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Marc Giauque and Sam Penrod reportingToday's "Day Without An Immigrant" may or may not involve a lot of people staying home from work. Some employers are supporting the action, but others are telling workers if they walk they can keep walking.
Carlos knows where he won't be today.
Carlos: "I won't work because I can do that."
Saturday, he put gas in his car and went to the grocery store. He plans on not spending any money today, in addition to staying home from work. But Carlos believes many others will be on the job.
Carlos: "I talk to some of the people and say, 'Are you going to come to work on Monday?' and they say, 'We've been told if we don't come on Monday we can just forget about our job.'"
That's more or less the case at the Taco Time restaurant on Salt Lake's State Street.
Stacy Bordnave: "We had a meeting a couple weeks ago and talked about if they want the day off than they can ask for the day off, but if they leave work or if they don't come in at all than they don't have a job."
Still, Manager Stacy Bordnave plans to support the idea behind the "Day Without Immigrants".
Stacy Bordnave "We're going to do the blue ribbons; all of us are going to wear them."
During earlier protests, a restaurant in Park City had to actually close its doors for a time because so many left.
Carlos says staying home would be a tough call for many. But even if they're fired, he doesn't think they'll be out of work for long.
Carlos: "If workers don't shut up they are going to stop working because they're not going to do anything. If they want to fire them they can fire them but they're going to have to hire them back because there is a need."
Mark Knold of The Department of Workforce Services says that may indeed be the case. He has no solid numbers, but doesn't expect any major impact on the economy. He says in the construction sector, for example, one contractor might fire an employee who doesn't work, only to eventually hire someone else, fired by another contractor.
Certainly the walkout is affecting all types of businesses today, but it is the ones that are affecting customers that are getting the most attention. For example, hungry people who were counting on some Mexican Food today here at a Cafe Rio found it closed.
Cafe Rio executives say only about half of the employees showed up for work this morning, so they decided to close four of their restaurants in Utah and send the workers who showed up at those stores, to help out at other locations today. So the restaurants in American Fork, Provo, Draper and Fort Union are shut down, just for today.
Whatever business that is closed today, it seems the majority of people we talked to do not agree with the idea of the walkout.
"I think it is a shame that people who are in our country illegally can essentially affect everything else and I don't think that's right."
