Day Laborers in the Reconstruction of New Orleans

In the winter and spring of 2006, the parking lot of a Shell station at Lee Circle in downtown New Orleans became the preeminent casual labor market in the reconstruction of the city. Every morning starting at dawn, crowds of men, most of them Central and South American, but also U.S. citizens from all over the country, congregated there to await construction jobs. Throughout the morning, pick-up trucks pulled into the lot in front of the pumps, sometimes with lone contractors, sometimes in convoy from larger construction companies. The men would crowd around the trucks, jostling each other for access to the drivers. Afterwards, those picked by the drivers would jump onto the back of the trucks and speed off to work-sites.

Figure 1.

We photographed and interviewed a representative group of these laborers—Latino, black, and white—as well as the employees at the gas station in January, February and March 2006. In the early morning of March 17, 2006, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid arrested dozens of Latino workers waiting at Lee Circle. Afterwards the New Orleans police began to visibly control the area. Though some workers continue to gather there today, the large crowds have gone. Smaller groups gather now in the mornings away from the downtown area at different gas stations on Claiborne Avenue and Veterans' Memorial Boulevard or at the Lowe's hardware store in Metairie.

Figure 2.

Here are the stories of the men who gathered at the Shell station at Lee Circle in January and February 2006. Only their names have been changed, to protect their privacy.

Chris, an employee of the gas station, explains how this place became "the spot." He says that the hotel at Lee Circle—he points to a five-story building on the other side of the rotary—was used to house contractors and workers directly after the storm. These men were good for business, buying food when business was slow in New Orleans in October and November. Then the Latino workers arrived: "They used to meet at the fitness center down the street, but then they came over here. We sell them coffee and food and stuff. At first there were just a dozen or so men, but word of mouth spread out that this was the place to come, and they came."

"I just try to keep the entrance clear. I had a woman the other day get all belligerent because I was trying to keep the entrance clear. I don't mind if they wait here, I just want them to keep the entrance clear."

Roberto is from Mexico, but now lives in Houston. He worked in La Place, not far from New Orleans, for a while, and is now staying in a room with no hot water in Slidell (a suburb of New Orleans). The house was damaged by other occupants, but the bathroom works and there is a shower, and a bed to sleep on, though there are no sheets.

A good wage, according to Roberto, is $12 an hour for unskilled work. "Most people won't work for under $10." He has also done skilled work, such as roofing. "I got a contract a few weeks ago for $400 to work on a roof—I split the job with two other guys, and we did it in one day—we split the $400 three ways."

Figure 3.

He says the workers are fair to each other: they split the wage evenly, even if one of them has tools and the others don't. If they have an old man on their team, they let an old man do the easy work, but they split the wage evenly.

"Are there a lot of old people here?"

"Look around, you'll see them. There's one—there's another one."

Roberto complains that often the men don't get paid after a day's work. "I worked for one guy...