Bad weather, operational changes cause employment dip at Mtn. View Worker Center at Calvary Church

By Linda Taaffe, Town Crier Staff Writer

Local day workers hit the streets of Los Altos last week - but this time, it wasn’t temporary employment they were seeking.

About a dozen workers canvassed neighborhoods surrounding Rancho Shopping Center Thursday passing out fliers promoting the Mountain View Worker Center at Calvary Church. The center provides an alternative to waiting on the streets for jobs and a place where employers can handpick laborers with qualifications specific to their work. Laborers at the center come from as far as Vietnam, Haiti and South America.

The Los Altos walk was part of a series of planned marketing strategies intended to bolster the number of workers hired this summer.

Workers plan to canvass a different Peninsula neighborhood every week for the next several months. They passed out fliers in Palo Alto the previous week and plan to visit Mountain View and Cupertino next week, said director Maria Marroquin, who organized the walks.

“Every single flier means a potential client,” said Marroquin after distributing 1,000 fliers.

Bad weather and operational changes caused a dip in employers, Marroquin said.

As few as 20 of the 100 or so workers who regularly show up for work at the center found employment on some days, she said.

Since the Palo Alto walk, the center has placed as many as 57 a day, she said. Better weather has helped, she added.

The campaign comes at a time when day worker centers across the country appear to be on shaky ground.

Arizona lawmakers recently prohibited governments from funding centers. Marroquin said she fears that something similar could happen in California.

The Calvary center currently operates on donations.

Mountain View and Los Altos both pledged to help workers find a permanent center last year, though that has not happened.

Los Altos residents account for the largest percentage of employers at the center, Marroquin said.

“That shows me that they need us here,” Marroquin said.