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this morning at home depot

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allen levine

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12,673
Location
new york city burbs
Ive been living in the same house since 89
Ive been going to home depot since long before I was a woodworker(I consider myself a woodworker)

I have never seen crowds of day laborers as I did today......at first I thought store was closed and everyone was outside, but then I saw it was just dozens, maybe 100, 150 day laborers just hanging out in parking lot waiting for work.

I know this is the busiest time of year for local contractors, weather is good, and I see construction crews and contractors on every street near me....but the amount of laborers today was mind boggling. I usually see 10 to 20 on a weekday morning.....wow, everyone is looking for work there. not sure why they dont apply for job at home depot, seems they would have work daily and not have to kil themselves waiting each day to get work. anyway, its kinda sad. men that want to work but cant get a job.
 
The city of Glendale CA built a shelter and restrooms for all the day laborers who hang out in the Home Depot parking lot. Dozens of people out there daily...and that was over ten years ago. I'm sure the numbers are higher now.
Frank Fusco said:
If they are not citizens I believe hiring them could be a legal mess, taxes, liability, etc.
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That's why some people consider them to be a desirable source of labor. No taxes, no insurance, and very little chance of legal action if they happen to get hurt on the job. And to expand on what Jon said, many non-citizen day laborers like the arrangement because it provides a source of income and allows them to fly under the radar. It's not that they can't get a job. They have a job...it's standing in front of Home Depot and frequently getting hired as a temp laborer.
 
At my last job, on any given day we may have had from 100 to 150 workers, most were Latino... they all presented papers, were run through the governments programs that supposedly checks status... most were more or less permanent workers for us.... me not speaking Spanish, sometimes was difficulty to work with them, but I think they understood enough English to understand what I might need. ( I didn't interact with them all that much, but did on some occasions).
Our plant manager was Argentine, so if I had specific needs I could go through him. We did export packing for some major construction, oil and mining companies around the world and I handled the export shipping.... they never missed a deadline
A customer once was on a tour with the boss, watched a crew moving around the yard, in the middle of the summer and on 11 inches of concrete... he commented that they didn't move very fast... the boss agreed with him, they don't move all that fast, but they will move 18 hours a day if he asks them to.

They were all paid by check every two weeks, taxes and social security and insurance deducted every check.They were paid well and some with the overtime and bonuses made over $60K per year.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
The city of Glendale CA built a shelter and restrooms for all the day laborers who hang out in the Home Depot parking lot. Dozens of people out there daily...and that was over ten years ago. I'm sure the numbers are higher now.

That's why some people consider them to be a desirable source of labor. No taxes, no insurance, and very little chance of legal action if they happen to get hurt on the job. And to expand on what Jon said, many non-citizen day laborers like the arrangement because it provides a source of income and allows them to fly under the radar. It's not that they can't get a job. They have a job...it's standing in front of Home Depot and frequently getting hired as a temp laborer.
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Interesting. But still sounds risky to me. OTOH, I have use casual labor in the past on my farm and paid in cash. My insurance agent tells me if someone is being paid to work on your property they have no status to sue if they get hurt.
 
Frank Fusco said:
My insurance agent tells me if someone is being paid to work on your property they have no status to sue if they get hurt.
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I think you should be getting legal advice from a lawyer and not your insurance agent. "Premise Liability" is a little more complex than how you have stated it. A lot depends on how much direction you give (managing the work) among other things. It is not so simple.
 
in some ways, I feel bad for these guys. they arent looking for handouts, they want to work.
years ago, precovid, I wanted my crawl space cleaned up, not cleaned out. There was alot of broken rock and dirt down there, and I wanted it all swept out and vacuumed.
I went to home depot, I asked my neighbor at the time who is a contractor, what does a day laborer make per day, he told me back then they got 125 per day.
so I finally found a few guys who spoke english well enough for me to explain what I needed and only one agreed, but he said, 150, I told him its no more than 4 hours work, he didnt care, so I turned around and as I was pulling out of the spot, he came running over and said ok.
he was done in 3 hours, did a great job, so I gave him 140 told him to get lunch on me also.
thats my only ivolvement with any day laborers.
 
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