SF Day Labor Program Member Detained in Arizona Is Released!

Events Calendar

The Day Labor Program has moved to Dolores Street Community Service.

• Primary Goals and Benefits
• Day Labor Program Mission and History
• About the Women's Collective
• Accomplishments
• Volunteering
• Current Project: Day Laborers Street Clean for a Healthy Community

Primary Goals and Benefits

The Day Labor Program seeks to fulfill three primary goals:

1. Increase economic/employment opportunities;
2. Facilitate collective empowerment; and
3. Raise community awareness around day laborers and domestic workers. To fulfill the first goal, we run two worker associations which connect workers looking for work and employers looking for help. The employment relationship is between each employer and worker. All wages go directly to the workers. There is a 3 hour minimum for any job.

Benefits of using the Day Labor Program and Women's Collective:

• We have been providing quality labor services to San Francisco for more than 17 years.
• We know our workers personally and match their skills to your needs.
• Workers are centrally dispatched.
• We offer organized work services that respect the dignity of the workers.
• We offer special skills training for our workers.
• We follow up on your personal experience with the Program.
• The Women's Collective is trained in green cleaning and uses cleaning products that are safe for you and your family.

To hire workers, call (415) 252-5375 or 252-5376 during our business hours: 7am-1pm, Mon-Fri, 7am-12pm, Sat. We are also open on holidays. Call with as little as an hours' notice to reserve reliable workers who are available 7 days/week, at all hours, at reasonable rates.

Mission and History

The San Francisco Day Labor Program is an organization of immigrant workers who struggle in means but who are rich is spirit. They are survivors of global capitalism, which forces them to look for jobs as day laborers and domestic workers in order to support their families and themselves. The DLP is run and directed by the workers, especially those who have decided to work collectively to better their situation. This program prioritizes the voices of struggling workers, the undocumented workers, and women workers.

The DLP is organized and dignified, and supports workers to have their basic needs met while at the same time building a larger movement. We combine services with community organizing, education, and leadership development to help workers take action to solve the problems they face.

The DLP was founded in 1991 is to promote the health and well being of immigrant workers in the informal economy regardless of their immigration status. The Program formally became a project of La Raza Centro Legal in 2000, with Centro Legal brining to it the stability and infrastructure that comes with nearly 3 decades of immigrant advocacy and service experience. In 2001, Centro Legal founded the Women's Collective of the Day Labor Program in response to the need for an independent organizing space for immigrant women working in the domestic work industry.

About the Women's Collective

The Colectiva de Mujeres (Women's Collective) seeks to achieve economic and social justice for Latina immigrant women regardless of their immigration status. We fight to promote and uphold the human rights of women to advocate on behalf of themselves, their families, and communities in the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural arenas. The Colectiva is a San Francisco Bay Area-based membership organization of Latina immigrant women. The Colectiva was formed in 2001 by a strong and dynamic group of predominantly undocumented immigrant women domestic workers. The Colectiva formed to create a space where women could help each other find jobs, receive training, identify community resources, and learn about legal developments in immigration and labor rights.

The Women's Collective is run by and for immigrant women workers, and specializes in connecting homeowners, renters, and businesses with high-quality, affordable cleaning services, eldercare, childcare, cooking, and catering. Collective members have decades of experience in domestic work. Each woman is committed to providing high quality work in a respectful and dignified environment.

The Collective meets weekly to provide support, make organizational decisions, and share work strategies. Collective members also receive free worker safety trainings and English classes. The community-centered nature of the Collective ensures that workers have high standards for job performance and are accountable to each other and to employers.

The Collective can fill both temporary and long-term positions and specializes in cleaning, catering, event services, childcare, and in-home care. Rates are $15-20/hour, with a 3hr/$60 minimum. Call (415) 252-5375 or 5376 during our business hours: 7am-1pm, Mon-Fri or 7am-12noon, Sat, to reserve one or more workers for any day or time. For further information, references, or questions about specific rates, contact Jill Shenker at (415) 553-3406. You can call for same day service, though 3 days notice is ideal. For catering, please call (415)553-3406 at least one-week before your event or meeting.

Comments from employers about the Women's Collective:

"They were very prompt, fast and professional. They went to the task at hand without even reacting to the magnitude of the job. We used the workers once and were hooked. Our agency will definitely use the Collective's services again."

Gina Amato, Eviction Defense Center, Oakland

"I liked that I was able to call a non-profit and get two women who I liked very much. I have recommended the Collective to my friends, and I will be calling again."

Ann Maley, Attorney and Mission resident

"The service was first-rate - I couldn't find any fault at all. The cleaning was terrific."

Shell, Sunset resident

Day Labor Program accomplishments in the past year:

• The Day Labor Program provided day laborers and domestic workers with 1254 dignified living wage jobs this past year that pay $15/hour, with a 3 hour/$50 minimum for men and 3/$60 minimum for women.
• The Day Labor Program conducts weekly membership meetings on Friday mornings and they are typically attended by 35-40 workers. A team of 6 coordinators elected from the membership meets separately every Wednesday.
• In the past year the Day Labor Program has offered 12 1-day mini-courses in sheet rocking and construction measurements and a total of 115 students have participated.
• Coordinators and program staff from the Day Labor Program conduct weekly street outreach in key areas where day laborers congregate, educating workers about their basic employment, informing them of available services (job referral, legal clinic, medical clinic, ESL classes, vocational courses, shelter referrals, etc), and take the pulse of the day labor communities about issues they are confronting in their life on the street.
• The Day Labor Program provided approximately 400 workers with medical care through our weekly on-site medical clinic. A social worker from Tom Waddell Clinic also provides social services to day laborers on a weekly basis.
• Political education classes continue on a weekly basis at the Day Labor Program.
• We continued to provide twice-weekly English-as-a-Second Language classes at the Day Labor Program.
• The Day Labor Program is strategically providing technical assistance and support for day labor centers throughout the Bay Area in California. We strengthened leadership, political, and technical capacity of centers and projects in Berkeley, Concord, and Graton.
• National Day Labor Organizing Network (NDLON): A historic agreement between NDLON and the AFL-CIO, which we helped to broker, led the AFL-CIO to oppose the Sensenbrenner bill and other anti-immigrant legislative provisions coming out of Congress.
• NDLON: We helped to organize in a regional conference in July 2007 and the national conference in Washington, DC in August 2007. We sent a delegation of 3 domestic workers and 3 day laborers to this national conference, where we led and facilitated several workshops. We will continue to coordinate regional conferences over the next few years.

Volunteering

Day Labor Program and Women's Collective: Assist with job intake, dispatch, and service referral at the DLP site office; assist our job developer get the word out about our worker associations; provide childcare so that members of the Women's Collective can meet; teach ESL or computer classes, event planning, etc. Bilingual English/Spanish preferred. Contact Joel Aguiar at joel@lrcl.org.

Current Project: Day Laborers Street Clean for a Healthy Community!