Nationwide Actions Condemn E-Verify Program as Direct Attack on Immigrants, Workers and the Economy

New York, NY: Community leaders, small business owners, and workers are participating in a nationwide day of action to speak out against H.R. 2164, legislation presented by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith, which would make the E-Verify program mandatory for nearly every employer in the United States. This legislation is expected to be taken up by the House Judiciary committee for markup at the end of this week.

Mandatory E-Verify is a jobs killer. It is bad for working people, bad for business and bad for the economy. If Congress mandates the use of E-Verify, forcing every business in the country to screen every employee with an error-ridden Department of Homeland Security computer database, over one million workers will likely lose their jobs. Industries like agriculture that rely on immigrant workers will be devastated, while small businesses will be taxed by having to shoulder the significant costs necessary to implement the computer system.
Anti-immigrant extremist politicians in Washington champion E-Verify and the bill has been a key component of notorious anti-immigrant hate legislation at the state level, like HB 56 in Alabama. While the United States has historically been a nation of immigrants, E-Verify panders to a vocal anti-immigrant minority that has dominated the immigration discussion.
Local actions point out that E-Verify will hurt all businesses and the fragile economy, and will leave workers more vulnerable to abuse on the job by giving unscrupulous employers yet another tool to use against workers who try to stand up for their rights.
“The truth is that E-Verify is a jobs killer and that the system needs to be fixed. We need comprehensive solutions to raise wages for our workers, make sure they work in good conditions, and ensure that everyone is on a level playing field,” said Jaime Contreras, SEIU 32BJ District Chair.
Small business owners are joining local actions because E-Verify will place a significant burden on small businesses, raising their costs even as they are struggling in this economy. Almost every business—no matter how small—will be forced to implement this complicated system. For many small businesses, many of which can’t afford a human resources department, this could be disastrous. The estimated cost to small businesses is $2.6 billion, according to Bloomberg News. More than 770,000 citizen and legal workers will wrongly be marked as ineligible for work due to errors in government databases.
“This E-Verify proposal is bad for small businesses, bad for our workforce, and bad for the country’s bottom line,” said small business owner David Borris. “We need the U.S. Chamber to listen to small business, and withdraw its support for this flawed proposal. Why is the Chamber nibbling around the margins and accepting a piecemeal non-solution that will have a serious negative impact on small businesses?”

Participating localities include: Austin, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; Washington DC; and Long Island, New York.
Coordinated by National Day Laborer Organizing Network, National Immigration Law Center, Jobs with Justice, National Employment Law Project and the Service Employees International Union.

Se Communities Scrutiny Expands to FBI

Washington, DC. Yesterday, on the tenth anniversary of September 11th, 70 civil rights, immigrants’ rights, and privacy rights groups sent a letter calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the FBI’s role in the controversial Se Communities deportation program (S-Comm) and the Next Generation Identification (NGI) initiative. The letter urged an immediate Inspector General audit of both programs.

Documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act litigation by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic revealed that S-Comm is the first step in NGI, an unprecedented, billion dollar initiative to create the world’s largest biometric database. NGI will expand on S-Comm by forcing greater collection and dissemination of personal information between federal agencies, without the consent of the states that provide the information. NGI will also expand the types of information collected to include iris scans, palm prints, and facial recognition scans, along with the traditional fingerprints. Both NGI and S-Comm have their roots in the post-September 11th expansion of domestic surveillance and corresponding weakening of privacy protections.
Chris Newman, Legal Programs Director at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said: “An unfortunate legacy of 9/11 is the onset of a culture of suspicion that conflated fear of terrorists with fear of immigrants. Secretive and misguided programs like S-Comm contributed to this pernicious fear of newcomers. Ten years after 9/11, there is now a vibrant national discussion about how to preserve security without jettisoning core constitutional values. While many may disagree about how to strike an appropriate balance, we can all agree transparency from the very agencies charged with keeping us safe is absolutely essential. The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General must immediately audit the FBI’s role in S-Comm and the so-called Next Generation Identification Initiative.”
Jessica Karp, Staff Attorney with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said: “S-Comm has been plagued with problems since it began. ICE is now under investigation for lying to Congress, states, and localities about the program’s scope and the role of state and local partners. Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, and many of the nation’s largest cities have said they want no part of S-Comm. They are concerned that it undermines public safety while encouraging pretextual arrests and racial profiling. An investigation of the FBI’s role in this controversial program is urgently needed. The Inspector General must also investigate the extent to which the problems associated with S-Comm are common to the Next Generation Identification initiative as a whole.”
Letter to DOJ available for download at http://ndlon.org/pdf/dojletterfinal.pdf
Appendix available for download at http://ndlon.org/pdf/dojletterappendix.pdf
More information available at http://uncoverthetruth.org
###…

Task force looks to help day laborers

Task force looks to help day laborers

By Corinne White | Source: The Daily Tar Heel

Task force looks to help day laborers

Susano Soto, left, order and Lee Johnson, right, work for Raleigh’s Blalock Paving company, which hires many of the day laborers who gather in the area.

