EVENTS: 090227/“ON THE CORNER: DAY LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES”

EVENTS: 090227/“ON THE CORNER: DAY LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES”

UNC Department of Geography Colloquium Series and the

Center for Urban and Regional Studies present:
DR. NIK THEODORE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO

“ON THE CORNER: DAY LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES”

Friday, February 27th at 3:30
Saunders Hall 220
Refreshments served at 3:15

Each morning, in cities throughout the United States, large numbers of men gather on street corners, in parking lots of home improvement stores, and in public spaces to search for work. These job seekers, the majority of whom are undocumented immigrants, are day laborers employed by non-union construction contractors, landscaping companies, and private households looking for no-strings-attached workers to complete manual labor tasks for low pay. The day labor site is a spot market where workers jostle with each other for job opportunities, negotiating wages in a matter of seconds with employers who set the terms of employment and must be trusted to make good on them. Given that day laborers inhabit a zone within the labor market that lies largely beyond the reach of regulatory enforcement agencies, it is not surprising that this occupation has been associated with rampant wage and hour as well as health and safety violations. This presentation considers factors that have led to the re-emergence of day labor in the U.S., with particular emphasis on the interaction between immigration status and workers’ rights abuses. It concludes with an assessment of community-based interventions to mitigate the problems faced by day laborers.