Every morning workers line up at the hiring halls
July 18th 2008 23:04
Bizarre Politics Reports:
Getting a job one day at a time
Link: www.rationale.com
By Ray Tapajna - main source - article by Sandra Livingston Cleve Plain Dealer in 1998 - temporary help, day laborers, contract workers etc - nothing new about day laborer workers.
Only about 38 percent of all workers in the USA qualify for unemployment. They either do not make enough money or work long enough at one job to qualify. While our eyes are on the illegal immigration problem, lets review what has been happening for several years.
This is part of the Silent Depression that continues on and on. Temporary help industry revenues in 1990 were $20 billion dollars. By 1997, they were more than $50 billion and growing about 25 percent a year since then.
Here is one of the stories from the streets about Getting a job one day at a time.
The flourescent light goes on at the Minute Men storefront as the daily hiring hall for manual labor opened for business at 4:30 a.m.
First in line was Terry McLaughlin. He did not expect to be dispatched to a job until 6 a.m. but he takes no chances. He wants to make sure the factory where he had been working for six months will not cut their daily order for temps. The regulars that are out there everyday ahead of anyone else get the jobs. McLaughlin who has no car, gets up at 3:30 a.m. each day to walk 33 blocks from his home to the hiring hall. All of this for $5.15 an hour ( 1998 ) in hope that a temporary job will become permanent.
Each year, hundreds of thousands fo workers on the bottom rung of the "thriving" economy line up at hiring halls across the country to perform unskilled or semi-skilled work at factories, warehouses, hotels, landscaping projects, stadiums and even at the new baseball stadium which was funded with public and taxpayers monety. For many companies, it's the "use 'em when you need 'em" method of staffing. It "just in time" supply of workers to correlate with the "just in time" suppy of components with both arriving only when needed.
Steven Kornfield, an analyst with the National Securities Corp in Chicago said, " I don't think there's going to be a real top to the situation for the next 10 to 15 years",
So you see the flow of 12 million more workers from Mexico after the U.S. moved 4000 factories to Mexico is not only about migrant workers competing for jobs at the bottom rung on the ladder but it is also about It millions of American citizens too. Many Americans have lost decent paying jobs forever.
The LABOR READY flyer goes out to businesses reading Eliminate up to 35 percent of company payroll.... our dispatch offices can have laborers on site as early as requested, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Charging a flat hourly rate for actual work performed
Processing all insurance including workers' comp, social security , government forms and taxes.
Eliminaing employment contracts and fees
TEMPORARY LABOR - ON DEMAND (at $5.15 an hour for the workers- 1998 rate )
And so another day comes and goes while our political leaders and supposedly moral leaders talk about justifying illegal workers who will not take jobs that are available in their own country making consumer goods for Americans at an average rate of about 62 cents an hour. President Bush then says, they come here to take jobs Americans will not do. I wonder if he ever read anything about the hundreds of temporary and day labor offices in our land where many compete for these $5.15 an hour jobs which most likely today end up under minimum wages after all is deducted from the wages of day laborers.
Only about 38 percent of all workers in the USA qualify for unemployment. They either do not make enough money or work long enough at one job to qualify. While our eyes are on the illegal immigration problem, lets review what has been happening for several years.
This is part of the Silent Depression that continues on and on. Temporary help industry revenues in 1990 were $20 billion dollars. By 1997, they were more than $50 billion and growing about 25 percent a year since then.
Here is one of the stories from the streets about Getting a job one day at a time.
The flourescent light goes on at the Minute Men storefront as the daily hiring hall for manual labor opened for business at 4:30 a.m.
First in line was Terry McLaughlin. He did not expect to be dispatched to a job until 6 a.m. but he takes no chances. He wants to make sure the factory where he had been working for six months will not cut their daily order for temps. The regulars that are out there everyday ahead of anyone else get the jobs. McLaughlin who has no car, gets up at 3:30 a.m. each day to walk 33 blocks from his home to the hiring hall. All of this for $5.15 an hour ( 1998 ) in hope that a temporary job will become permanent.
Each year, hundreds of thousands fo workers on the bottom rung of the "thriving" economy line up at hiring halls across the country to perform unskilled or semi-skilled work at factories, warehouses, hotels, landscaping projects, stadiums and even at the new baseball stadium which was funded with public and taxpayers monety. For many companies, it's the "use 'em when you need 'em" method of staffing. It "just in time" supply of workers to correlate with the "just in time" suppy of components with both arriving only when needed.
Steven Kornfield, an analyst with the National Securities Corp in Chicago said, " I don't think there's going to be a real top to the situation for the next 10 to 15 years",
So you see the flow of 12 million more workers from Mexico after the U.S. moved 4000 factories to Mexico is not only about migrant workers competing for jobs at the bottom rung on the ladder but it is also about It millions of American citizens too. Many Americans have lost decent paying jobs forever.
The LABOR READY flyer goes out to businesses reading Eliminate up to 35 percent of company payroll.... our dispatch offices can have laborers on site as early as requested, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Charging a flat hourly rate for actual work performed
Processing all insurance including workers' comp, social security , government forms and taxes.
Eliminaing employment contracts and fees
TEMPORARY LABOR - ON DEMAND (at $5.15 an hour for the workers- 1998 rate )
And so another day comes and goes while our political leaders and supposedly moral leaders talk about justifying illegal workers who will not take jobs that are available in their own country making consumer goods for Americans at an average rate of about 62 cents an hour. President Bush then says, they come here to take jobs Americans will not do. I wonder if he ever read anything about the hundreds of temporary and day labor offices in our land where many compete for these $5.15 an hour jobs which most likely today end up under minimum wages after all is deducted from the wages of day laborers.
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Comment by Janet Collins
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In Australia the "hiring halls" are job agencies. People find their work by the shift. No-one ever hears about it though.
Janet
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