Uptown on the Hill Association

Temporary Labor Mediation Deadlocks �

Mar 18, 1999

EVEN as the evolving workplace continues to require an everincreasing base of technical skills and knowledge, there remains a high demand for relatively unskilled manual labor.
The continued availability of such work enables people with little training or formal education to cam income, and possibly upgrade their skills and advance their permanent employment prospects.
While high and growing, the need for unskilled labor tends to be cyclic, periodic andlor seasonal, thus encouraging a proliferation in the number of referral services specializing in temporary day labor. This national trend has been evident in Denver, which has experienced a near-tripling in the number of temporary labor agencies in the last two years. Two such businesses are located at the southern edge of Uptown, adjacent to residential neighborhoods.
In Uptown and elsewhere in the city, residents have experienced disturbances - such as trespassing and loitering - which they attribute to individuals seeking employment at these temporary labor businesses.
Seeking input for a possible city-wide policy on the location andlor regulation of day labor services, the Denver City Council last autumn commissioned a mediation process, involving affected residents and representatives of the temporary, labor industry. consisting of five twohour sessions held in November and December, the mediation process failed to produce any recommendations for the Denver City Council's Land Use Committee with respect to either zoning or licensing, although the industry representatives have offered to enter into "performance contracts" with nearby residents to set standards for peaceful coexistence. Meanwhile, mediation remains available to resolve sitespecific disputes.