UNDERGROUND A&R REPORT

HIRE A GRINGO - Inide Film

In June I will be making the indie homegrown film, Hire A Gringo. I will go around to day labor sites in Marietta, Smyrna and Dalton, Georgia where people pick up day laborers (most of them illegals) and see if I can get work. Since I am unemployed I'm not actually taking work from anyone, and this is an experiment to see if employers will pick up an american citizen to work, versus picking up immigrants and illegals. Some of the time I will state to the employers that I am a citizen who would like to work, sometimes just approach the vehicles with the rest of the bunch and go from there, and some of the time I will have a sign that says "Hire A Gringo".

No, this is not a slap at immigrants and illegals, simply put, I hear all the time that americans won't do these jobs, because they are either too hard or don't pay enough, or both. Beginning in November 2005, I talked to over 75 employers that use day laborers in a six month period. What I found is rarely do these people hire these laborers for skilled labor, it is not necessarily "hard" strenuous work (though a few were digging ditches, roofing and mixing cement all day, which can be backbreaking), and most of the time the jobs pay $9 or $10 an hour, sometimes more. For flat rate (a whole day's work), most paid $80-100 for 6-8 hours of work. A few of the construction contractors I found would pay $12 an hour and one even said $15 and hour for someone with carpentry skills (which I have to a degree). The least one in speaking to these people pay wise I found, was cutting grass with a push mower at $8 an hour. A few guys said they would like to only pay $5-6 dollars an hour (a landscaper, another a painter), but they said these people you see standing around looking for work as day laborers would not work for that, they usually asked for $9 an hour minimum or better. To someone that has worked, recently, $6 an hour jobs for mid-size US corporations, to hear someone say $9 or $10 an hour labor jobs are ones americans won't do, that sounds like bullshit in mass quantity to me. I'd love to have a job that paid that rate, and I am going to see if americans will help a brother out, or if they would rather hire illegals and immigants, and I aim to find out why this is.

I will be using digital camcorders, 16mm and 8mm cameras, sometimes on spot from cars, and a few times I will use hidden cameras. Any indie filmmakers that would like to help on this project, please get in touch. The finished product will be made available online, and edits will be sent to congress people, the US president, the news media, and other groups of interest.

HIRE A GRINGO!

TW
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