DAY LABORERS HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO HIGHLIGHT ECONOMIC
CONTRIBUTIONS, TO DENOUNCE IMMIGRANT BASHING, AND TO CALL FOR
IMMIGRATION REFORM

For: Friday, September 30, 2005
Contact: Carlos Preza, English, (213) 248-2050
Antonio Bernabe, Spanish, (818) 841-0307

(Burbank, CA) Day Laborers, their allies, and community
leaders from throughout Los Angeles will hold a press
conference and rally outside of the KFI radio studio to urge
Californians to value the contributions of day laborers, to
respect their rights, and to urge fair immigration reform.

The last several months have witnessed a sharp rise in media
attention to day workers and the day labor practice.
Unfortunately, few have focused on the contributions of day
workers and on the economic forces underlying the day labor
practice. Instead, a vocal minority has used this recent
attention to initiate a new wave of immigrant bashing using
day laborers as targets.

“We are here, and we’re not going anywhere,” said Marcos
Rodriguez, a Los Angeles-based day laborer. “We will
continue to keep houses painted, yards trimmed, and babies
fed. We will build communities and we will even rebuild
those houses destroyed by the recent hurricanes. We demand an
immigration reform policy that treats us like any other
workers, respecting our workplace and constitutional rights
like everyone else.”

The rally will also emphasize that the day laborer story is
not merely about immigration. It is about people, about
husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, sons and
daughters. Above all though, it is an issue is about
economic justice and human rights. Those who are frustrated
with our broken immigration policy will be encouraged to
engage in any number of productive dialogues occurring across
the city and around the country where voices are joining to
support immigration reform that includes a meaningful path to
citizenship.

“We all agree immigration reform is needed,” said Pablo
Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “We
think this should be accomplished through dialogue,
education, and mutual understanding.”

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network’s mission is to
strengthen and expand the work of local day laborer
organizing groups, in order to become more effective and
strategic in building leadership, advancing low-wage worker
and immigrant rights, and developing successful models for
organizing immigrant contingent/temporary workers. NDLON
fosters healthy, safer and more humane environments for day
laborers to obtain employment and raise their families. In
this sense, NDLON advances the human, labor, and civil rights
of day workers throughout the United States.

What: Press Conference and Rally
Who: Day Laborers and their Allies
When: Friday, September 30, 2005
10:30 Press Conference
Where: Outside of KFI Radio Station
340 W. Olive Ave
Burbank, CA 91502