By Linda Taaffe

Local day laborers are prepared to set up a temporary work center at a Mountain View church pending city approval, said John Rinaldi, a Mountain View resident and volunteer attorney who is negotiating the deal for the day workers.

Rinaldi said last week he could not reveal the name of the church until negotiations were complete. The workers need the city’s approval before moving forward with the plan so the center may qualify for grant money from various agencies to upgrade the power and water lines at the site.

Rinaldi said the church site is too small to provide the space needed for a permanent work center but would enable laborers to get off the street to meet potential employers until the city of Mountain View can secure a permanent center. He said securing a new center site could take as long as a year.

“I expect that the workers will be overwhelmed there, just like at the (former) site on Jordan Avenue … but we need to get them off the street. There’s too much pressure,” Rinaldi said.

A group of workers filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Altos last February to defend laborers’ rights to solicit work from the street after St. Joseph the Worker Center in Los Altos shut down due to overcrowding. The Workers Commission suit claims that the city’s no vehicle solicitation ordinance violates workers’ free speech rights by prohibiting motorists from soliciting workers from their vehicles, especially since the center’s closure allegedly eradicated their only forum. St. Joseph the Worker Center in Los Altos had trained, counseled and matched day workers with potential employers.

Legal counsel from Morrison & Foerster representing the day workers met with the city of Los Altos last Friday.

The workers dropped a pending lawsuit against the city of Mountain View after the council agreed to stop enforcing a similar anti-solicitation ordinance and to help the workers find a permanent site for a new center.