BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
CHRIS KELLY staff Officials in Lakewood are considering the possibility of starting a municipal muster zone so that day laborers who presently congregate on Clifton Avenue (pictured) in order to seek employment would not have to do so on the town’s primary business thoroughfare. Good government is good for business. To promote both, Lakewood Township Committeeman Robert Singer has proposed that the municipality provide a muster zone for day laborers who now use Clifton Avenue in downtown Lakewood as a place to seek employment.
Singer said he wanted to establish a muster zone at the 4th Street Community Center where people who work as day laborers could wait for employers seeking to hire them. The muster zone would be available to people who are legal residents of the United States and to those who are in the country illegally.
Singer said prospective employers are double-parking and even triple-parking in downtown Lakewood in order to pick up the day laborers. He said that makes it difficult for shoppers to access the parking spots. Shoppers intimidated by the crowds of men filling the sidewalks in front of the stores were avoiding those establishments and hurting business, according to complaints Singer said he had received. Adding to the problem was the lack of adequate rest room facilities and damage to properties on which the men waited for work.
“We have reached a critical stage,” Singer said at the Township Committee’s Oct. 14 meeting.
The suggestion of establishing a muster zone in Lakewood is not new. According to the Rev. Richard Wrede of the All Saints Episcopal Church on Route 9, between Second and Third Streets, former Mayor Marta Harrison approached him earlier this year to create a muster zone at the church. However, Wrede said he would have required funding to provide services to the men who used the muster zone. He said the issue of separation of church and state would have precluded such public funding of the project.
Singer maintained that a covered shelter in front of the community center on Fourth Street would be under the control of local government and would provide a safe and dry area where day laborers could wait for work from 5-11:30 a.m. Portable rest rooms would be available and hot coffee would be provided.
Fliers would be distributed throughout the Hispanic community to inform residents of the safe and legal area to wait for work, said Singer.
“I don’t have all the answers, but doing nothing about it isn’t … our goal,” he said. “I can’t guarantee it would work, but … it’s morally right. Why not take a step in the right direction?”
Township Committeeman Charles Cunliffe said the township attorney had advised him that establishing a designated spot for the day laborers to wait for work might be a violation of their Constitutional right to assemble. He was sympathetic to the problems faced by business owners as well.
“My viewpoint is how about downtown merchants’ right to earn a living?” Cunliffe said. “People have told me they have chosen not to shop in Lakewood” due to large crowds of people waiting for work in front of stores. “[But] maybe we will have more success than other towns” in dealing with the day laborer situation.
Singer said senior citizens in particular were concerned when they saw so many people congregating in front of stores and uneasy in approaching a business whose entrance was blocked by groups of day laborers. While Singer supported business owners’ concerns about the problem, he was also worried that a person waiting for employment that day could be hit by a vehicle while approaching a potential employer.
“So let’s go forward and try” this suggestion, he said to the other committee members.
The matter was referred to Township Attorney Steven Secare.
One week later during a Township Committee meeting held on Oct. 22 at the Leisure Village East adult community, Singer discussed his idea further. At that meeting, Ada Gonzalez, an activist in the Hispanic community, said she would help notify day laborers that a muster zone would be available. Prospective employers would also be notified about the change in location from Clifton Avenue to the Community Center.
On Oct. 23, Lakewood’s underground work force had risen before the sun was up. By 9 a.m., men continued to stand along both sides of Clifton Avenue from Main Street to as far as the eye could see.
A group of men stood in front of the First Baptist Church of Lakewood, between Main Street and First Street. Drops of morning dew sparkled on the verdant church lawn behind them, which was cordoned off with two yellow ropes around its perimeter. A yellow sign hanging from the top rope read in English and Spanish, “No Trespassing.”
As the men waited for a prospective employer to drive by and offer a day’s work, they discussed their opinion of the proposed muster zone.
Luis Hernandez, a construction worker from Mexico, said in English and Spanish that he has been in the United States for five years. A good day could net him as much as $80 for his labor, said Hernandez, who added that he was in the United States legally.
“There are lots of [jobs] in Toms River,” he said. “Different factory owners will travel to downtown Lakewood [with offers of a day’s work]. There’s a lot of work in Lakewood, Jackson, Freehold.”
From 6-9 a.m., Hernandez said, he waits for someone to offer him that work. Despite what Hernandez said was a proliferation of job offers, he was still waiting for one that day. Still, he said he did not mind the uncertainty of his income.
“[Lakewood is] a nice place, [offering] a good life, good money,” he said.
When the men were asked what a comparable job would pay in Mexico, they laughed.
“What work?” asked one.
When asked how business owners on Clifton Avenue felt about the men standing in front of their storefronts for hours a day, Hernandez said he had not heard of any problems from them. He gestured toward the storefronts across the street and said most opened for business after the men had been picked up for work.
Pointing to the yellow ropes in front of the church behind him, where the “No Trespassing” sign hung, Hernandez said, “The guys respect the sign.”
When asked how the men would feel about waiting for work at a muster zone instead of the sidewalks of downtown Lakewood, Hernandez said, “In the winter, why not?”
Miguel Garcia, 22, a Mexican, said he thought it was a good idea, too. He said he was in favor of helping business owners.
“No problem, it’s no problem,” he said.
Singer said that despite assertions by the men that they did not trespass on church property, there had been complaints the men used bushes and lawns as a place to relieve themselves since no bathroom facilities were available.
MaryEllen Brase, moderator for the First Baptist Church, said Tuesday that she had spoken with Coles about the problems in June. She said the men had been lying on the grass outside the church, but that since putting up the ropes they had respected the church property.
Brase said she had suggested to Coles that a muster zone be set up in the parking lot next to a bank on Main Street, but that the township never acted on the church board’s suggestion.
Traffic concerns were another factor, said Singer.
“When these cars are stopping and holding up four fingers to indicate they need four workers, men are rushing up to the car from both sides of the street,” said Singer. “Someone is going to be killed [since] there are 200 to 400 people on the street at 6 to 6:30 a.m.”
Singer said the number of men waiting for work has doubled in the last several months. He said having one muster zone at the community center would enable the township to have supervision of the site as well as provide workers and employers with a location that would be free.
Frank Argote Freyre of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey and the Hispanic Directors Association, said he is a proponent of having a place where workers can congregate in humane conditions.
Mayor Raymond Coles said he instructed township manager Frank Edwards to contact officials in Freehold Borough, where a similar problem mushroomed into federal litigation.
“We want to see what did work and what didn’t work,” said Coles.
When asked how employers would be induced to looking for workers somewhere they were not accustomed to seeking them out, Singer said an aggressive crackdown by police to enforce motor vehicle and pedestrian laws would be initiated.
“After the first week of picking people up [outside the muster zone], you’re going to be ticketed,” said Singer. “If you rush out across the street to get work, you’re [also] going to get a ticket.”
Singer said he was hopeful the establishment of a muster zone would alleviate a growing problem in Lakewood.
“No one has a better idea,” said Singer.