Inside the weird requests L.A.'s day laborers receive – Los Angeles Times

June 5, 2024 ndowd

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Good morning. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 5. I’m Brittny Mejia, a narrative reporter based in Southern California. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

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Standing in line for concert tickets.
Cleaning the pool — and then being asked to stay for drinks and entertain the lonely employer.
Hauling away trash bags of rocks that turned out to contain dismembered body parts.
These are just some of the jobs day laborers — known as jornaleros — have been hired to do in Southern California.
When news broke recently that a group of day laborers had allegedly been hired by Samuel Bond Haskell to unknowingly dump body parts for $500, I started wondering what other “odd” jobs people offer to these workers. At job centers and home improvement stores around L.A., I heard stories of dangerous and weird requests.
Cesar Beiza, 59, told me he was once hired to help clean out a former brothel. As they moved a sofa, a co-worker was almost jabbed in the neck by a used syringe.
“We live from day to day,” Beiza told me. “If we work today we will probably not work tomorrow. We have to take advantage of the opportunity, but sometimes we put our lives and our health at risk.”
While reporting this story, I met a woman whose husband had worked as a day laborer at Haskell’s home for three months earlier this year. He and a group of others were hired by Haskell’s wife, Mei.
Police believe the remains discovered so far belong to Mei. Her parents are still missing. Haskell has been charged with three counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of his wife and in-laws.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said her husband had worked in construction near the pool. He said the family seemed very nice and he was shocked by the news.
“It’s incredible that we were in the house for so long and we don’t actually know people. We only see the outside appearance,” her husband told her. “You don’t know what’s going on in the background.”
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said an organizer will be going out this week to try to find the Tarzana workers and offer assistance. He’s also hoping that — once they’re found — the city of L.A. will declare them heroes.
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Ascot Hills, a great hiking spot in the heart of the east side/ El Sereno Hills. My whole family goes, my sister, her dog, my mom, my kids, and our dog. It is a sight of mostly working-class Latino communities accessing nature and health.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Brittny Mejia, narrative reporter
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Laura Blasey, assistant editor
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Brittny Mejia is a Metro reporter covering federal courts for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote narrative pieces with a strong emphasis on the Latino community and others that make up the diversity of L.A. and California. Mejia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 in local reporting for her investigation with colleague Jack Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net healthcare system that resulted in months-long wait times for patients, including some who died before getting appointments with specialists. She joined The Times in 2014.
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