Posted on 05/01/2006 4:17:43 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Chinese food or a hamburger were easy to come by in the Mission District on Monday. Doughnuts or bagels? No problem. But in a neighborhood where every other storefront seems to house a tacqueria, you would have been hard-pressed to find a burrito.
With leaders of the national "Day Without Immigrants" calling for an economic boycott, many Hispanic-owned businesses closed for the day in the city's unofficial Latin quarter and throughout California, encouraging employees to participate in the massive protest marches.
"Today, no - no working and no buying," said Enrique Varguas, 28, who rescheduled a dozen or so landscaping appointments so he could participate in San Francisco's demonstration. "They will see how much money immigrants spend, and how much immigrants contribute to the economy of the country."
Though participation in the work stoppage was uneven and hard to gauge, its impact was hardly limited to Hispanic neighborhoods in a state that relies heavily on immigrant labor. Building contractors in many communities canceled jobs, appliance stores curtailed deliveries, parents scrambled to make alternative child care arrangements and farms had fewer people to pick produce.
At the state Capitol in Sacramento, the California Legislature canceled its floor sessions and the two onsite cafeterias remained latched because not enough employees showed up. Yet many large manufacturers, including the Farmer John meatpacking plant in Los Angeles and Gallo Wine's plants in Modesto, Fresno, Sonoma and other cities reported they were near fully staffed.
Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic development Corp., said the economic fallout of the one-day boycott could be as high as $200 million in Los Angeles County. The estimate, a fraction of the $1.2 billion in economic activity the county generates daily, consisted of business lost on Monday and took into consideration commerce that would be made up later in the week.
Throughout the state, employers seemed eager to accommodate employees if they could. Fencing contractor Justin Lena had to postpone five of the six jobs he had scheduled in the San Francisco suburbs until Saturday after 14 of his 16 employees said they would not be coming to work.
Lena filled in, shoveling gravel. But he wasn't upset, especially after his most veteran employee told him his friends and family would be angry with him if he breached the boycott.
"The Mexican guys I have who work for me, they are absolutely fantastic workers. I've had Asian, I've had black and I've had white. (Hispanics) are the most hardworking, dedicated, family oriented, focused people I've ever had work for me," said Lena, 26. "The backbone of my business is on their shoulders."
Carmen Murray, owner of Rodeo Carpet Mills in Commerce, Calif., said she was operating on a skeleton staff Monday as two-thirds of her 33-person work force took the day off to attend rallies. She said her workers asked weeks in advance and were allowed to use vacation time.
"We thought it was important for them and we wanted to support their feelings," Murray said.
In food-loving San Francisco, owner Laurie Thomas made a deal with workers at her Rose Pistola restaurant: she would keep the Italian eatery shut for lunch if the night crew promised to show up for dinner. A sign on the door informed patrons of the closure, but didn't give the reason.
"I don't feel compelled to make a big statement about it," Thomas said. "We need to do what's right to run the business and sometimes that includes compromise."
Farmworker advocates claimed the boycott put a significant dent in one of the state's signature industries. The United Farm Workers union said the boycott shut down grape, strawberry and citrus harvests throughout California for the day.
"This really demonstrates the power that we have when we're unified," UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said from a rally in Salinas.
But agricultural interests said farmers were prepared for the boycott and would probably not suffer. Many farms and packing plants let their workers take the time off while others rearranged schedules to make up for missed work on Monday, California Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Dave Kranz said.
Sean McNally, a spokesman for Grimmway Farms in Bakersfield, said the company was down to less than 30 percent of its normal work force, but didn't have to close any of its vegetable-growing operations.
"We made it clear there would be no repercussions if they wanted to take that day off. We wanted them to feel free to express themselves," McNally said.
While industries with heavily Hispanic staffs saw the biggest impact, the boycott also had a trickle-down effect. Bay Area 2nd Mom Inc., a Palo Alto-based caregiver referral service, saw a sharp increase in calls on Sunday and Monday from parents who needed a last-minute nanny or baby sitter, said Chief Executive Shalini Azariah.
"Today our phones are just ringing off the hook," Azariah said.
For some enterprises, that meant a boon in business. With so most other restaurants closed, Wan Kee, a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco's Mission District, did brisk lunchtime business.
