LA Times

Throngs Show Their Potent Role in Economy
By David Streitfeld, Times Staff WriterMay 2, 2006

Immigrant workers powerfully asserted their importance Monday, making clear they are vital to California's economy. Without us, they declared, industries would tremble, jobs go undone and prices rise.Dolls from China, DVD players from Japan and shirts from Malaysia piled up at the ports. Lettuce wasn't picked in Blythe and strawberries languished in Oxnard. On one block of L.A.'s Koreatown, only two out of nine businesses were open. The garment district was nearly deserted.

By itself, the "Day Without Immigrants" won't hurt the economy in the long run, analysts said. Shoppers will quickly go back to shopping and workers to working.The economic message, however, was emphatic and unmistakable."This was a reality check," said Economic Roundtable President Daniel Flaming. "You can't wish away these workers. They are rooted in the community. Not everyone realized that before."Flaming and others have extensively studied the role played by recent arrivals, both legal and illegal. The protests provided vivid evidence that the bulk of the country's estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants don't just cut lawns and wash dishes in restaurants.

This is an unusual protest movement. There's little precedent in American history for a simultaneous combination of consumer boycotts, demonstrations and work stoppages. And there's none for a labor rights struggle that is cheered on by many employers."I don't remember hearing a single major business group complaining about today's actions," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.Employers haven't suddenly grown more compassionate. In this era of low unemployment, they are eager to have sources of cheap labor. And they fear the sanctions that would accompany a serious crackdown on illegal hiring.Beyond this, Levy said, there is a sense that everyone is complicit. "I've hired a housekeeper or a gardener or a baby-sitter where I certainly didn't check their papers," he said. "There's an acknowledgment here that we're all involved."
Overall, however, it was apparently the biggest agricultural work stoppage on record in the state. The 1973 grape strike in the Coachella and San Joaquin valleys and 1970's Salinas Valley vegetable strike had been the largest."But both of them only involved targeted crops and didn't come close to the numbers of farm workers participating today," said Marc Grossman, a spokesman for the United Farm Workers union. The state's year-round farm workforce numbers about 225,000, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Another industry that depends heavily on Latino labor, construction, also took a hit.The protests were telegraphed far in advance, which intentionally muted their effect. Michael Niemira of the International Council of Shopping Centers said he didn't expect the demonstrations or boycott to have significant economic repercussions.But he added, "From the political side, it made a statement."A small, informal survey conducted by the California Assn. of Employers found that very few businesses shut down or operated with skeleton crews. The vast majority of the 88 firms surveyed operated normally."When you know it's a one-day thing, as an employer you say, 'We're going to survive it, and we're going to run our business as usual,' " said Kim Parker, executive vice president of the trade group.In some parts of Los Angeles, however, the fallout was far greater. Some shopkeepers opened and then quickly gave up. "There's no business," said Sueli Shin, manager of Pelicana Fashion, a wholesaler of party dresses in the garment district. She had locked the door by 10:15 a.m.Much of Koreatown was shuttered. One factor was the neighborhood's large Latino population. But some business owners, noting their proximity to the march route on Wilshire Boulevard, expressed fears that the demonstrations might get out of hand.On a normal day, Ham Hung restaurant serves lunch to 200 people. On Monday, there were only 70 customers. Many "stayed away because of news reports that warned people not to drive around downtown," said assistant manager Calvin Zhin.He noted that he lives in the San Fernando Valley and made it to work in record time. "Great day for driving, horrible day for business," Zhin said.