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Workers, Neighbors Begin Dialogue
Jana Meyer translates from Spanish as Francisco Pacheco addresses a roomful of churchgoers, immigrant advocates and Dupont and Logan Circle residents.
(By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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After Pacheco's presentation, workers raised their hands, one by one, describing in Spanish their struggles, including cases in which they were not paid for work.
Residents, many listening to a translation through earphones, expressed their perplexity and concern about the workers' situation.
Chris Kohatsu, 28, a representative of the Logan Circle Community Association, took the floor with a stern warning to the laborers: Neighbors are fed up with the harassment of passing women and gay men.
"If you want us to be behind you and treat that corner, 15th and P, as a professional workplace, we must address the concern of sexual harassment," she said. "It is not acceptable in any other workplace."
Her statement prompted some raised eyebrows from the day laborers, most of whom came from Latin American countries.
"It's different, sexual harassment, from just a compliment. A compliment: 'Wow, you're pretty,' " Oscar Aragon, 55, a day laborer from El Salvador, explained to the crowd in Spanish.
But he acknowledged: "There are other comments that are not so nice. But we don't all do it. Sometimes we just greet the women, ' Buenos dias .' "
Some residents asked why workers didn't take their complaints about lack of payment to small-claims court, or at least jot down employers' license plates.
"If we go to claim what's due us, they say we have no receipt" or evidence of having done the work, Aragon replied. He said day laborers feared they might be detained if they contacted authorities, even though District police have a policy against picking up people simply for immigration violations.
Although the crowd seemed generally sympathetic to the workers, some residents said their plight represented a conundrum for the city.
Michael Thompson, 47, a freelance editor who lives in Logan Circle, took the floor to urge his neighbors to ensure that contractors are paying the day laborers.
"If you live in a $300,000 condo, don't assume it was built with all paid labor. . . . Some of that might be unpaid labor," Thompson said.
