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| Unsteady
Labor Ready |
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| Temp
Workers want a fair deal; unions want to help
them get it |
| by
Manny Frishberg |
It's been many years since I had to do temp
work - a long time since I had to get up before
dawn, line up with a bunch of other guys,
and watch my breath condense under the glow
of the streetlamps while waiting for a chance
to spend several hours at hard labor for little
more than minimum wage.
A long time has passed since those days, but
the impressions are still strong in my mind:
the feeling in the pit of my stomach from
not being sure that there would be enough
work to go around that day; the realization
that not getting on meant not enough cash
for food that week, or not being able to pay
the light bill before the electricity was
turned off.
So it wasn't just because I am a reporter
and there was a story to cover that I got
up at 4 in the morning a couple of weeks ago
to meet up with members of the AFL-CIO's local
organizing arm, Seattle Union Now, and ask
Labor Ready's temporary employees how they
like their work.
We got to the White Center Labor Ready office
just after 5 a.m., before any of the roughly
two dozen workers who came in for a job before
7 a.m. turned up. In less than a half-hour
the place was, if not bustling, at least reasonably
active. Workers coming into the store didn't
fit any single stereotype. Judging by appearances,
they ranged in age from their early 20s to
well past 50 or older. Some came by bus, others
were dropped off by friends or came in their
own cars and trucks. The men (almost all were
men, at least in this location) were of every
race.
Their stories were as varied as their appearances.
One man who talked to me said he was working
at Labor Ready as a second job. He'd come
in at 5 a.m. for dispatch to construction
laborer jobs after spending the night shift
working on the phone lines for a local airline.
"I have two kids that I have to feed," he
explained, "and they eat every day." He had
no problem with the wages they were paying
him because he was on a "PW job," meaning
that he was working under a government contract
that guaranteed him the prevailing wage for
the industry in this area. He said he was
getting $12.67 an hour.
Most of the other guys who answered the survey
either did not know what they would be paid,
or were getting around $6.50 or $7.00 an hour.
For those that knew, the pay rate was not
too much of an issue, although they indicated
that they would not turn down an additional
dollar or two an hour in their paycheck.
The paycheck itself was another matter. Some
people complained that instead of being given
cash as promised, they were issued vouchers
that had to be redeemed through the Labor
Ready ATM, at a cost of $1.50 per transaction
plus whatever change is left over. The machines
only dispense whole dollar amounts. If you
don't have a bank account, the cash machines
are the only practical way of getting money.
Labor Ready spokespeople defend the system
as "a convenience for their employees." This
summer, the practice was upheld in a Georgia
state court.
The same survey was being conducted at other
Labor Ready locations around the city. Gretchen
Donart, who coordinated the surveying for
Seattle Union Now, says each different locations
has its own unique character. At one site,
most of the laborers were regulars. At another,
most were new in town, living out of their
vehicles. Often, they indicated that this
was their first day at the day-labor agency,
and they did not know what to expect.
Regardless of their individual circumstances,
they could expect more or less the same. For
starters, their wages for the day would be
roughly half what the contracting company
paid Labor Ready. The starting wage for new
workers was $6.50 an hour, with raises of
50 cents to $1 for consistent work. Men who
knew said Labor Ready usually got $13.75 an
hour for their work.
Labor Ready has had its ups and downs in the
ultra-fast roller-coaster economy of the last
decade. Begun in Tacoma in 1989 by former
Dick's Restaurant owner Glenn A. Welstad,
today the company has an estimated 840 dispatch
offices in North America and Great Britain,
including all 50 states, Canada and Puerto
Rico. In 1998, Labor Ready hired (and at the
end of each day, let go of) some 533,000 workers
in fields such as construction, landscaping,
and light manufacturing, who were dispatched
by Labor Ready to about 255,000 customers.
Between 1997 and 1998, Labor Ready's revenues
nearly doubled, from $335 million to $607
million. Stock prices went through the roof,
rising an explosive 1400 percent from 1995
to 1999, before dropping by 400 percent in
the last year as same-store sales also took
a sharp dip, as a result of cuts in the company's
own office staff. Welstad, who still owns
an 11 percent stake in the company, resigned
as chairman earlier this year after taking
an unauthorized loan of $3.5 million from
the company to cover his own stock losses.
Donart says the surveying will continue, both
in Seattle and in Tacoma, along with a petition
drive to get workers to sign on to demands
for safer working conditions and better wages.
The effort will culminate in Tacoma on October
25, where organizers hope to bring hundreds
of Labor Ready's workers to deliver the petitions
to the annual stockholders' meeting. The AFL-CIO,
which owns over 500 shares of company stock,
has the right to be heard there.
Organizing workers in a business where the
employees are hired anew each day and where
the vast majority see themselves as moving
on in a couple of months is obviously a daunting
task. But members of the building trade unions,
concerned about the increasing use of day
laborers to replace their members, are hoping
that by standing up for these workers now,
eventually, they will all stand together.
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