Friday, October 21, 2005

Home Depot day labor dispute lands at City Hall
Council unwilling to intervene with store management

Dozens of day laborers packed Council Chambers on Thursday to ask the City Council to intervene in an ongoing dispute with Home Depot. They would like to use property at the company’s home improvement store at I-35 and St. Johns as an informal day labor pickup site, but the store’s corporate headquarters had instructed local management to keep the workers off of the property

For a time, company officials allowed workers to solicit jobs from contractors on store property. But earlier this year, that policy was changed. The workers are still seeking access to the many contractors that visit the Home Depot store, and since they are being kept off the property, they are spilling out into the street and nearby businesses. 

“We would really like a safe place to meet and a dignified place to meet so we can all look for work peacefully,” said laborer Marvin Rodriguez. The delegation of workers presented the Council with more than 150 letters from people in the St. Johns neighborhood in support of creating a day labor site at the Home Depot. 

Labor organizers from the Equal Justice Center and a minister at the Memorial United Methodist Church joined the workers. “Austin has graced Home Depot with tax subsidies that have encouraged Home Depot to become a major contributor to the economic well being of Austin,” said Rev. Cindy Layton. “I am asking the City Council to call upon Home Depot to be even more responsible corporate citizens of the community it serves and deal positively with the needs of the day laborers.”

Council Members listened sympathetically as several laborers used the Citizens Communications portion of the Council meeting to relay their concerns. But they did not make any promises to put public pressure on the company to change its policy. 

“When this first started out, there were some activities that were not favorable to the community,” said Mayor Pro Tem Danny Thomas, referring to some complaints by residents and nearby business owners about the conduct of a few of the workers. “I know APD had to deal with those issues.” He said that while the workers may have gathered signatures from more than 150 St. Johns residents, the good of the entire neighborhood must be considered. “I think that we have to look at this and see how we can be fair on both sides.”

The city’s official stance, determined after months of discussions and negotiations with all parties earlier this year, is to encourage both the laborers and contractors to use the nearby First Workers day labor site at 51st and I-35. That’s approximately one mile away from the Home Depot. 

“From the staff’s perspective, we would probably not be recommending a second site in such close proximity to the existing site, but rather something much farther south and perhaps east to gain accessibility on a city-wide basis,” said Health Department Director David Lurie. “Over time, from the staff’s perspective, we think we should be looking at expanded capacity for organized day labor programs, but it’s very important that we look at this issue on a city-wide basis.”

Outside City Hall, several of the workers criticized the First Workers site. “The requirements that they are putting on the day laborers in that area are so stringent that many of them are not finding work in that area,” said one man. And Emily Timm with the Equal Justice Center said even improving the situation at First Workers would not be sufficient. “Even if First Workers were running perfectly, it’s still not a solution to the Home Depot crisis, because there’s already a capacity of people getting jobs there. So if a hundred more workers come, that’s a hundred more workers that don’t get jobs,” she said