Healdsburg Day Labor Center thrives

Thanks to a combination of community outreach, strong leadership
and change of season, employment opportunities at the Healdsburg
Day Labor Center are growing.
In March, the Healdsburg Day Labor Center helped connect 65
laborers to 217 hours of work. In April, 78 laborers worked 346
hours. Worker enrollment in the program is increasing, too,
according to a report by Program Director Martha Nuñez.
“It’s a combination of both seasonality and the outreach
Martha’s been doing,” said Vanessa Bergamo, the Marketing and
Communications Manager at California Human Development, which runs
the Healdsburg Day Center.
Economic Recovery Director Amber Twitchell added, “It takes a
really long time to build the investment in the community. We have
to educate both the employees and the laborers. We’re in our third
year in Healdsburg and it’s really taken that long to build
trust.”
As more day laborers head to the Healdsburg Day Labor Center,
fewer are seeking work at the pick-up spot on the plaza. The shift
to the labor center—which has a system for evaluating both
potential laborers and potential employers—has resulted in
increased safety for both parties. This, in turn, has led to an
increase in female participants.
“One positive thing is that there are people—not to be sexist,
but often women—who want people to work in their yard, but they
wouldn’t feel safe picking up someone from the plaza. But they feel
comfortable going to the Day Labor Center,” Bergamo said.
The increase in female employers has been mirrored by an
increase in female day laborers. “For the last year, there have
been women coming to the Healdsburg Day Labor Center. Once word
gets around that we can find people safe work, more and more of the
whole family starts to come to us,” Twitchell said.
Program Director Nuñez works six days a week at the Healdsburg
Day Labor Center and will soon be working seven, as the center
plans to expand operations to include Sundays. Twitchell and
Bergamo attribute the labor center’s success partly to Nuñez’s
strong leadership.
Nuñez is committed to finding employment for day laborers and
ensuring that all work transactions are handled with dignity,
efficiency, and respect; she is also committed to maintaining the
labor center’s reputation. She enforces a strict no drug or alcohol
policy—something, Bergamo noted, that is not guaranteed if an
employer picks up a laborer elsewhere.
Other indications of the Day Labor Center’s success—and possibly
an improving economic climate—include longer work hours, developing
relationships between employers and laborers, and the placement of
laborers into long-term jobs. In April, four day laborers found
long-term employment. Most April jobs ranged from 8 hours to 4
days, as compared to March, when jobs rarely lasted beyond half a
day.
“Employers will come back and ask for certain individuals,”
Bergamo said. “We have some people who have gotten full-time jobs
at wineries.”
In April, some jobs paid as much as $20 per hour, and two
job-hours clocked in at a high of $25. The majority of jobs—224
hours’ worth—paid $12 per hour.
Local organizations have rallied to support the Day Labor
Center, and have been particularly helpful in providing lunches for
laborers.
“Unfortunately, we can’t use grant money to feed the workers,”
Bergamo said. In-kind and monetary donations from the Shared
Ministries, the Healdsburg Food Pantry, and Big John’s Market
helped the center to provide 349 meals for workers in March and
April.
And while donations are always appreciated, Twitchell said that
if there’s one thing residents can do to support the Healdsburg Day
Labor Center, it’s this: “Don’t hire on the plaza,” Twitchell said.
“It’s a supply and demand issue. If we as a community made a
decision not to hire on the plaza, no one would stand out
there.”
Workers who do make the change to come to the Day Labor Center
are connected with a network of partner organizations and a range
of additional services. These include emergency services, resume
and job application consultation, parenting classes, health
information, and assistance with the pursuit of education and
immigration.
“The outreach campaign was a positive move but we must keep in
mind that outreach is an ongoing process; it is important to let
the community know that the labor center is open and that the
hiring process is done in an organized, dignified and safe way,”
program director Martha Nuñez said. “It is all about building
bridges to bring the community together.”