PLATFORM : Toiling Over the Problem of Day Laborers : Official program would set wages and job conditions. It would ban loiterers.

The sight of men on the street waiting to be hired for the day is familiar in Latin America, and it ought to be familiar to Angelenos too. We have had a casual labor force in our city for a long time--30 years in the harbor area.

Today it is getting bigger, not smaller, and it appears to be here to stay. It is perfectly legal to wait for work in public. The Constitution protects the right of free assembly. And, contrary to what some people believe, 75% of the workers are here legally, federal statistics say.

It is true that congregations of men can bring problems, but these problems are not caused by the day laborers themselves. They are caused by day loiterers, a much smaller group.

There is a street-corner culture. Along with men seeking honest work, there are corner bosses, drug dealers, gamblers, alcoholics. The loiterer’s purpose is not to seek employment but, often, to prey on the laborer.

Another problem is that as competition for jobs grows, without an established site the congregation of men expands. Workers believe that the first seen is the first hired, so they push the edge of the site outward.

The city’s program is designed to address these problems.

Our centers are self-contained places where workers and employers negotiate on wages and job conditions. To protect workers from exploitation, we arrange meetings with legal aid lawyers. On-site city staff encourages self-policing by workers. Loiterers, banned from the site and with no one to exploit, move on.

We have replaced “swarming,� in which a truck pulls up and everybody jumps on, with a lottery system. Everyone is listed as a general helper, and we also know about workers’ specific skills, including speaking English. Employers can choose men for these skills. In fact, the native-born tend to get hired first for the best jobs.

In the Van Nuys situation, we checked into community complaints and found 200 men assembled in the mornings.

Why Balboa Place for a center?

First, it is rent-free, which is essential. Second, homes are all the way across Balboa Boulevard. Finally, we know that the closer we put our center to the existing site, the more successful it will be and the less likely we are to have two sites.

The program does much more than provide an area of congregation. It provides public acceptance of day laborers while educating them to respond positively to community concerns. It’s a safe and clean environment.