Another winter is here and there is no place for day laborers in Southampton to wait for a day job, other than out on the corner by 7-11.
To address this issue, one year ago OLA joined forces with other local organizations and individuals to form the Coalition for a Worklink Center, whose goal is to open a formal hiring site, or “hiring hall,” in Southampton. With the growing number of day laborers gathering near the 7-11 on the corner of CR39 and North Sea Road in Southampton, the need is greater now than ever before to establish a formal hiring site in which workers and employees can conduct their business.
For the past year the Coalition has been working on locating a suitable site and educating the community about day laborers, and it has already acquired funding from non-profit organizations. Other groups that make up the Coalition include the North and South Fork Hispanic Apostolates, the Southampton and East Hampton Anti-Bias Task Forces, and the League of Women Voters, among others, as well as clergy of various houses of worship, concerned business people and members of the community.
Both Mayor Mark Epley of Southampton Village and New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele have publicly voiced their support, have attended Coalition meetings, and are working with the Coalition to locate a suitable site.
Coalition members are often on hand to support the day laborers and to monitor the verbal aggression of a small band of picketers who arrive regularly from out of town to express their opposition to the proposed hiring hall and to undocumented immigrant workers. They hear constantly of the abuses some of the day laborers endure while waiting for employment, such as name calling, physical harassment and being spat on by the protestors. In addition, many of these men report that after they have worked for days or even weeks, they are denied payment by their employers.
A Worklink Center would eliminate these types of abuses. And contrary to myth, it would not be a center just for Latin American immigrants but for anybody looking for work on a temporary basis, such as a college or high-school student looking to make a little extra money or a person who has a regular weekday job, but wants to supplement his/her income on the weekends.
Studies have shown that communities that take a proactive approach to the day labor issue by establishing hiring halls have enhanced relations among police, residents, business owners, employers and day laborers and a positive overall sense of community spirit and civic involvement, as opposed to the wariness, fear and abuses that are present when a hiring hall is not supported. Which kind of community do we want to live in?
Please visit www.worklinkcoalition.com for more information, including a “myths/facts” sheet to help inform and educate the community about day laborers and immigrants in general.
And please sign the online petition in support of a Worklink Center, which will be forwarded to our Town and Village officials.
Pamela Greinke
Member: Organizacion Latino - Americana of Eastern Long Island (OLA),
Coalition for a Worklink Center
Week of January 18, 2007
UPDATED Jan 20
For a complete and updated East End Report click here ,
then click on your browser's RELOAD button!
AOLers: go to www(.)eastendrep(.)blogspot(.)com - replace "(.)" with "."
In this week's report: [ click on any of the bold headers below ]
Just Say No!
Darkness cannot drive out darkness
Jan 27 - March on DC updated 01-17-07
Peace & Justice Calendar UPDATED Jan 20
Suffolk Peace Vigils UPDATED Jan 20
Counter Recruiting Schedule UPDATED 1-10-07
Alternative Media for Eastern LI
Democracy Now!
Non-corporate news hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez:
on Riverhead/Southampton/Southold Channel 20:
Monday 10 pm - Tuesday 9 pm - Wednesday 9 pm - Thursday 9 pm - Friday - 6:30 am- Saturday - 6:30 am
Also on WUSB 90.1 FM 5pm Mon-Friday and East Hampton LTV Ch 20
See WPKN Today for program details on WPKM heard at 88.7 Montauk to Water Mill and WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport to Southampton and Southold.
WPKN/M Local News at 6:30 pm (Mon-Fri) has occasional reports from the East End.
For more Information on Peace Activism on LI see Suffolk Progressive Vision at www(.)spv(.)active(.)ws
For a complete and updated East End Report click here ,
then click on your browser's RELOAD button!
AOLers: go to www(.)eastendrep(.)blogspot(.)com - replace "(.)" with "."
In this week's report: [ click on any of the bold headers below ]
Just Say No!
Darkness cannot drive out darkness
Jan 27 - March on DC updated 01-17-07
Peace & Justice Calendar UPDATED Jan 20
Suffolk Peace Vigils UPDATED Jan 20
Counter Recruiting Schedule UPDATED 1-10-07
Alternative Media for Eastern LI
Democracy Now!
