When I first was hired onto Youth for Christ two years ago, I took on a second job to supplement my pay. The apartment was costing too much, even at the small rate that it was. I picked up an early morning job as a van driver for a Temp-a-Day service. The hours were 5a-10a.
Every morning I was up at 4:30 am, and then off to MinuteMan for the early starters.
Come home by 11a. Nap. Get to the City Life Center by 2:30p, and hang out with neighborhood kids for the rest of the day.
MinuteMan, in a nutshell, is a temp service that sends out low-skilled or unskilled laborers to job sites throughout the city. Workers at MinuteMan were often paid on the day of their service. The pay rate, though typically $8.15/hr, did not include transportation time or service. If employees chose to ride the van, that was 3$ off of their earnings for the day. The work environments were varied, from frozen food production to farm labor.
During my time as the morning van driver for MinuteMan, I got to see what might be considered the bottom of the economic world. I learned not to judge the folks who came through those doors. They were there to work. They were there because they needed money. They were there in the hope of finding some position that would be secure. Some employer that would eventually hire them on, if only they could prove themselves to be consistent.
Some were ex-convicts. Some were just economically lost, having never developed the ability to find and hold a job. Some were junkies just needing to work for a day for a fix. Others were just trying to make the best of a bad situation.
MinuteMan provided these job opportunities. I couldn't tell the heart or intentions behind the madness. Perhaps somewhere, at the beginning of it all, there was a desire to give people the opportunity to work. Or perhaps someone saw the opportunity to make money in a unique niche - the working poor.
posted by Dave @ 11:20 AM
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