An update on the Gaithersburg day laborers

Two factors are conspiring against their livelihood. The first, and more important, is economic in nature. Jobs are waning. This former country town in the midst of Maryland’s rolling farmlands was transformed into a sprawling suburb of Washington, with newly-built communities popping up on its fringes. While a construction boom took place, many day laborers, mostly undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, found temporary jobs. But during the past weeks, at best, one in five of the men who wait for jobs at an abandoned parking lot get them. At worst, there have been days recently when only three or four of the approximately three dozen men who gather daily at the parking lot find work.

The reasons for this are obvious. With the housing boom over, contractors are less likely to hire workers. By late October, the chronic job shortage had made itself evident. Roque Orellana, a thritysomething father of six who left his family in rural Honduras to find work in America, appeared at the parking lot at about that time. He had given up on finding gainful employment. Homeless for three months, he spent his meager savings, $300, to buy a one-way ticket back to Honduras.

A second factor against the day laborers is the Gaithersburg City Council’s intention of passing what they dub a no-soliciting ordinance, a piece of law drafted under the umbrella of pedestrian safety but clearly aimed at putting the day laborers out of work for good. The proposed ordinance would make it unlawful to “solicit or attempt to solicit employment, donations, alms or subscriptions, from any pedestrian who temporarily exits a vehicle, or from any person occupying or traveling in a vehicle, on a roadway, sidewalk, driveway, parking area, or alley.”

Pedestrian safety is not an issue at the lot the day laborers currently occupy. The 4,245-square-foot lot, the site of an abandoned water-treatment business, sits on the corner of Brookes Avenue and Maryland Route 355. On most mornings, less than four pedestrians walk by, if one excludes a couple of neighbors, Clark Day and Michael Stumborg, who appear regularly to take photos and write tag numbers of employers’ vehicles. Most pedestrians walk on the north sidewalk of Brookes Avenue, opposite the day laborers’ lot. And none of them come anywhere near a moving vehicle, especially now that jobs have waned and fewer and fewer contractors drive by to pick up the men. Nonetheless, the proposed ordinance states that the presence of people asking for employment within city limits “results in the delay and obstruction of the public’s free flow of travel; and results in congestion and blockage of the streets, parking area, driveways, and sidewalks.”

This morning the first snowflakes of the season fell on the day laborers’ parking lot. It was a chilly morning with temperatures hovering around freezing. Wind gusts from the west compounded the cold. I only saw two people find work this morning. Almost thirty were present at one point.