Two signs advertised “Workers Available” outside the red trailer that functions as a shape-up site for immigrant day laborers in Freeport. But only a few among the two dozen men who had gone there Wednesday were available for hire by 7 a.m. The others had been snatched up or were booked mostly by homeowners cleaning up the mess left by superstorm
Day laborers in New York and New Jersey are mobilizing to offer their most valuable asset, their labor, ask for communities that have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy, according to a news release. Relief brigades will include offering hands on cleanup work, distributing supplies, and education for other workers about health and safety hazards on the
Residents in the northeast dealt with new power outages and a halting recovery after a storm brought snow and ice to the battered region. In New Jersey, more than a foot of snow came to some parts of the state and and the storm left 110,000 people without power as of Thursday afternoon, according to the utility Public Service Enterprise Group.
After Hurricane Sandy destroyed their workers’ center and trashed the surrounding waterfront, Bensonhurst day laborers eager to do debris-clearing work say they can’t connect with contractors or homeowners. “It’s really difficult,” said Gavino Hernandez, 46, who does construction and painting work. “Really, we’re desperate. We’re not sure what to
Aún sin poder calcular por completo los daños que la tormenta Sandy dejó en Nueva York y New Jersey, online las oportunidades para quienes trabajen en construcción y reparaciones, s y servicios de transporte saltan a la vista. La Agencia Federal de Emergencia ha declarado ambos estados como zonas de emergencia, lo que abre la posibilidad a sus residentes
While it isn’t yet possible to determine the total destruction that Hurricane Sandy left in its wake in New York and New Jersey, it is clear that job opportunities await those who work in construction, repair and transportation services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared both states disaster areas. As a result, affected r
While it isn’t yet possible to determine the total destruction that Hurricane Sandy left in its wake in New York and New Jersey, it is clear that job opportunities await those who work in construction, repair and transportation services. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has declared both states disaster areas. As a result, affected r
A storm surge from Hurricane Sandy unmoored the Bay Parkway Community Job Center, and New York City’s only center for day laborers, online and moved it a couple hundred feet inland from the Bensonhurst shore, cracking one of its walls in the process. Ligia Guallpa of the Worker Justice Projects, which operates the center, and Lionel, one of the center’s founders, tried to show it to me Tuesday afternoon, but the New York Police Department objected. “I’m trying to be nice, okay? You have to go,” Office Dym instructed us. “We’re here for a reason,” he said, getting out of his vehicle to push me away. “It’s not safe.” “See?” Guallpa lamented. “This is what they do to us every morning when we have workers.” The police have blocked off the “hazard area” around the center, though just why was not remotely apparent, when we subsequently snuck in the back way. Despite repeated inquiries form Guallpa and the Worker Justice Center, the authorities have refused to estimate when the “hazard area”…
It’s been more than a year since Fairfax County Supervisor Michael Frey called a public meeting to discuss the proposal to open a hiring site for immigrant day laborers in Centreville. “The atmosphere was obviously pretty heated,” he says. But Frey, a Republican, says most of the objections came from residents who had a problem with federal immigration policy. “The people that were objecting were objecting because they believed all the day laborers were here illegally, and wanted that problem solved,” Frey says. Frey understands those concerns. But he points out the county has little power to influence federal immigration enforcement, and the center is a way to keep immigrant workers who are looking for work from gathering on street corners and impeding commerce and traffic. It will also keeping the workers themselves safer, Frey adds. Alice Foltz is the temporary director of the Centreville Immigration Forum, a coalition of churchgoers that came up with the idea…
It is about 8:30 a.m., just days after superstorm Sandy unleashed her force and fury in the northeast. Men with calloused hands, world-weary lined faces that make them seem years older than they are, practically stand on their toes in the lot of a closed gas station on the exit ramp off Route 46 in New Jersey. Each time a car slows, pulling