Day laborers in the area stand on the corner of Jones Ferry Road and Davie Road, rain or shine.

But Board of Alderman candidates — and local labor advocates ­— want to change that.

At a meeting this week organized by Orange County Justice United, community advocates created location and fundraising committees to work toward creating a center for the day laborers.

“While we take the situation further, we’re trying to identify short-term things we can do and long-term things we should do,” said Julio Olmos, community organizing director for El Centro Hispano.

He said the first short-term step is putting Port-A-Johns at the location.

And though the Carrboro Board of Aldermen is not spearheading the project, incumbent and 2011 candidate Dan Coleman said the board — which fellow candidate Lydia Lavelle also sits on — looks to support the initiative.

Since many day laborers are Hispanic, the main location being considered is El Centro Hispano in Carrboro, Coleman said.

“The key point is that El Centro is intimately connected with the Hispanic community that day laborers mostly come from,” he said.

“So they are in a better position than the town to address these issues.”

Olmos said El Centro’s Carrboro leaders have not yet spoken to its landlord about a restriction in the location’s contract that could disallow the project.

Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, the CEO of El Centro, said the organization talked to representatives from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in June about the pros and cons of day laborer centers.

The ideal center would include English as a second language and vocational classes, child care, and legal services for the workers and their families, Coleman said.

Coleman said there were reportedly issues with wage theft, when workers do their job and employers do not pay.

The center would be necessary to help the day laborers, who might not understand the American legal system, he said.

The task force also discussed day labor relations with community law enforcement, Olmos said.

Olmos said day laborers he spoke with said some people who congregated in the area are there just to “mess around.”

He said day laborers actually looking for work need to have good relationships with police officers to report the others.

Board of Aldermen candidate Michelle Johnson said any solution would have to address the problems from all sides.

“At best we need to have a holistic view, and I think the holistic version would have job skill training and making sure the workers weren’t getting abused,” Johnson said.

There are more than 70 day laborer centers in the country, Coleman said.

“If people locally look at what’s been achieved elsewhere, they’ll find a way to craft what’s best,” he said.

Board of Alderman candidate Braxton Foushee agreed things need to change.

“I just don’t think that what they have now is working.”

Contact the City Editor

at City@dailytarheel.com.

Laborers hold out hope: Jobs aren’t guaranteed at the MLK site,

Laborers hold out hope: Jobs aren’t guaranteed at the MLK site, but workers keep coming

By Jennifer Anderson |Source: The Portland Tribune | Sep 1, 2011

Laborers hold out hope: Jobs aren’t guaranteed at the MLK site, __fg_link_2__  but workers keep coming

CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT / TRIBUNE PHOTO Labor center site Director Ignacio Paramo has helped create a community offering English classes and soccer tournaments. While many laborers find work at the center, story others go without or return to their old street corners.

Day workers at the city-sponsored day labor center have a message to Portland, three years into the operation: “We’re here to work.”

Every morning, 50 to 100 — sometimes up to 120 — workers gather at the site at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just south of the Oregon Convention Center.

At 7:30 a.m., they put their names into a lottery, which determines who gets jobs as employers roll in. Some days dozens are hired, other days just a handful. They usually earn between $10 and $11 an hour.

Either way, the workers declare the center a success, saying it is a far better alternative to the chaos that reigned at street corners before the work center opened.

“This place is for work,” says Edmundo Caro, a cook who prepares barbacoa and carne asada tacos for Tacos El Jornalero, the taco truck that opened last week at the site to raise money for the center’s operations. “The people that come here come because there’s an order, more organization” than the street corners, Caro says.

Three years into the venture, it’s hard to declare it a success or failure, however. Consider the numbers:

• While the center has provided workers with a total of 11,131 day jobs during the three years, it’s led to just 25 permanent jobs.

• In January, the slowest month of the year, 14 of 75 workers — 18 percent — were hired on the busiest day, Jan. 29. On the slowest day that month, Jan. 11, just one of 77 workers snagged a job.

