Community groups from cities such as Chicago and New York will meet in Los Angeles on Thursday for the first national conference of day laborers to discuss organizing the estimated 2 million day laborers in the United States. Due to the illegal status and informal work contract of many day laborers, the workers are subject to the whims of their employers. Day laborers hope to establish a national day laborers union to set wage standards, provide health care, offer job training and assist with immigration issues, but they walk a fine line by heightening their visibility, potentially drawing the attention of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Internal Revenue Service.
See "Day Laborers Consider Organization", Stephen Manning, The Washington Post, July 24, 2001