For those who dare to dream For those who dare to dream (December 02, 2005)

Day Worker Center serves those struggling to make ends meet

By Jon Wiener

Though you wouldn't know it from the mood at the Calvary Church, winter is the slow season for Mountain View's day workers. Those who can afford it go back to Mexico or points south to spend the holidays with their families. Others apply for temporary work as gardening and landscaping jobs dwindle.

But at Day Worker Center of Mountain View, new members are still trickling in to register in hopes of finding jobs.

"Christmas is very important to our culture," said Maria Marroquin, director of the center. "If they decide to cross the border and be away from their families, the situation in their home country is really bad."

Monday, four newcomers listened carefully as a worker named Gonzalo explained the internal workings of the center -- the various classes offered, who gets assigned to work in the kitchen, how to get free legal help or health services, the role of the workers commission that advises Marroquin. (Gonzalo himself is a member.)

Most of the presentation revolved around the rules governing who gets priority when an employer comes looking for hired help, rules that evolved when the center was homeless four years ago and workers began organizing themselves on the street. The rules are a sensitive point, given the importance of each opportunity to work, and a few workers still choose to go elsewhere rather than submit to them.

"It's kind of complicated," said Marroquin. "But we need to be really clear with them about what we expect and what we can provide."

After a bitter split with parent organization St. Vincent de Paul last October, in part driven by a number of workers who disliked the procedure Gonzalo was outlining, the center has been surviving on a month-to-month basis. Its continued existence is a testament to the generosity of several private donors and the persistence of the workers themselves. This year, the center is one of six local agencies supported by the Voice Holiday Fund.

Together with the center's board, chaired by Mountain View City Council member Greg Perry, Marroquin is trying to figure out a way the center can make it until March, when a new round of grant applications could bear fruit.

In the meantime, the center continues to buzz with activity. As Gonzalo welcomed the newest members of the community, Marroquin talked excitedly about new classes in floral arrangements and a worker-produced newsletter.

An elderly man came by to share a couple of bags of what appeared to be leftover Halloween candy. Workers lined up to purchase cans of Coca Cola to go with their lunches -- leftover Thanksgiving turkey with chile verde sauce prepared by the workers themselves. The lunch is free, and the 75 cents per soda goes into a fund controlled by the workers commission for the center's operations.

Halfway through the meal, a woman walked in looking for two people to help her plant some trees before the rains came. Marroquin checked the list where workers put their names each morning in hopes of getting a job for a few hours, and called the next two names: John and Oscar.

John, the only Vietnamese regular at the center, hurried up with his meal. Meanwhile, two men who would have jumped at the job -- a four-hour shift at $10 per hour -- dutifully went out to the street to summon Oscar and took his place there waiting for the mailman to arrive.

Out of 81 people who had put their names down on the list Monday morning, John and Oscar were the 12th and 13th to get a chance to work.

Even though its financial straits mirror those of the workers who depend on it, the center remains a remarkably positive place, where any holiday or visit is an excuse for a celebration and any outsider is always offered lunch.

Always optimistic and compassionate, Marroquin said she was thinking about the man in the wheelchair that she had driven by on her way to work that morning.

"I felt bad because I have what he doesn't," she said. "And I couldn't help him."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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