Frigid Temperatures, But Little Work for Day Laborers

With the weather growing colder this month, day laborers who solicit temporary jobs while waiting on the street near the Centreville library hope to see creation of a community work center soon that would provide them with a one-stop shop to find work.

Interviews with about a dozen workers this week found almost universal support among the laborers for the center, the brainchild of the Centreville Immigration Forum, a volunteer group, and developer Albert J. Dwoskin, who owns the Centreville Square Shopping Center.

"I think it would be a great idea," said Thomas, a 46-year-old worker from a rural section of Guatemala who has been living in Centreville for the past seven years. He fled his country after the Guatemalan civil war when rebels killed his father, he said. "It would certainly be a lot warmer than standing out here on the street."

Thomas, who like other laborers would not give his last name because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that returning to Guatemala is impossible because the country is poor and offers few opportunities to get ahead. During the good months in Centreville, he can make about $5,000 in landscaping and gardening jobs. Back home, he would make a fraction of that attempting to survive while working on a neighborhood subsistence farm.

The day-labor community in Centreville is largely homogeneous, drawn from the same impoverished, rural section of Guatemala, said Alice Foltz, the CIF president. They anticipate about 40-60 workers a day will use the center, which will operate with private funding, she said. CIF estimates that about a total of 100-150 day laborers will sign up to use the facility.

The population is fairly transient, the workers said, with many leaving to return home during the year while others come to Centreville to take their place.

"All my family is in Guatemala, but I've come here for the work," said a 22-year-old construction worker who would not give his name. "I don't really have a plan to stay or go. You get up every day and try to go to work. If you do find work, then you are able to stay."

Living conditions for the men are not optimal. They said they had all left their families back home and live in cramped quarters with five or six other workers in the Centreville area. Most of their wages, after deducting a portion for rent and food, are sent back to their families in Guatemala, who would be destitute without the money, said Pedro, a 46-year-old dry-waller. Cellular phones are a priority, allowing the laborers to keep in touch with their far-off families as well as track down jobs, Pedro said.

With the holidays approaching, work has fallen way off. Pedro and his buddy Luis said they each have worked only one day so far this week and only two days the previous week. "When it's good, the work is very good. But, when it's bad, there is nothing we can do," Pedro said.

All those interviewed were older, have been in the Centreville area an average of six years, and responded to questions in their native Spanish. The language barrier is a problem for them. Many contractors with jobs want English speakers. For example, a flooring contractor that hired two day laborers on Wednesday wanted to know if they were fluent in English before he allowed them to hop into his truck. "Habla English?" he shouted to the two men, who nodded "yes" in response.

But learning a new language sharply cuts into the time laborers need to land an increasingly elusive gig from a shrinking pool of construction jobs, said Olga Garcia Harper, a CIF volunteer and linguist. Instead, Harper has turned into something of a lingual evangelist, offering her English-Spanish lessons on the street while the men wait for job prospects.

"We try to give them [the language] that they need," Harper said.

CIF does offer English as Second Language classes at the library, but many workers find it hard to attend the classes with their sporadic work schedules. Classes at the center would be offered at times the men could more easily attend.

Fairfax County Sully District Supervisor Michael R. Frey has held meetings on the center and continues to support the idea, despite highly publicized criticism from some residents earlier this year. "If we can move them to a less visible location, put a roof over their heads and a system in place for hiring, that seems like a good idea where everybody wins," he said.

 If all goes as expected, a center for Centreville's day laborers could open in a matter of months, Foltz said.