For nearly four years, workers like Abarca, most of whom are immigrants from Mexico, assembled there each morning to hire out their labor to construction contractors. The council’s ruling declaring the zone off-limits came into effect January 1. Since then workers have used a hall in the nearby Second Baptist Church, opened up as a three-month stopgap by Rev. Andre McGuire.

“Today we [day laborers] are honoring the memory and example of Martin Luther King,” said Abarca, reading from a statement by the Workers Committee for Progress and Social Benefits, which called the action. The statement demanded the repeal of the council order, along with “an immediate end to the harassment and intimidation of our community and our work center.”

After hearing speeches at Freehold’s municipal building, participants marched to the Monmouth County Hall of Records a few blocks away. Undeterred by low temperatures and the light snow that fell throughout the two-hour action, they punctuated the speeches with frequent applause and chants.

Supporters of the day laborers’ fight came from New Jersey and New York. Banners and placards identified participants from Monmouth County Residents for Immigrant Rights, International Action Center, Socialist Workers Party, and Wind of the Spirit, a group active around immigration issues.

A day laborer from Union City, New Jersey, delivered a message of solidarity from Ecuadorian workers there. Erick Carrito of the National Day Laborers Association, Carol Gay of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, and Rita Dentino of the Monmouth County Residents for Immigrant Rights were among the other speakers.

The borough council approved the closure of the muster zone at its December 1 meeting, brushing aside the protests of 300 day laborers and supporters there.

The muster zone, the council said in a flier, “may not be used for day labor pick-up and discharge…. Any person trespassing on this property will be arrested and can be punished by up to 30 days in jail and a fine up to $500.”

Opponents of the zone seek to duck charges of discrimination by professing a concern for “quality of life” in Freehold.

According to the October Tri-Town News, the council hired more cops mid-2003 to deal with “complaints” from overcrowding to hornblowing. The courts levied almost $128,000 in fines between June and October, Mayor Michael Wilson reported.

After the protest wrapped up, day laborers and protest organizers invited participants to warm up back at the hall that serves as the temporary muster zone.

Juan Miguel Lopes Rojo, 27, who came to Freehold from Sinaloa, Mexico, described the daily wait for employment. We do “all types of work,” he said. Contractors come from as far away as New York City to offer jobs lasting from one day to several weeks.

The cold weather means fewer jobs, said Alejandro Abarca—although things have begun to pick up. “The next step is promotion of the center” among construction contractors, he said.  
 
 
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