El Sal De Mundo

by Valerie Schwartz/PoorNewsNetwork Community Journalist

I am walking down Polk Street to city hall. The streets sound hollow as I walk through a corridor of granite buildings gray as the sky. It feels like I’m walking, from a cell to the courtroom through the meandering halls… granite has a definite sound and feeling to the senses. Strange I should feel as though I am going to a trial as I approach the steps of City hall. Maybe it is time for the granite to listen to a people's tribunal and testimony…

"We are the salt of the earth...we're gonna stay here...we are of this earth." Willie Reese, San Francisco Day Laborer. In their continuing battle with Willie Brown and City Hall: La Raza Centro Legal/San Francisco Day Labor Program, supporters, neighbors and friends gathered on the steps of City Hall yesterday. They had come to ask for an end to the stalling tactics to allow their labor hall to be moved to Cesar Chavez. They had also come to announce that they are filing a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco for violating the agency's and the day laborers' First Amendment rights, by cutting their funding in response to the workers protests of the ongoing problems with the City government. Once again reality calls... once again we are talking about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and people being punished for pursuing their rights. The day laborers have been waiting for seven-months for the funds to be released by the City, i.e. the Mayor, so they are able to make this move and have La Raza Centro Legal administrate their program for them.

Tom Ammiano was the first speaker after being introduced by an interpreter to the workers, supporters, and the press. He was extremely brief but made a statement, “to express his solidarity with the S.F. Day Labor Program.” Mr. Ammiano then said that the day laborer’s, “need to be included in decisions made about them” and then said that he was trying to get the money released for the next calendar year.

I then listened to some of the members of the S. F. Day Laborers Program, Willie Reese and Lorenzo Tlapalmatl, who asked for permission to have the day labor program be located in the building at Cesar Chavez,so that they may be have access to vocational training, English classes, and to have their program be administered by La Raza Centro Legal.

Another worker then said, “Day laborers have always been struggling for a better life.” Most of the workers have families they need to take care of and provide for. They all want their children to have a good education, a decent life, and to rise up from the shackles of poverty and they have traveled a long way to be able to do these things. All of these requests that were made seem more than reasonable and very humble to me, although it is not hard to see that people are discontent with the time they have spent in limbo awaiting this move to become a reality.

Maria Blanco from MALDEF then came to the dais to speak. There was a fire in her eyes and assurance as she spoke to let the public know, “We are filing a lawsuit to uphold the right to free speech of all day laborers and San Francisco citizens.” Maria spoke about the continued harassment of the day laborers by the SFPD. Maria then addressed City Hall and told them, “Free speech does not end because you receive government money” and that she “hopes that the City rethinks and renews its contract.”

Ester Sabino, a member of the SFDLP’s “Women’s Collective” which at present has over 200 women in the collective who are day laborers and also canvass the street passing out flyers for domestic day labor. Ester too, like her co-workers asked the City for permission to move their building.

“We are here because we are angry at the City of San Francisco… the City has stalled over and over and denied access to build with permission to renovate”, stated Anamaria Loya of La Raza Centro Legal. She then said that the day laborers are, “equal valid members of this community, they are not sub human. They have the right to advocate and lobby for their interests.” Ms. Loya then spoke about how they were also excited about the strength of organizing, “Never before have the day laborers been treated as such a threat. The City can stall and stall but we demand our rights, we are an organized part of the labor movement…Mr. Brown we are not afraid of you!”

The press conference had two more speakers in support of the day laborers. They are residents of the neighborhood. Linda Ramirez and her daughter and her daughter showed up to support and ask for LRCL to be allowed to administrate for the SFDLP.

Then the last speaker and supporter, neighbor Fran Taylor spoke of how some of the neighbors complained that the day laborers had created litter and were a blight to the neighborhood. Fran told us how the litter had always been there that it didn’t just start with the laborers. Fran genuinely concerned, talked about how the day labor program was being treated by the City. Fran says, “Scapegoat is the only word we need to know here.” She then told us about how the DPT refused to put in safe crosswalks and reduce the speed limit on Cesar Chavez to ensure the safety of the children who attend two nearby schools of Cesar Chavez and the residents of the area. She talked about how the DPT would rather listen to complaints that the day laborers distracted traffic and created problems instead of focusing on the real issues of safety caused by irresponsible people who drive too fast. Fran wrapped it up with talking about how “Labor Ready Hiring Hall” fights the unionization of SFDLP and how they discriminate against women. Fran said, “This is hypocrisy.”

At a time in our nation when the economy is next to none for many, it seems more than admirable that we have programs like the San Francisco Day Laborer’s Program/ La Raza Centro Legal. We are talking about people who go out every day to work, which is usually temporary labor needed by many different people. Why… does the City Hall see this as a problem… because they have organized and tried to make a living wage and not cow down to union busting tactics and discrimination? When there are so many people who cannot find work or have become unemployed; why do they seem so upset about people, mostly immigrants, who provide for their families by doing a day labor that is a much needed part of this city’s workforce that needs acknowledgement? Are we not primarily a nation of immigrants and displaced peoples?

As I leave to go back to the magazine: I am hoping that the voices of the people who are here today travel and echo their message to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors through the arena of granite, marble, and gold gilded buildings that were built to carry and administrate for the voices “of the people” and “by the people”, who live in and work in this city. The profiling must stop.