San Francisco Department of Public Health

Jornaleros Unidos Con el Pueblo (Day Laborers United with the Community)

Funded by the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH)

Rajiv Bhatia M.D., M.P.H.
rajiv.bhatia@sfdph.org

Project Description

Jornaleros Unidos con el Pueblo:  A partnership to improve working conditions for day laborers

Jornaleros Unidos con el Pueblo (Unidos) is a partnership between the San Francisco Department of Health’s Program on Health Equity and Sustainability, immigrant day laborers, and community service organizations.  Its goal is improving working conditions for the immigrant day laborer community. The partnership has identified avoidable workplace hazards for both male day laborers and female domestic workers in the construction, housing cleaning, and landscape industries.   We have recognized that preventing hazards means acknowledging and addressing the laborers’ economic and social needs as well as their invisibility to government regulators.  Unidos actions to address workplace hazards include leadership development for laborers, health and safety training, provision of personal safety equipment, and a vocational training curriculum that integrates job skills and safety knowledge.  The partnership is conducting a feasibility study for a community based surveillance system to track injuries and their causes.  Finally, the partnership has convened a Community Council of laborers, employers, service providers, and governmental institutions to prioritize and implement health promoting action on a sustainable basis.

Project Aims

The overall aim of this project is to improve working conditions for day laborers through strategies that reflect the knowledge, needs, and participation of day laborers.

1. To support dialogue among day laborers, their employers, community organizations and participating research and governmental institutions based on mutual interests, equitable participation, and the goal of collective action.
2. To prioritize, plan, and implement integrated and culturally relevant interventions to reduce workplace hazards as well as to address the social and structural context of hazardous work.
3. To evaluate changes in the collective capacity of day laborers, employers and institutions to address unhealthy working conditions.

Collaborators

Anamaria Loya, JD
Executive Director
La Raza Centro Legal

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