“We try to reach out and encourage people to use the facility,” he said.
About 70 workers a day use the center, and 50% of them get work through its lottery process, program coordinator Juan Rodriguez said. The number of workers has remained static since the recession, he said.
The center uses the lottery process because it’s calm, effective, and there is no rushing, Rodriguez said.
Day laborers who don’t use the center generally take issue with its ban on negotiating salaries because, he said, they want to be able to settle their own prices.
That aspect of the process is handled by the worker center.
“There are days there is work and days there isn’t,” Raul Martinez said.
He has taken to looking for work outside Home Depot since the recession forced him to sell one of his two hauling trucks.
With his business, Raul Moving and Hauling, on the rocks, the 20-year Glendale resident has had a harder time paying bills, rent and buying food for his family, he said.
“I am on a diet,” Martinez added.
VERONICA ROCHA covers public safety and the courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.
