Mark Holmberg: Day Laborers
Do you think you have it hard in the mornings? Rushing around with the kids, trying to dodge traffic? Or, maybe you're unemployed, applying for jobs over the Internet.
Our Mark Holmberg shows us another side of hard work. Mark spent several days, in the cold dark, trying to get hired, as a day laborer. It's what many do, while most of us are sleeping. And in a slumping economy where construction has taken the biggest hit, you need more than patience to do this kind of work.
It's 5 a.m. and already the early birds are lining up outside the day labor businesses on Chamberlayne Avenue.
Here it's first come first serve. You gotta get here pretty early in the morning. I've been getting up around between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. every morning.
You've got to be a believer. And you've got to be a little hungry. You wanna be first on the sign up sheet.
"Well I was working as a truck driver, without places like this - I'd be out on the street."
The lucky ones get a ticket and go out to work for the day.
Mark: What are you gonna be doing today?
Woman: I'm going to be picking out at SB Cox, a recycling line.
Mark: What kind of stuff are you gonna be doing?
Woman: Ah picking cardboard, steel metal cans and just throwing it into each individual bin.
Mark: What do you make for a day's work usually?
Woman: $45
"They are good people, family people, really - they are good people, they are good workers also."
But the first to go out are the regulars. And the ones who went out the day before and are wanted back by those who hired them.
You're at the bottom of the list if you're new. And there are a lot of new faces.
"Before we might have gotten maybe 10 or 15 (new faces) a week, now we might get 10 or 15 each day. And we've not been able to send too many out more than normal."
The bad economy really hasn't hit the day labor market hard. Businesses can hire bodies as needed, and they don't have to pay health insurance or unemployment benefits.
But it's those laid off from their regular jobs that flood the temp market. New guys like me bounce from Trojan and Labor finders on Chamberlayne to Labor Ready on West Broad.
The sunrises come and go. Still - no work.
Day four, here we go again. We'll see if we're going out again today.
"Having to watch these guys come in every day and leave with no paychecks or anything. So it's kinda hard watching that."
But at the end of the day for those who work - the result is good.
Man: Good day. Good day.
Mark: Where did they send you out today?
Man: Trainer - glass company, Hopewell, Virginia. My overtime check is 80 bucks.
Some just like the freedom of working day to day.
"Oh, it's very nice."
Some lost their regular job and they're trying to pick up the pieces.
"Seen the rent. Little bit of gas money and that's about it, come back tomorrow and do it all over again."
"Today the economy is really bad and they're companies laying people off so in order to survive. I come to day labor to get a job to make ends meet for my family."
A few of these day laborers had their driver's license taken by the court.
"If you look in the paper, 9 times out of 10, it's a requirement. You know - valid
Virginia license and because I don't have one, it's really hard."
Some battle the stigma of felony convictions.
Man: My conviction was 94.
Mark: And you're still paying the price?
Man: And I'm still paying the price for it.
It doesn't seem fair, but all you can do is get up again and try to beat that sunrise.
