What is just a street corner for some is a start of income for others. Immigrant men stand at some of Chicago's street corners every morning to find work. This has been a popular method for many decades in the city of Chicago, but during the last few years has become more and more difficult. Most of these men lack valid documentation to work in the United States, but others do have valid documentation to work. Regardless of their status, and with the downfall of the economy in 2008 any work has gone extinct. One day laborer, Luis Perales said,"It's difficult here, but what can we do, we have to work in construction, work in roofing, remodeling, concrete, everything." Perales left his family in Mexico years ago, his two children and his wife. When talking he couldn't speak, tears ran down his face. He came to the United States believing it was easier to make money, but when he was here realized it's very hard. He works hard to send remittances back home, and hopes one day he'll see his loved ones once again.
Due to the lack of income their families suffer from hunger, cold, and insecurity. Many don't have a place to live or food to eat on a daily basis. The work these men rarely find is paid under the table from contractors, but this has its risks:
- No written contract is ever made.
- Most jobs last one day.
- If a worker is injured, he won't be compensated and will be out of work due to the injury.
- The pay is minimum wage or less.
- Some of them get scammed and never see any payment.
A foreign-born Mexican eligible to work in the U.S. has been standing in the corner for over four years and says he gets picked up never knowing if he'll be getting paid. "There is no payment, one time they owed me a full week of work and you think, I'll wait another day to see if they pay, others wait two weeks, one month, and they never see any money," Juan Antonio Ruiz said. "You start to realize who you can trust and work for.
Even though these jobs come with high risks and little or no type of payment, these men get up early in the morning and withstand hot or cold weather, from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m to have a chance at any type of job offered that day. These jobs may consist of a simple clean-up job, or a high risk job which entails a construction site, or a highly skilled job such as carpentry, plumbing, or roofing. A Guatemalan man who was working at a roofing job two months ago, fell from the roof and fractured his leg. "I came down from a height of 12 and half feet, I was putting a paper down and it wasn't put on correctly, so I tried to fix it and I fell, " Oscar Echeverri said. The contractor believed he wasn't hurt and ordered him to keep working, but Echeverri fought back and said he needed to go to the hospital. His medical bills are currently not paid and he's been disabled in a wheelchair with a cast on his leg for two months. Currently the Northside Latin Progress and Latin churches in the Northside of Chicago are helping him with food and half of his rent. He has a family in Guatemala whom he left two years ago. His wife, his two daughters, and his 3-year-old boy are suffering from the lack of income he was able to send before the accident - 200 a week.
What is the Northside Latin Progress?
The Northside Latin Progress is a non-for-profit charity helping to educate Chicago Latin tradesmen. The organization wants to work towards teaching these men all rights they have at a federal and civil level. They also want to offer counseling, social services, and entrepreneurial and educational classes to teach them how to create work for themselves. The progress was established by Gretchen, a Rockford resident who moved to the city of Chicago decades ago. She was surrounded by Latin American people and came to realize the hardships and lack of knowledge they encountered. Throughout the years, she has been very involved in helping the Latin American people and other undocumented illegal immigrants in the area.
The National Day Labor Survey performed in 2005 revealed that about 117, 600 day laborers were hired or seeking work on a given day. Most workers are Latino foreign-born. The survey also found 1 in 5 people to have suffered from a work-related injury. Statistics demonstrate that 92 percent of the workers were hired for construction jobs and home repairs. The study noted these jobs were done under hazardous conditions. While very few do want to help, most citizens have forgotten that by extending a helping hand to the most vulnerable, it can bring a better future to them and society as a whole.
Source:
Valenzuela, Abel, Nik Theodore, Edwin Meléndez and Ana Luz González. 2006. On the Corner:
Day Labor in the United States. Los Angeles: Center for the Study of Urban Poverty.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/csup/uploaded_files/Natl_DayLabor? On_the_Corner1.pdf.
Tatiana Uribe - As a professional journalist I follow a strong work ethic. I want my articles to speak the truth, excluding my personal feelings.