Non-corporate news hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez:
on Riverhead/Southampton/Southold Channel 20:
Monday 10 pm - Tuesday 9 pm - Wednesday 9 pm - Thursday 9 pm - Friday - 6:30 am- Saturday - 6:30 am
Also on WUSB 90.1 FM 5pm Mon-Friday and East Hampton LTV Ch 20
See WPKN Today for program details on WPKM heard at 88.7 Montauk to Water Mill and WPKN 89.5 Bridgeport to Southampton and Southold.
WPKN/M Local News at 6:30 pm (Mon-Fri) has occasional reports from the East End.
For more Information on Peace Activism on LI see Suffolk Progressive Vision at www(.)spv(.)active(.)ws
Darkness cannot drive out darkness
Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction.
The chain reaction of evil --
hate begetting hate,wars producing more wars --
must be broken, or we shall be plunged
into the darkness of annihilation.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968
January 27 in DC: Get on the Bus
UPDATED Thursday January 25:United for Peace and Justice will again lead a March to end the war in Iraq on January 27.
Buses will be traveling to DC for this event from Southampton, Riverhead , Stony Brook, Exit 63 of the LIE and Huntington (Exit 49) early on the 27th.
To check on remaining seats call the contact people listed below.
____________________________________
Southampton
A bus will leave from 33 Flying Point Road, Southampton.
Bus boarding at 4:30 am.
We will pick up others in Riverhead and then proceed to D.C.
Contact Betty Mazur at seabetty@optonline.net
Southampton
A bus will leave from 33 Flying Point Road, Southampton.
Bus boarding at 4:30 am.
We will pick up others in Riverhead and then proceed to D.C.
Contact Betty Mazur at seabetty@optonline.net
____________________________________
UPDATE on Riverhead Bus
Please call Gwynn 298 4912 or Tom 516 369 0360
for information about remaining tickets
BUS TO WASHINGTON DC
Leaving Riverhead at 5 am from Municipal Parking Lot
behind Green Earth Grocery
Tickets $40 (adults); $20 (students); subsidies available
__________________________________________
Exit 63 LIE, Stony Brook, Huntington Bus
Call 631- 875-8647 for information about availability of seats on this bus.
We have added a Huntington stop and a Stony Brook stop due to a big response from the students there. It will be picking up at the Stony Brook train station around 5:15 a.m. The bus will then pick up at exit 63 around 6 a.m., then exit 49 around 6:30 a.m.
Just Say No!
Anti-war activists took to the streets of Long Island last weekend at several locations. On Friday evening on busy Montauk Highway in WaterMill they held signs as homeward bound workers and weekenders passed by. They spoke about sending a message to our Congressman. Some in Congress have been on record as opposing the war but say they can't say no to another request for funding as long as 'our troops' are still in Iraq.
Here are some of their comments recorded to send an audio-gram to Congressman Tim Bishop:
"We need to stop sacrificing lives of young men and women for a goal that is simply unachievable."
"I'm here because I think enough is enough. I'm sick of this war. It sickens me to think of the number of our own troops dying. Something like 54 thousand Iraqi children have died in this war."
"No more troops into Iraq and let's use some of that money we are wasting in Iraq - and sending to the likes of Halliburton - to take care of the problems we have here at home... and we sure have plenty of them."
Similar demonstrations were held all over Long Island including Shirley, Hauppage and Stony Brook. In Suffolk County, all told more than 100 people joined in. Passersby were almost entirely in agreement.
Here are some of their comments recorded to send an audio-gram to Congressman Tim Bishop:
"We need to stop sacrificing lives of young men and women for a goal that is simply unachievable."
"I'm here because I think enough is enough. I'm sick of this war. It sickens me to think of the number of our own troops dying. Something like 54 thousand Iraqi children have died in this war."
"No more troops into Iraq and let's use some of that money we are wasting in Iraq - and sending to the likes of Halliburton - to take care of the problems we have here at home... and we sure have plenty of them."
Similar demonstrations were held all over Long Island including Shirley, Hauppage and Stony Brook. In Suffolk County, all told more than 100 people joined in. Passersby were almost entirely in agreement.
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