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For nearly 30 years, the Day Worker Center of Mountain View has been a consistent presence in the local community, connecting employers with day laborers ready to complete a wide variety of tasks.
And the center’s work goes well beyond job placement. The nonprofit also offers English classes, training on employment rights, free meals, technological literacy lessons and other sources of support.
However, even as the center celebrates its long track record in Mountain View, it is also looking to adapt to changing circumstances, including an aging group of workers and greater difficulty finding jobs for them to fill.
Longtime Executive Director María Marroquín told the Voice that the center is experimenting with new ideas, like having workers produce various goods that can be sold.
Despite the changes, what’s been consistent over time is that the Day Worker Center serves as a community hub, where day laborers find empowerment in working collectively to help lead the center, Marroquín said.
“It’s like their home,” Marroquín said. “When they come, they feel welcome.”
The center works to ensure that the day laborers receive employment protections. There’s a commission of workers who meet to set rules, including minimum pay rates for various types of work, Marroquín said. Employers pay workers directly, and the center uses a rotation system to pick which worker takes each job that becomes available.
Common jobs include gardening, moving, construction and painting, as well as house cleaning and child care, Marroquín said. Most of the employers are home owners or renters who live in the area.
“The relationship is really nice. It’s a human-to-human (connection), and that’s something that’s beautiful,” Marroquín said.
In a busy month, the center might connect workers with more than 1,000 jobs, Marroquín said, but these jobs are generally only for a few hours at a time.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Day Worker Center has created an electronic system for workers to sign in each day, so that they don’t have to wait in person at the center for a job to become available. While the system offers greater flexibility for workers, Marroquín noted that it also adds more complexity in being able to quickly connect a worker with an employer.
The center has also had challenges finding jobs for workers to fill. Marroquín said that there are many reasons for this, including that with more people working from home, there’s less demand for services like gardening and house cleaning.
The workers who come to the center are also getting older, Marroquín said, and that can make it more difficult for them to find jobs. Employers will in some cases want to hire younger workers, she added.
“It’s really heartbreaking,” Marroquín said. “We are trying to find alternative jobs that are maybe less physically demanding, but have more opportunity for creativity and resourcefulness.”
It’s important to find ways for workers to earn money that don’t rely on an employer reaching out with a job, Marroquín said. One idea is for the workers to produce and sell their own goods, potentially through worker-led cooperatives, Marroquín added.
Enrique Islas is one of the workers leading this initiative. Islas has a long history at the Day Worker Center and for many years would come to the center to find work, often picking up jobs helping people with moving and gardening. Nearly a decade ago, he moved out of the area. When he came back to Mountain View a year ago, he also returned to the center.
Islas has recently been focused on sewing and crafting projects, including creating stuffed toys and leading classes teaching other workers how to use sewing machines.
The Day Worker Center is interested in setting up an Etsy shop to sell workers’ creations, as well as attending craft markets, Marroquín said.
“We need to be more resourceful in trying to find other sources of income for the workers,” she said.
Islas told the Voice through a translator that the Day Worker Center has been an important place in his life, because it allows himself and other workers to find jobs, and that he feels a responsibility to help keep the center running.
The Day Worker Center is a recipient of the Mountain View Voice holiday fund. Each year, donations to the Holiday Fund are divided equally among a group of local nonprofits that serve people in need. The Voice and its Holiday Fund partner, the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation, absorb all administrative costs to run the fund, and all donations are tax-deductible.
For more information about the Holiday Fund, go to mv-voice.com.com/holiday-fund. To give a donation online, go to embarcaderomediafoundation.org/holiday-fund/mountain-view. Checks can be made payable to Mountain View Voice Holiday Fund and sent to 2345 Yale St., FL 1, Palo Alto, CA 94306. The Holiday Fund campaign will run through early January, with grants awarded in the spring.
