A partnership to improve working conditions for day laborers

Jornaleros Unidos con el Pueblo (Unidos) is a partnership between the San Francisco Department of Health’s Program on Health Equity and Sustainability, immigrant day laborers, and community service organizations. Our goal is to improve working conditions for the immigrant day laborer community. The partnership has identified avoidable workplace hazards for both male day laborers and female domestic workers in the construction, house cleaning, and landscape industries. We recognize that preventing hazards means acknowledging and addressing the laborers’ economic and social needs as well as their invisibility to government regulators. Unidos actions to address workplace hazards include leadership development for laborers, health and safety trainings, provision of personal safety equipment, and a vocational training curriculum that integrates job skills and safety knowledge. The partnership is conducting a feasibility study for a community based surveillance system to track injuries and their causes. Finally, the partnership has convened a Community Council of laborers, employers, service providers, and governmental institutions to prioritize and implement health promoting action on a sustainable basis.

Vocational Skills for Safety on the Job

Studies reveal that Latino workers suffer work-related injuries at higher rates than the general population. Dangerous work, unfamiliarity with environmental hazards and equipment, language barriers, employer neglect of training, and regulatory inaction are all contributing factors. Economic pressures faced by day laborers also may influence them to minimize or disregard risks of injuries and illnesses. An assessment conducted with day laborers in 2002 suggested that integrating vocational skills and safety training might be an effective strategy to improve awareness and safety. In 2003, San Francisco Department of Public Health organized a team of day laborers and domestic workers from the San Francisco Day Labor Program to plan and implement four pilot construction skills development classes. The classes were implemented in the winter of 2005. Evaluation of these trainings indicated that there was an increased awareness of the health and safety issues involved in these construction tasks.

Cultivating Day Laborer Leaders: the Worker's United Course

In 2004, Unidos launched the Workers United Course for day laborers and domestic workers to increase participants’ knowledge of their rights, build connections and unity between workers, as well as provide opportunities for participants to learn new skills. The ten-week long course included theory and practical skills training in worker’s rights, health and safety, and the political, social, and economic factors impacting Latino immigrant workers in the Bay Area. After graduation from the course, some participants created a worker-led legal clinic for laborers. Other graduated have been participating as representatives on the community council. More information about this project can be read in the Worker’s Course Evaluation report.

Cleaning with Safety and Dignity

The Unidos partners along with the UC Berkeley Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) initiated a safe cleaning program for domestic workers in the Women’s Collective. One of the main goals of the safe cleaning project was to respond to the domestic workers’ concerns that their jobs caused disproportionate exposure to toxic cleaning products and ergonomic hazards. Eleven domestic workers were recruited and trained as Promotoras (health promoters) to develop and implement a safe cleaning training program for domestic workers. The program provided opportunities to the women in the Collective to discuss health and safety issues on their job, to brainstorm control measures, and to talk about the political, historical, and legal context of being a domestic worker in the United States. Trained safe cleaning promotoras conducted a series of education trainings for Latina domestic workers at large. A total of five educational sessions were held reaching over 50 domestic workers in San Francisco. An initial assessment of student participants revealed positive experiences with the material presented and offered opportunities for curriculum replication. Additionally, the ten trained promotoras completed an initial peer assessment of their skills as instructors. A summary of initial results revealed that while the trainers feel comfortable with the public-speaking skills, they recognize the need to further develop their knowledge and understanding of safe-cleaning strategies. Information on initial results from peer evaluation may be reviewed at Safe Cleaning Peer Evaluation Results.

Economic Hazard Feasibility Study

Unidos aims to improve working conditions by understanding the sparsely documented occupational injuries and health hazards that day laborers experience. The economic-hazard feasibility study will assess strategies for gathering injury and occupational data that will accurately capture the day laborer population as well as its effectiveness in informing policy decision-making and program development. This surveillance study also aims to better understand how the day laborer’s hazardous working conditions are influenced by social and structural contexts such as laborer’s economic needs, employer’s interests and types of laborers.

Unidos Community Council

In February 2005, the San Francisco Department of Public Health convened a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural Community Council composed of day laborer stakeholders (e.g. laborers, employers, government, and community agencies). The Unidos Community Council’s members decided that the meeting held on April 26th 2007, was the last Council meeting since the UNIDOS Project and the Community Council will end in September 2007.

Access to Medical Services

Despite the existence of free services, many day laborers do not utilize the Department of Public Health’s clinics and programs. Between September 2005 and April 2007, staff from the UNIDOS project of the San Francisco Department of Public Health in collaboration with San Francisco day laborers conducted one survey and three focus groups to identify some common health problems and barriers to accessing care, and to identify potential ways to increase and improve day laborers’ utilization of existing services. Click here for the report of findings from the Day Laborers’ Access to Medical Services Survey and Focus Groups.

For more information about day laborers and working immigrant health

  • Working Immigrant Safety and Health Coalition (WISH) Member Spotlight
  • Social Context of Work Injury among Undocumented Day Laborers in San Francisco
  • Report of the Government Accounting Office WORKER PROTECTION: Labor’s Efforts to Enforce Protections for Day Laborers Could Benefit from Better Data and Guidance September 2002 (pdf)