Defending Job Center

The Coastline Pilot sat down with David Peck, chairman of the

Cross-Cultural Council, a volunteer group which oversees the Laguna

Beach Job Center, to ask some questions about the controversy over

the job center, which was picketed several weeks ago by a group

seeking a ballot measure, called S.O.S. (Save Our State), to deny

drivers’ licenses to immigrants lacking legal status. Such job

centers have become controversial, and the Costa Mesa City Council

voted recently to close down a long-standing center in that city.

CP: Tell us when and how the Laguna Beach Job Center started, and

what prompted its formation.

Peck: The Cross-Cultural Council has been around for 20 years

trying to improve relations between English- and Spanish- speaking

residents. We had a dream of having a Job Center years ago, but we

couldn’t pull it off. Instead we started the Playa Center, a small

ESL (English as a second language) program with free child care which

operates mornings during the school year. Meanwhile, the city created

the present site, with water and bathrooms, and we helped the city by

going around and telling the guys they had to start using the job

site.

People used to go all over, including North Laguna and the Circle

K, and owners got very irate because of the guys hanging out,

urinating on their walls, and they forced the city to consolidate

(into one job center site), and they did. But for the first couple of

years there was no organization. When you drove in, they would swarm

your car and go across the road, and after a couple of years some of

the workers went to the police and said, look you’ve got to help us.

Smaller guys are getting bullied by bigger workers, and so forth, so

please do something. The city came to the Cross-Cultural Council and

said, we’ll give you seed money. That was six years ago, in August

1999.

We went, ironically, to Costa Mesa to study how they did it,

because they’ve had a center for 15 years. They had two women over

there, they showed us their forms, and we learned that women work

better than men for this job; it’s less macho. So we hired two women

who had been through our Playa ESL program, and they’ve been there

since the beginning, six days a week. They’re paid.

We apply every year for a community assistance grant, which is

raised from the Festival of the Arts. But that’s never paid our full

budget. Our budget is about $50,000 a year, and the city pays half of

that. We always raise money ourselves. Now, we ask contractors and

homeowners to pay $5 and the workers pay $1 a day if they get work.

If they don’t get work by the time they leave at noon, they get their

dollar back. So now we’re getting over $2,000 a month from

contractors and workers. So it’s somewhat self-sustaining, although

we still need the city’s help. Costa Mesa’s costs twice that much,

$100,000, mainly because they have a city person running it. So we’re

a bargain.

CP: How many people go there to seek work on a weekly basis, and

how many are hired?

Peck: It’s hundreds every week, 300 to 400. There might be 20 to

30 on a Monday, and by Thursday, Friday and Saturday there are more

and more, because more people are hiring, to help with moving and

doing gardening and other household things they do on weekends.

We keep records of the number of jobs. It’s gone up. It started

out with 30%, and then a couple of years ago, it went up to 60%.

After 9/11, businesses cut back, but it’s still over 50%. If 50 guys

come today, 25 will get hired.

I’ve always said this is a win-win situation, because if you’re

older, or a little afraid, or you don’t speak Spanish, there are

people to help you (hire someone). So the number of jobs has gone up

every year.

CP: How many contractors and homeowners use the center to find

workers?

Peck: Twenty to 30 to 40 a day, or 50 to 60 on a weekend,

including subcontractors and local residents who need somebody for

painting, gardening or some other household job.

The workers get between $8 and $10 an hour, and Costa Mesa is $5

to $7 an hour, which is why so many come here. It’s a tricky

business. All we can do is put you together with a worker and you

negotiate. We’re not an agency, or involved in hiring, or take on

liability. You can come in and say, “I need two people for a job” and

we’ll help you find the right people.

CP: Are undocumented workers using the job center?

Peck: I have no idea. All the workers at the job center get a

little card. They show us a phone number and address so we can track

them down. It’s the same way we ask the homeowners and contractors,

so if anything happens, if somebody’s not paid or if something’s

missing, we can track them down. But we’re not the INS. We assume

nothing, and it’s not our job.

CP: We’ve heard that the INS has agreed to stay away from the Job

Center. Is this true?

Peck: I haven’t heard that. They are not looking for small

operations, they’re looking for large operations, big companies. The

police in Laguna have been really great about this. They’ve told us,

look, it’s not your job. I don’t think they’ve ever invited the INS

in. In other cities, it’s not the same way, they have gotten hassled.

In fact, our biggest supporter is Police Chief James Spreine, and

he’s said publicly, this is a win-win situation. There are fewer

problems because we’re there.

CP: How many of the Job Center’s applicants are transients, and

how many local?

Peck: We’re always hoping to get a majority of local people, but I

don’t think we do. It’s probably more like 20 to 30%. We get guys

coming to our center because the people in Laguna pay more. And it’s

a high turnover. A lot of workers, especially those from Mexico, will

go back home for several months at a time.

CP: What is your response to those who want such job centers

closed because of concerns they are assisting people who are in the

U.S. illegally?

Peck: Everything I’ve read about this problem is that we’ve got no

consistent, coherent public policy. These workers are supplying a

need that we have; and even President Bush was talking, before 9/11,

about a guest worker program, and that is clearly what’s needed.

It’s funny, during the S.O.S. demonstration, a 60-year-old woman

held up a sign saying, “hire me.” Well, no. there aren’t a lot of

Anglos out there looking for work. This is the situation. The reality

is we need these workers in our economy. They pour in billions of

dollars in helping this country. What we need is a policy and program

that would allow people to work.

CP: What if job centers in the region started closing?

Peck: One of the reasons we’re helping Costa Mesa is that we’d get

a lot more workers and contractors, and it might overwhelm us. We do

a pretty decent job, but we can’t carry the whole county. In L.A.,

there are some 20 job centers. We’ve been helping other cities. I get

calls every month from New Mexico and Arizona from people who say

they’ve heard about our job center and want our help in setting one

up.

CP: Would it take the onus off the job center, if there were a

form of legal status for workers, or would it make the job center

irrelevant?

Peck: We’d still be needed. We’re a central location where workers

and employers can come together. If it weren’t for us, they’d be

doing it in the parking lot of the Circle K. It would be much

messier.

I’ve taken guys to the police who weren’t paid by bad contractors,

and the police were wonderful. They didn’t ask for I.D.s, they said,

this is a crime. And that’s a wonderful attitude.

People with some intelligence understand the problem.

CP: Isn’t it true that, because they are undocumented, these

people have to use informal routes to get work?

Peck: They don’t take out of the system what they put in; they

don’t get unemployment or health benefits. It’s a win-win situation,

but unfortunately at their expense.