"We have to eat, too," said Francisco Sanchez, 25, an ice cream vendor, tucking into a plate of rice and stir-friend scallops before he headed off to San Francisco's protest.
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Associated Press Writers Terence Chea, Gary Gentile, Olivia Munoz and Don Thompson contributed to this story.
They were at Camp Pendleton in the '90s, then spent three years in DC (he was at the Pentagon on 9/11).
She doesn't pay much attention to the news these days, and doesn't have a clue how much worse it is in SoCal than it was when they were stationed there.
I don't even broach the subject with her, because she thinks that all Mexicans are good, hard-working people. She does, understandably, have a problem with Muslims since 9/11, having experienced the horror first-hand.
Her comment about illegals is that "at least they're not coming here to kill us, they just want to work". I'm afraid she and her hubby are going to be in for a rude awakening when they see how militant the illegals have become.
Has anyone seen any polls on the aftermath of the protests???
And I knew that if I were in an auto accident today, the other party would most likely have insurance. That's a rarity in Texas.
I am greatful to you for not hiring illegals. I know that was a personal decision made by you that has probably cost you many jobs in the past. It has to be hard to compete with the guy who breaks the law while doing business. The law breakers can always under bid those who follow the law. I hope now you will get more and more jobs as more people become aware the illegal issue is not as simple as some poor hard working man that wants to feed his family.
Those who hire illegals or contractors that hire illegals are only fooling themselves that they are saving money. The money they save today will have to be paid out many times over to fund all the services illegals use.
"Gringos" need to patronize people who appreciate them. It was obvious that Mexicans don't appreciate the citizens of this country from the insulting signs they have been carrying....written in English so we wouldn't miss the message. We didn't, and we don't need to patronize or hire them either.
We went to El Paso yesterday and did a lot of shopping. We were all over El Paso as we had to go to Ft Bliss and also drop son-in-law at the airport. We usually shop on the east side, and we did that yesterday too. Traffic was lighter, and I only noticed a few closed businesses, small shops and food stands, but most of them were even open. We saw a lot of businesses were flying American flags!!
There was supposed to have been a big protest down town, but it had to be fairly small- at one point we were very near down town and saw no sign of the protest. I did a lot of shopping and the stores and the restaurant where we ate had plenty of help, service was good. I didn't notice less shoppers, still had to wait in check out lines. I saw many hispanics working and shopping- I hate to say this but what was missing was the low class people who are rude and pushy in stores and let their children run wild in public, and it seemed like the same type of people who were missing in traffic.
Son-in-law flew into Dallas yesterday and called to let us know he made it. He said things seemed normal there from what he could tell. Shuttle service picked him up and things were smooth at the Hotel he was at. We were picking on him that he was going to get a dirty room because no American would clean a motel room. That's funny to me because at one point I did clean motel rooms for a living.
All in all a great day, would love to have more days like that!!
So how do you plan to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year?
Maybe some chilled Austrailian beer or wine?
A huge DITTO THAT! :)
I heard some lady whining on the radio that you could not hire a housekeeper that was not an illegal hispanic. I thought that was funny, I had a friend in Phoenix for years that hired legal household help. My friend said she would not hire the illegals and that was 20 years ago. She said she probably paid the legal ones $50 a week more than others paid for illegal help and it was more than worth it to her. She hired her help through an agency and they had background checks and were bonded.
I have never had the money to hire help in the house, but if I did I would pay the extra to get legal help.
Yesterday was awesome:
1. 45% decrease in traffic on the freeway
2. Those using the freeway most likely had auto insurance
3. The Gaulet of illegals at Home Depot was down 90%
All in all, it was like being transported back to a time when Los Angeles was worth living in.
Here's hoping the Illegals will protest every day!
I refuse to hire a law breaker.
I look at it this way, if they are willing to break the law to come here, then what other laws might they break? I would not feel comfortable hiring a law breaker either.
I work in Auburn at PCWA, had lunch at Taco Bell in Colfax which employees a couple of immigrants...they were no where in sight, didn't make dif of biterence, except in the quality of my food!
Thank you.
I usually git my tacos at JimBoys in Auburn. Didn't go yesterday, though!!!
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