• Summer is peak season. June 25, the busiest day, saw 39 of 47 workers (82 percent) hired. A week earlier, on June 18, just 7 of 61 workers (11 percent) were hired.

• The center’s first year of operation was the busiest, with 2,405 workers hired in just six months, June to December 2008. In all of 2009, a total of 3,039 workers were hired. In 2010 that climbed to 3,875. This year, a total of 1,812 workers were hired through June. If that pace continues, 2011 will come in just behind last year’s numbers.

The nonprofit Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, which runs the site, says success is about more than just numbers —it’s about the community they’ve created.

They have established rules (no drinking, s or fighting), daily procedures (the lottery), education (a range of classes taught by volunteer tutors), recreation (a soccer team), and now food.

Tacos are $1, and all proceeds from the taco truck support the venture. Eventually the taco truck may roam various neighborhoods.

“It’s been a good three years,” says Romeo Sosa, Voz’ executive director. “We created trust in the neighborhood and developed a lot of support from all the different groups,” including the surrounding neighborhoods. Laborers have helped to beautify the area, despite the impermanence of their home.

Streetcorner Advocate for Women on the Day Labor Treadmill

Streetcorner Advocate for Women on the Day Labor Treadmill

Mon, Aug 29, 2011 | By Hoda Emam | Source: TheBrooklynInk.com

Streetcorner Advocate for Women on the Day Labor Treadmill

English classes are held every Wednesday on a street corner in Williamsburg (Photo: Hoda Emam/ The Brooklyn Ink)

As early as sunrise, order Latino women trickle onto the corner of Division Street and Marcy Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, hoping that by evening they will go home with more than the change in their pockets. The women stand next to a steel fence on the corner; the vines dangling from the top offer the only refuge from the sun. On a recent morning, two men in a delivery truck stop at the intersection and yell out, “How much?” Three of the females run to the vehicle and begin to bargain; the women do not agree with the deal and walk back to their steel fence.

Such bargaining is the norm at this intersection. While the women say they have been mistaken for prostitutes, the work they are looking for involves hard labor: shoveling at a construction site, stitching and packing garments in a factory, and mostly cleaning houses. The corner has become both famous and infamous among recently arrived immigrant Hispanic women seeking work. With few English skills, the women have become a target of exploitation by some of their employers.

Ligia Gualpa, 25, hopes to change that. As an international studies undergraduate student at the State University of New York at Cortland, Gualpa studied abroad in Cairo in 2007. During her six months she spent in Egypt, Gualpa worked with the Al Wafa Center, an organization that assisted Sudanese immigrants in Cairo. There, Gualpa says, she learned the meaning and benefits of community organization.

“The Sudanese community were refugees in Cairo, they were treated poorly and deprived of their labor rights,” Gualpa recalls. After six months working at the center, Gualpa and her colleagues were able to almost double the amount of Egyptian dollars the United Nations was offering to each refugee. Soon after, Gualpa decided to return to the United States and implement her newfound interest among her own people.

For two years now, Gualpa, has been a part of the Day Laborers’ Organization Project. Gualpa uses English classes as a way to gain the women’s trust and simultaneously to teach them the importance of being unified.

As the women continue to watch for potential clients, one woman cheerfully points across the street to a petite brunette, in cream-colored workout attire, rushing towards the crowd smiling. After a quick chat and a hug with each woman, Gualpa huddles the ladies together. It’s 11 a.m. on Wednesday and English class is in session.

All of the women are focused on Gualpa, who points to a white piece of paper, while yelling to make sure her voice overpowers the traffic noise at the intersection.  “I charge $15 per hour,” Gualpa says, and the women repeat. She reiterates the phrase three more times; the women’s response grows louder, attracting attention from passersby. Some onlookers shake their heads in dismay, while others look with curiosity.

Benny Berk, a resident of Williamsburg who lives across from the intersection, says the women are a big help to the community because “they clean people’s houses, if they don’t do it, then we would have to do it ourselves.” Most of the women are undocumented, but the city residents and the Police Department apparently turn a blind eye, as the demand for the women is high.

According to the New York Day Laborer survey, conducted in 2003 by Abel Valenzuela of UCLA and Edwin Melendez of New School University, women account for only five percent of the 100,000 day laborers across New York State. And the women’s main gathering location in Williamsburg is growing in popularity. Since the intersection is located in a primarily Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, the women must wear more conservative clothing, especially if they are picked to clean a religious family’s home.

