Posted on 04/29/2006 10:08:17 AM PDT by LouAvul
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - Chris James needed help moving a piano and three dozen boxes of records from his music studio - so instead of corralling some buddies, he rented a truck and hired some labor from outside the local Home Depot.
Within minutes, two Guatemalan men promised $12.50 an hour were in his truck.
If James, 31, worked solo "it would take all day."
The two men finished the job in an hour and a half while James looked on. For hauling a piano and wedging a sofa into his condo, then stacking the boxes in a back room, James owed the men less than $40.
It's the kind of scene replayed daily across the nation.
It was first time James hired day laborers, but it won't be his last.
"Absolutely satisfied," said James. "Relaxing."
The No. 1 employers of day laborers are private homeowners - not construction contractors, not professional landscapers.
"Day labor is not a niche market," said Abel Valenzuela, a UCLA professor and one of three authors of the first national day labor study, which was released in January. "It's now entering different aspects of the national mainstream economy."
Forty-nine percent of day labor employers are homeowners, according to 2,660 laborers interviewed for the study. Contractors were second, at 43 percent. The study also found that three quarters of day laborers were illegal immigrants and most were from Latin America.
There are myriad reasons homeowners hire the men who call themselves "jornaleros." They are a flexible labor pool with no red tape and no overhead. And they'll do backbreaking jobs much cheaper than traditional contractors.
Day laborers like homeowners, too.
Shady contractors routinely stiff them. Not homeowners -the workers know where they live.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.excite.com ...
I would much rather take the risk of hiring kids, than hiring illegals. BTW are you aware that many illegals are also under 18? Would you trust them to be honest about their age?
Where I live illegals file many more lawsuits than parents of kids, in fact I know of no one who has been sued over kids working. I am sure it has happened, but I bet it is rare.
Many people are sue happy, but anyone is likely to sue you, regardless of age or citizenship.
We had a barbeque and I gave them each a hamburger too!
Illegals are stuffing laws of all sorts up all American's a$$e$, and I for one am fed up.
I can see that we are living in very different sections of the country so we perceive things differently, just don't even believe for one minute that hiring an illegal or a contractor that hires them will keep you safe from litigation. You can still be sued, whether you choose to believe it or not. Lawyers have learned that the illegals are a whole new set of torts and they are eager to add to their list of "unfortunate" clients. Many are having success in US Courts every day. Ask an attorney what liability you have if a contractor doing home repairs is not insured, or does not pay for materials or his help. Contractors that hire illegals have already proved they have no problem breaking the laws.
"I've been told that to change out a water heater (legally) - a building permit is needed in Cal."
It requires a permit almost anywhere but I don't know of anyone that has ever taken a permit to change one.
I change at least a dozen a year and the only time I ever got a permit is when I had to run all new gas lines, hot and cold water because they had gone out underground and then I only took a permit on the gas line.
Good deal. I have been working with the men at Victory Outreach to do some fence work. Also had them do some landscaping and putting in railroad ties for a stairs on a slope.
They arrive late morning since they spend a few hours in prayer in the morning but that's ok with me. They don't always show up two days in a row since there are so many people that call on the church for their assistance but that's ok as well. I get a good price, they make a few 'labor' mistakes like your teenagers but probably not as many ;-) And the cause is good too.
Don't need to hire illegals to do work. Plenty of people that need the work.
Uh that girl on TV (snap) Elizabeth (snap snap ) Smart. Yeah. Yeah, her dad hired somebody off the sidewalk to roof the house. He cased the house.
Ed Smart is a perfect example of this mentality. I pray his daughter can live her life, but rape victims have a high morbidity and mortality rate. There's a reason rape is called a fate worse than death.
We should find out how many illegals are employed by our members of CONGRESS -- starting with the PELOSI family.
I know a rancher had an illegal killed while working for him. None of his insurance would pay, he was told he should have had workers comp, and when he was taken to court he had to pay the illegal's family the same amount of money they would have received if he had been covered by WC. The rancher also had to pay fines for not having WC to begin with.
Too many rules now...it's not fun anymore!
You don't have to be a contractor to take out a permit and like I said an owner can do any construction except install an electric meter panel and hook up to a city sewer, those 2 items require a license
When I lived in the city(small town,about 10,000)I had the yard dug up running new sewer pipe and was doing a roofing job myself.I left to go to the hardware store,while I was gone a city inspector stopped by and asked my wife who was doing my roof.She said"my husband".He said he needs to come by City Hall and buy a permit and list every thing and how much it costs.She asked him"Why would he do that?...he's doing the work himself to save money...I don't think he's gonna spend money for a piece of paper that only takes money away from this project and puts it your pocket".
I never did and he never came by again.I live outside of town now and I do just like I did then.I ain't buying no permit to work on my own property and that's final.I'm not a trash hound and ever job I do looks good.Why should I go buy a permit?Because City or County government took it on themselves to make it a law...so they could put their hand in my pocket and take my money?I ain't going for it!
Yeah she's another one. But there was also a woman up in Rockland County, New York, who was killed by the illegal alien she brought in to wash her deck.
There's far too much of that stuff for anyone to bring some criminal into their home. It's especially stupid to bring in a criminal one finds hanging out in a parking lot or in one of the day labor pick up places left wing politicians set up in towns around the country to make it easier for criminal employers to find criminal employees.
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