Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Portland city council approved a controversial grant today to operate a day labor hiring site. Pete Springer reports.

The $200,000 grant will go to VOZ Worker’s Rights Education Project to run an official site on Martin Luther King Blvd.

Day laborers could go there to wait for work.  Right now, most day laborers wait on the street just east of Burnside.

Ignatio Paramo is the VOZ organizer for labor.  He says the idea of the official day labor site is to prevent abuses -- such as employers who hire workers, and then refuse to pay. 

Ignatio Paramo: “We will ask address, everything, you know.  The most information that we can to, to kind of know who they are in case, some, something happens.”

However, many neighbors in the area oppose the day labor site.

They say since no one will be checking immigration status, it will encourage employers to hire illegal immigrants.

A temporary trailer and shelter at the site could be in place by early May.