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Mitch Lewis:
And speaking of wages-that leads to the employment situation. How
is that faring?
Angeles Ortega:
Well, (laughs) it's definitely one of the things that is my pet
peeve (laughs) because I have been calling our Latino population
a disposable workforce for many reasons. One of the things is our
greater community really enjoys the fact that we have a Latino population
that is really hard working, that does not complain, that can work
extra hours if needed. But at the end of the day, we really don't
want them to have any needs. So at the end of the day we would like
them to be folded up into a little packet and be put some place
until the next morning when they can get up and work. So that's
what I call a disposable work force. Also, because of the issue
of legality, we have employers who hire a group of Latinos, have
them work for two, three months. When they get the famous letter
from the IRS that the number does not match with a social security,
the name does not match with social security, then they are, you
know, they're sent away.
So then they hire another group of Latinos. So it's
almost like a revolving door that we have in some employment locations.
And then the issue of that, you know, we expect a family to be the
main of character development for our children and so we want the
family to spend time at home and we want them to read to the child
and we want them to be involved in PTA and we want them to be coming
to, to volunteer at the school. But we don't place so much emphasis
on what the family's supposed to be making as a minimum wage. So
the family has to work two or three jobs in a family of two. So
that maybe the dad works two jobs and the mom works one job, so
who's at home taking care of the kids? And we're paying very little
for the babysitter because we cannot afford a good quality childcare.
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