Chicago Announces Inauguration Day Plan to March for a Moratorium on Deportations
ICIRR, Immigrant Youth Justice League, Latino Union of Chicago, and more
Sandy Sweeps Away New York City’s Only Day Laborer Center
By J.A. Myerson, Wednesday Nov 7, 2012 12:46 pm | Source: Inthesetime.com A storm surge from Hurricane Sandy unmoored the Bay Parkway Community Job Center, New York City’s only center for day laborers, and moved it a couple hundred feet inland from the Bensonhurst shore, cracking one of its walls in the process. Ligia Guallpa of…
Illinois Just Pay for All Act Text
Illinois Wage Theft Legislation Just Pay for All Act – full text is below and attached. Passed in 2010 through organizing campaign of Union Latina in Chicago, IL. Public Act 096-1407 SB3568 Enrolled LRB096 20650 RLC 36363 b AN ACT concerning criminal law. Be it enacted by the People of the State of…
City of Seattle Wage Theft Ordinance Text
City of Seattle Wage Theft Ordinance – full text is below and attached. Was passed in 2011 based on organizing campaign of Casa Latina.
AN ORDINANCE relating to wage theft; amending Seattle Municipal Code sections 5.55.230 and 12A.08.060; clarifying the definition of theft as it relates to theft of wages; providing a list of circumstances that may be considered in determining whether a person intends to commit wage theft; clarifying the City’s jurisdiction in such cases; and allowing the City to refuse to issue, revoke, or refuse to renew business licenses from employers found guilty of wage theft.
Miami Dade Wage Theft Ordinance Text
Full Text of the Ordinance is attached. It was passed in 2010 as a result of WeCount organizing in Miami Dade County, Florida.
ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING CHAPTER 22 OF THE CODE OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA; PROHIBITING WAGE THEFT, PROVIDING ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES AND PRIVATE CAUSE OF ACTION FOR WAGE THEFT PROVIDING SEVERABILITY, INCLUSION IN THE CODE, AND AN EFFECTIVE DATE
The Jobs Numbers: Never Mind the Quantity, Check the Quality
The jobs numbers: never mind the quantity, check the quality
Behind modest jobs growth, the real story is full-time jobs with good benefits are still disappearing. America’s going part-time.
It’s heartening to see Friday’s news that the unemployment rate edged down to 7.8% last month. But let’s not get too caught up in celebrations. We need to look beyond the sheer quantity of jobs being created and into the quality of those jobs – something neither presidential candidate seems very interested in talking about.
Buried in the Friday’s jobs report is evidence that a disturbing trend continues: the creation of more part-time jobs, many of them low-wage, taking the place of solid middle-class careers. Positions in sectors like manufacturing continued to decline last month, replaced by new jobs in the healthcare, warehousing and retail industries. A lot of these jobs don’t allow workers to rack up enough hours to earn healthcare benefits – let alone break out of poverty.
Working for Professional Grade Construction was a death sentence for Winston Gillette.
Written by Jessica Acee, Board member of the Workers Justice Project.
A vigil was held September 25th for Winston Gillette, a construction worker killed 2 weeks ago when the roof of the building he was working on caved in on him. That building, located at 227 Carlton Ave in Brooklyn’s Fort Green neighborhood, was under construction by Professional Grade Construction company. To date, the company has not issued an apology.
“WE ARE NOT DISPOSABLE!”
For Immediate Release, September 17, 2012
Contact: Nadia Marin-Molina | nadia@ndlon.org | (516) 984-5755 Ligia Guallpa |ligia@workersjustice.org | (646) 479-4769
Construction workers marking death of Winston Gillett with Vigil, Call for Action
Winston Gillett, 62, was crushed to death after a roof collapsed at one of the townhouses. Gillett was working at the Carlton Mews Townhouse project, which was being built by Professional Grade Construction Corp. However, this year many other workers have also died while being crushed under the weight of thousands of pounds of building materials, being buried alive in a trench, or falling to their death from a scaffold with no harness.
In New York City residential construction, these types of incidents are so common that the contractors, building owners and developers, and the city do not pause for breath before ordering workers to climb back on the scaffolds. They all know that low and sometimes no wages, complete disregard for health and safety protections, and treating workers like they are disposable are part of a regular day’s work in residential construction. Meanwhile, residential construction spending increased to $2.9 billion in 2011 and is expected to climb to $4.8 billion in 2012, benefiting immensely from this exploitation.
Join us on Monday, September 24, 2012, 6 p.m. to raise our voices against exploitation in residential construction and to ensure that the deaths of Winston Gillette, Santos Garcia, Adrien Zamora, and many other workers in the construction industry result in real protections for workers in the future.