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Latin Council cuts ties with Hispanic day laborers

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The system that has organized, managed and assisted day laborers in the area for more than three years will end this month after the area's largest Hispanic advocacy group decided to cut ties with the temporary workers.

The board of the Hilton Head Island-based Latin American Council ofSouth Carolina voted last week to stop providing a meeting place and oversight for the dozens of day laborers who have gathered daily since 2004 in the council's parking lot at Fairfield Square on William Hilton Parkway near Spanish Wells Road.

The council had been discussing eliminating its day laborer program for months because keeping tabs on the workers and their employers was taking away from its other goals. The group was formed to offer economic, cultural, educational and employment assistance so new immigrants could get accustomed to the area.

"There are people who are not receiving our help because we are too tied up here," council executive director Luis Bell said.

The council also wants to separate itself from being seen as a haven for illegal immigrants or temporary workers, said board president Juan Campos. The group has lost out on funding opportunities because of that association, he said.

"The image that we have here is that the Latin American Council is just harboring all of these people there," he said.

Meanwhile, the fate of the day laborers is still uncertain.

Before the council agreed to oversee the workers who gather every morning looking for temporary construction or handyman jobs, the laborers met in a spot across from Hilton Head Resort that some locals called the "field of dreams." The lot was chaotic, workers said, and the laborers who were hired were often the ones who jumped into the back of a truck first.

It was also unsafe, as trucks were stopping in the middle of the highway so workers could jump in the back. That led the town to shut it down in 2004. The town then worked with the newly formed council to find a meeting spot.

At the council, workers put their name on a list once they arrive in the morning and wait their turn. Staff keeps track of employers and pay. English classes sometimes areheld while workers wait.

The council's office in Fairfield Square is moving at the end of the month to a yet to be determined location. The office will move before a planned redevelopment of the shopping center.

The day laborers will continue to use the parking lot as a meeting place for a few months until nearby town road construction projects start to edge into the lot, forcing them out, council officials said. After that, it's unclear where they will go, said Campos, who is also the owner of Fairfield Square.

"We have looked for another location to rent, but it's kind of expensive," he said.

Bell said the council has been holding the hands of the workers for three years, and it's time for them to operate on their own. The workers already have set up a committee to help oversee operations after the council leaves, and Bell said he hopes they'll continue the orderly process the council established.

"It's time for them to assume some of the responsibility of this place," Bell said.

The ultimate goal, council officials said, is for the workers to set up their own fully functioning, self-sustaining day laborer center. The council recently met with the executive director from Casa de Maryland, a Takoma Park, Md.-based Hispanic services organization that offers classes, vocational training and language lessons in addition to organizing temporary employment. But the laborers need to break away from the council before they can set up their own center, Campos said.

One thing is certain: The town will not allow groups to start congregating in open lots again, Mayor Tom Peeples said.

Peeples said the town has had gathering spots for laborers for as long as he can remember, but the groups used to be smaller and were mostly black workers who came from off-island. The number of waiting workers boomed as the area's Hispanic population grew.

The town may step up its enforcement efforts if the problem re-emerges, he said.

"I don't know where it's going to pop up," he said. "It may be a challenge for us."

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