edwin Melendez of the Milano School here in New York and others, discusses the growth of day laborer hiring sites throughout the country.  The report confirms what our grantees tell us: workers centers address competing concerns of community and day laborers, by reducing wage theft, clarifying wages, serve as a place to report abusive employers.

Latin American Workers Project and El Centro, as well as others we support that organize taxi workers, domestic workers, restaurant workers and street vendors, participate with other groups from around the city in the immigrant advocacy field, an important step because immigrant workers alone are so isolated.  These groups have a strong component of constituency involvement but also provide services, much like early settlement houses that we funded at the turn of the last century.  Unlike settlements though, today worker-members sit on each organization’s board, plan the organization’s work, and monitor the daily activities.   Most importantly, these organizations have helped New York’s newest residents find their voice and use it. 

As I read today’s news I thought again about how different New York feels from the rest of the country.  As it has in other areas, I am confident New York’s leaders will lead the way in demonstrating that progressive public policy must acknowledge and respect the value that new immigrants bring to our city.  In fact, it is what makes this city vibrant. Thank you again for inviting us to speak.