Sebastian Montes writes:
The more immediate concern for County Councilman Michael J. Knapp — who had been involved in the creation of the center as far back as 2004 — is what brought the issue to a head in the first place: dozens of workers gathering unsupervised in parking lots along Route 355 in Gaithersburg.
Though not nearly in the numbers seen before the center opened, at least one of those lots — the 7-Eleven in the Duvall shopping center — continues to be a hiring hot spot.
That’s because some workers and employers would rather circumvent the paperwork and formality of an organized center, said day laborer Ricardo Maravilla Tuesday morning. Maravilla stood alone on the deck outside the day-laborer center while inside, some 20 workers listened to a presentation from Casa staff on the legal measures available to them when employers don’t pay.
Originally from El Salvador, the 21-year-old began going to the lots in Gaithersburg more than two years ago and now prefers going to the day-laborer center: there’s more work, he said, though he concedes that more workers also means more competition for the first-come-first-serve jobs.
Still, several of his friends insist on using the 7-Eleven parking lot, even though Gaithersburg police have been ticketing many of them for trespassing.
‘‘They feel freer over there,” he said in Spanish. ‘‘Here we have American [employers], who like having the paperwork, and over there it’s the Hispanics.”