Catching Out: The Secret World of Day Laborers

by Dick J. Reavis

Reavis reported to a labor hall each morning hoping to “catch out,” or get job assignments. To supplement his savings for retirement, the sixty-two-year-old joined people dispatched by an agency to manual jobs for which they were paid at the end of each day. Reavis writes with simple honesty, sympathy, and self-deprecating wit about his life inside day labor agencies, which employ some 3 million Americans. .

Written with the flair of a gifted portraitist and storyteller, the book describes his days on jobs at a factory, as a construction and demolition worker, landscaper, road crew flagman, auto-auction driver and warehouseman, and several days spent sorting artifacts in a dead packrat’s apartment. On one pick-and-shovel job, Reavis finds that his partner is too blind to see the hole they’re digging. In each setting, he describes the personalities and problems of his desperate peers, the attitudes of their bosses, and the straits of immigrant co-workers..

This is a gritty, hard-times evocation of the sometimes colorful men and women on the bottom rung of the workforce. It is partly a guide to performing hard, physical tasks, partly a celebration of strength, and partly a venting of ire at stingy and stern overseers. Reavis wants to make the point that physical exertion, even when ugly, painful or unpleasant, remains vital to the economy—and that those who labor, though poorly paid, bring vigor, skill and cunning to their tasks. .

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics

228 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ghojuh Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, really loved it. Used to do manual labour for a long time so I can relate to the stories in here!

[Ushan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the author, a journalist and a professor of English, reached age 62, he realized that his retirement income was too small to live on. So he started going to the nearby labor hall of a temporary day labor company, which sent him to various assignments: working at a construction site, driving cars at a used car auction lot, moving furniture at a college dormitory, standing with a flag while others were doing road repairs, painting steel widgets at a factory. As a rule, the workers were the people no other employer wanted: ex-cons, a hard drinker, a college student who dropped out because he played video games all day long instead of studying. The most pathetic day laborer was a nearly blind mildly retarded man who lived in a homeless shelter, and had to sleep on the grass when the shelter was full; a few days before his disability check came, he would acquire new "friends" who would "borrow" money from him on the check day, and then disappear. The workers were paid a pittance, and in turn had to pay somebody to drive them to the work site. In the last chapter, the author describes the economics and legal issues of such work. Apparently, the profit margin of the temp agency is merely about 5%; the rest of the difference between what the agency charged and what it paid its workers went to unemployment insurance, disability insurance, taxes, and the administrative overhead. However, the day labor agencies are a bonanza to the clients, who have the work done, but do not have to worry about health insurance or labor regulations. I am reminded of a certain software company I shall not name, about a third of whose workforce are technically not its employees. The author argues for a law that would require day laborers to be paid as much as regular employees performing the same kind of work; he says that France has this law. I know that for the H-1B visa holders, this is supposed to be the case, but usually is not, but the differential is smaller than what this book says it is between regular employees and day laborers. He also argues for the enforcement of existing labor laws using vice-squad techniques.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book about day laborers - a part of our society that most people don't think much about even though we are totally dependent on the work they do. Mr Reavis, a college English professor, worked as a day laborer and documented his experiences. Sometimes he gets so caught up in describing detail that his narrative gets a bit tedious, however, this is one of those books that will change forever the way a reader views those often faceless people who do the hardest and dirtiest work that there is for the least amount of money and benefits. This book is a total eye-opener. It reminded me of Barbara Ehrenreich's books, Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, although I liked Ehrenreich's books better. Definitely worth reading.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catching Out: The Secret World of Day Laborers by Dick J. Reavis (Simon & Shuster 2010) (331.544) is about life at a temporary employment agency for unskilled laborers. The author, who is actually a professor at North Carolina State University, spent months working through a temporary labor agency, and this is the story of the work he found, the conditions, and the company. It was eye opening! My rating: 6/10, finished 2/14/11.

[Eric Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those unfamiliar with the realities of day labor, this is an important story to read. Day laborers are so frequently despised and taken advantage of.