On Friday June 13th starting at 4:00pm, day laborers, supporters, day laborers from Casa Latina in Seattle, community organizations, Mayor Tom Potter, City Commissioner Randy Leonard gathered to celebrate the historic inauguration of Portland’s first day laborer hire site.

There was a soccer game, food and music made by day laborers, even posters featuring art made by day laborers that were dedicated and given to the Mayor. Between applause, tears, smiles and the ribbon cutting by the Mayor, the opening of the center on June 16th was made official. See more photos on Flickr.

Between chants of “Si se pudo!” and “Arriba los jornaleros!” we united with around 60 other centers throughout the country. Together we have had success creating more secure and humane alternatives for day laborers to find jobs in a safe and professional environment.

You can help further this great achievement by hiring a day laborer during the next few weeks. A job will help fulfill their immediate needs and help them be able to feed themselves.

For the day laborers there is no job too big or too small. Please call 503-752-3619 or you can personally sopt by 240 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

VOZ was featured in a recent Mercury story about meetings between day laborers and local businesses. The article ran right before our recent meeting for day laborers and local business owners to talk about how to share the corner where day laborers seek work. This was the first meeting of its kind, but more are sure to follow.

Voz/Worker’s Rights Education Project–a day labor project of Portland, Oregon–together with allies, such as Jobs With Justice, carpenters, laborers, and volunteers held a protest against an abusive employer that likes to exploit workers, specifically day laborers.

The company, Wild West Construction, and its owner/boss, Naomi Ahmed, hired eight day laborers from the East Burnside Labor Corner on August 7, 2006, to do construction/sheetrock work. This group of workers was hired to work at a new condo building on the corner of SE Woodstock and 93rd Ave, which is the property of Naomi Ahmed. The laborers worked there for 3 weeks (August 7th-25th) approximately 10 to 11 hours a day. Mr. Ahmed, the boss, paid them the first two weeks, but on the third week of work, he told them he would not pay them because they “did not do good work.” He stated that the city inspector came to check the work and that it did not pass the inspection. Mr. Ahmed told them that if they want to be paid they needed to fix all the work that did not pass inspection and then they would receive payment but not for the third week’s work. The Wild West Construction and Naomi Ahmed owes these eight day laborers wages for that week of work.

Ahmed has an accomplice who hires the laborers for this company, whose name is Ramon. After personnel from Voz tried several times to contact Ahmed and Ramon to arbitrate a payment plan without any positive result, the organization then decided to initiate legal proceedings against Wild West Construction and Naomi Ahmed.

After a meeting between the eight workers and Voz staff, it was also decided to do an action to create community awareness about the abuses that day laborers face day to day on the corners. On September 25, 2006 we organized a protest/picket line in front of Naomi Ahmed’s building to demand the payment of wages to the eight day laborers and to denounce this kind of abusiveness by employers. About 30 supporters from Job with Justice, carpenters, laborers, students, volunteers, and day laborers participated in this picket line, in support of these workers. We are pursuing litigation against this company and its owner, Mr. Ahmed. We are also planning other actions against this abusive employer until he pays all wages due to these day laborers.

Our appreciation goes out to all of you that came to support our struggle in this fight and hope to unite with you again soon.