When Victoriano de la Cruz hustled for construction work on Brooklyn’s streets, he earned $60 a day. But since joining the Bay Parkway Community Job Center in Bensonhurst, he’s picked up skills and commands a wage of up to triple that amount, enough to build a new home in his native Mexico. De la Cruz, 35, was one of a half-dozen immigrant day laborers at the job center on Monday. The red-and-yellow trailer on the edge of Gravesend Bay is run by the Workers’ Justice Project, a group advocating equal pay and rights for immigrant and low-wage workers. Its denizens are grateful for the structure and organization the center provides, but see nationwide legal action as key to foreign workers’ prosperity. “I think it’s very important,” de la Cruz said. “Immigration reform could help guarantee a fair wage for immigrant workers, and make sure they work in safe conditions.”
Read more http://thebrooklynink.com/2013/03/13/51889-job-center-helps-immigrant-workers-as-they-await-reform/