About time, too

Good news for people wanting to work to support themselves and their families, reported by Jennifer Anderson in yesterday’s Portland Tribune. Mayor Tom Potter is leading a fast-track effort to establish a day laborer hiring site. Currently, an estimated 150 – 300 men and women hoping to be hired for a day’s manual labor stand on the street on East Burnside, MLK Boulevard, and other regular locations around the city, hoping for a car to stop carrying someone willing to hire them. Buyers of drugs and prostitution idle in the same places, making the day laborers’ lives even less safe. It’s not uncommon for day laborer employees to work all day or longer, then not get paid. Their job location isn’t documented, their rights and protections slim to none.

Jennifer reports many cities have Day Laborer hiring centers. “Most sites ban drinking and drugs, fighting and misrepresenting skills to get hired. They also have a system in place to help negotiate wages and match employers to the workers at random. That would be a change from the way it works now, where the youngest, strongest and most aggressive workers get hired first.”

I greatly appreciate the comments attributed to Kevin Easton, Mayor Potter’s policy manager for business and arts. When asked about negative comments the Mayor heard after condemning recent immigration raids in North Portland, resulting in the arrest of 167 alleged illegal residents, he said (emphasis mine): “it doesn’t affect the mayor’s opinion on this, one way or the other. They’re residents of the city. The most vulnerable residents of the city deserve things as well. The community this impacts deserves it as well. It’s not just an investment in the job-seekers on the site. It’s an investment in the community and in Portland.”

Prospective employers needing day laborers need a safe, efficient way to hire them. Workers needing temporary jobs don’t have time to waste standing on street corners, tussling for position when a car draws up.

The next meeting, open to the public, is set for 5 p.m. Aug. 1 at City Hall. The Mayor’s office has spent $20,000 hiring a project manager and holding meetings, and proposes to dedicate about $200,000 to establish the hiring center. No location for the site has been proposed, and the article doesn’t report on how the annual operating budget would be funded.

Do we want to live in a civilized society, or not? Good work, Mayor Potter.