Day Laborers

Never did the day laborers vying for work along an oil-stained Home Depot parking lot expect an offer like this. Two directors -- carrying clipboards and a camera for profile shots -- showed up with a pitch fit for a wannabe L.A. actor: A big foundation gave money to form a traveling theater company, and day laborers would be cast for the roles. It wasn't exactly the paid job they hoped for, but at least there would be free dinner, a bus pass and a chance to see new cities.

With airfares to Europe on the rise, it looks like Americans are planning to rediscover the good ol' U.S.A. this summer. As a result, perhaps more Americans will use the opportunity to visit some of the country's landmarks such as the Alamo and the Grand Canyon that sometimes get overlooked. Summer airfares to Europe have climbed about 11% compared with last summer, according to travel website Kayak, which attributes the jump to airlines trying to cash in on travelers visiting the London Olympics starting in July.

For more than two decades, California cities have gone to court to settle tensions between residents and day laborers who solicit work from public sidewalks. The issue is now before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This particular case involves a 1989 Redondo Beach ordinance that bans individuals from standing on streets, sidewalks, curbs, alleys, highways or medians to solicit or attempt to solicit employment, business or contributions from drivers. At the same time, it prohibits motorists from stopping in traffic or parking to hire someone.

Union membership is on the wane, but not at the Vermont Carwash and Nava's Carwash in South Los Angeles. The two businesses have agreed to collective bargaining agreements with their workers, who are members of the United Steelworkers union. Wages at the firms will be $8.16 an hour, organizers said, an increase of about 2%. There are now believed to be three union carwashes in the country, with Santa Monica's Bonus Carwash becoming the first last year. But if union leaders are able to stem — let alone reverse — years of declining membership, it will take the allegiance of these kinds of low-wage workers.

Redondo Beach has spent nearly a decade defending a misguided 1986 city ordinance that bans day laborers from soliciting work from public sidewalks, alleys, medians or highways. Lawyers for the city say the law is designed to stop individuals from spilling out into traffic while looking for work and jeopardizing public safety. A district court tossed out the ordinance as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. City officials persisted with a legal appeal, ignoring previous trial court decisions overturning similar laws, and instead arguing that the measure doesn't seek to limit what people say on public sidewalks, just how they behave.

One need look no further than the pages of The Times to enjoy one of the minor ironies of urban life. Consider the plight of the lowly day laborer, risking arrest or deportation to gain a few hours' wages. Unlike the onramp mendicants, they truly are willing to work for food. Compare these folks with the recipients of General Relief, who are verily coerced to work, and are provided the job, the equipment, bathrooms, and of course, the disdain of their fellow public workers. If you were going to hire a willing worker, whom would you choose?

Redondo Beach city officials can prohibit day laborers from soliciting work from motorists, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in a case that has been eyed by other cities that have sought similar restrictions. A lower court four years ago had ruled that the city's ordinance banning solicitation from the street infringed on laborers' free speech rights. Wednesday's 2-to-1 decision from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling. The city has been engaged in a legal tug-of-war with day laborers for more than 40 years, said Michael Webb of the Redondo Beach city attorney's office.

The way Omar Sierra remembers it, dozens of day laborers gathered in the Kmart parking lot that day more than 15 years ago. A county mobile health clinic arrived with a mariachi band and free food and offered HIV tests to those waiting for work. Sierra got in line and sat for his test. He heard a commotion, turned and saw men running. He thought someone was offering a job and wondered whether he should go with them. Then he saw the immigration agents. And he ran as fast as he could.

I found it absurd that Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke sees legislation as the only alternative to the problems of day laborers loitering and soliciting work in Ladera Heights ("Toil and Trouble," Feb. 27). The simplest, most cost-effective way to please both residents and day laborers is to create an agency similar to a temporary agency. The money to start this up would have to come from the state and the day laborers. The day laborers could check in at the agency to see if there is any work.

In light of the current controversy over immigration, I was astounded at the editorial titled "Day Laborers Get a Place to Congregate" (May 28). The editorial explained how Huntington Beach, following the lead of other Orange County cities, was establishing a job center for day laborers. What perplexed me was that the writer at no time indicated who these day laborers were. It appears that The Times and many of our politicians, including Gov. Wilson, are unwilling to face the fact that immigrants make a significant contribution to the underground economy of California.

The way Omar Sierra remembers it, dozens of day laborers gathered in the Kmart parking lot that day more than 15 years ago. A county mobile health clinic arrived with a mariachi band and free food and offered HIV tests to those waiting for work. Sierra got in line and sat for his test. He heard a commotion, turned and saw men running. He thought someone was offering a job and wondered whether he should go with them. Then he saw the immigration agents. And he ran as fast as he could.

Redondo Beach has spent nearly a decade defending a misguided 1986 city ordinance that bans day laborers from soliciting work from public sidewalks, alleys, medians or highways. Lawyers for the city say the law is designed to stop individuals from spilling out into traffic while looking for work and jeopardizing public safety. A district court tossed out the ordinance as an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. City officials persisted with a legal appeal, ignoring previous trial court decisions overturning similar laws, and instead arguing that the measure doesn't seek to limit what people say on public sidewalks, just how they behave.

In a decision that could have a wide-ranging effect on other cities with similar laws, a federal appeals court ruled that a Redondo Beach ordinance aimed at cracking down on day laborers is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech. The anti-solicitation ordinance, which has been in place for more than two decades, drew attention in 2004 after police arrested nearly 60 day laborers over about four weeks. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the Comite de Jornaleros de Redondo Beach later sued the city.

The Catholic sisters have had it with "The Flying Nun. " For 300 years, they've had their feet firmly on the ground and in the trenches as teachers, social workers and caretakers, and yet an airborne sitcom character from the 1960s still stands as the pop culture image of a nun. You'll get a different image, though, if you catch the traveling exhibit "Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America" that runs through Aug. 14 at Mount St....

Nearly every day for three years, Josue Melquisedec Diaz reported to work by going to a New Orleans street corner where contractors, subcontractors and people fixing up their places went to hire day laborers. It was there, one day in 2008, that a contractor picked him up and took him to Beaumont, Texas, just across the Louisiana line, to work on the cleanup, demolition and reconstruction projects that Beaumont was undertaking in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Diaz was put to work in a residential neighborhood that had been flooded.

For more than two decades, California cities have gone to court to settle tensions between residents and day laborers who solicit work from public sidewalks. The issue is now before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This particular case involves a 1989 Redondo Beach ordinance that bans individuals from standing on streets, sidewalks, curbs, alleys, highways or medians to solicit or attempt to solicit employment, business or contributions from drivers. At the same time, it prohibits motorists from stopping in traffic or parking to hire someone.

A Los Angeles police officer acted lawfully when he fatally shot a knife-wielding Guatemalan day laborer last year in an encounter that triggered days of unrest, the LAPD's oversight body ruled Tuesday. Bracing for the possibility that the ruling by the Los Angeles Police Commission could ignite another round of violent protests in the Westlake neighborhood where the man was shot, LAPD officials preemptively dispatched a large contingent of officers to the area in the hours before the decision was announced.