One of the biggest challenges for the women on the corner, according to Gualpa, is the increased competition that has come with women from outside the area.  “The ladies have decided on a minimum salary of $10 per hour,” Gualpa says, “but when new groups of women enter, they are unaware of this, so they bid lower, causing future problems for the current women.”

Streetcorner Advocate for Women on the Day Labor Treadmill

Ligia Gualpa teaches immigrant workers essential English language phrases (Photo: Hoda Emam/ The Brooklyn Ink)

Gualpa says she understands the hardships that the women endure and therefore works passionately to offer help, even though some residents see her as a nuisance. “When I am on the street corner teaching the English class, I have had verbal threats from passersby,” she says. “I have also had people tell me to watch my back and that I am known in the neighborhood, but I have to ignore it and move on.”

Gualpa, who receives a small stipend for her work, along with two volunteers, assists workers who step forward with reports of unfair , primarily being denied pay or cheated on the number of hours. After having the worker document the days and hours she was employed, Gualpa visits the employer’s home or job location.

“Before hiring the worker, the employer could and should ask for the Social Security number,” Gualpa says. “But after the person has already performed labor, whether that person is documented or not, they must be paid.” Gualpa states the labor law and tells the employer that since he or she knowingly hired an illegal immigrant, the boss, too, can be in trouble if reported to the State Department of Labor.

In 2009, for example, an investigation by the Department of Labor led them to one commercial strip in the Bushwick section Brooklyn. More than 60 workers were owed over $350,000 in unpaid wages, the department found. According to the State Department of Labor the investigation resulted in several cases. Over the last decade, many grassroots organizations, like the Day Laborers’ Project, are partnering with the State Department of Labor by assisting in community monitoring of employer conduct.

The Division of Immigrant Policies and Affairs of the State Labor Department addresses the needs, issues, and challenges of immigrants by doing outreach in immigrant communities. “In order to this, we informally partner with organizations that serve these communities to disseminate information effectively,” says Maritere Arce, spokesperson for the New York State Department of Labor.

According to immigration lawyers, since employers who hire immigrant workers know they are afraid to come forward with complaints, wage theft has become rampant among the immigrant neighborhood. “The construction and restaurant industries are among those where wage theft is most prevalent,” Arce says. She adds that the Labor Department does not inquire about a workers’ nationality or legal status in wage theft investigation. Therefore, whether a worker is documented or not, their complaint will receive the same amount of attention.

On an early Thursday morning, Gualpa heads to a clothing factory off Decatur Street in Brooklyn. Three of the women who had been recruited from the Marcy Avenue hiring site have reported missing wages. Gualpa is familiar with this factory and its managers since she has approached them before with unpaid wage claims.

Estela Sanchez, 46, who came to the United States from Mexico eight years ago, said the company owes her $27.11. “To some people this might be little money,” Sanchez explains, “but for me this is a lot.” The company management had told Sanchez that the factory had financial problems and wouldn’t be able to pay her. After repeated attempts, Sanchez says she realized the employer was not taking her seriously, so she met with Gualpa.

“My English is not good, but Ligia’s is,” says Sanchez. “So they will listen to her.”

Evelia Torres, 27, whose job was to cut clothing threads and pack items for shipping, says she is owed wages of $29. However, the largest claim that Gualpa would be questioning the company is for Ilaria Reyes, 40, for $1,034. Reyes says she worked long hours and overtime believing that she would eventually get paid. “I had to come to work,” Reyes says.  “Whatever he would give me is better than standing on the corner and making no money.”

Streetcorner Advocate for Women on the Day Labor Treadmill

Women wait for potential clients seeking day labor (Photo: Hoda Emam/ The Brooklyn Ink)

As Gualpa and the ladies prepare to walk up the factory stairs to meet with the employer, a look of concern sweeps across the women’s faces. While Gualpa seems very calm, Reyes’s hands are trembling. The climb up the stairs and walk through the narrow and aged warehouse hallways seems to put some doubt in the women. They begin to lag behind Gualpa, slowing their pace and speaking softly among themselves. When they all finally enter the office, Gualpa approaches the manager with a smile. Sanchez stands up straight with hands folded across her chest, Torres looks on to the piles of black and khaki clothing laid on rows of tables, as if to appear distracted, but Reyes is flustered, her face a deep red color.

“See, this is the problem,” Sanchez whispers. “Women are scared to confront the bosses.”

After Gualpa patiently explains all the missing wages and dates to the factory manager, she insists on the immediate payment of at least the two smaller debts. The factory director says he will have to check with his accountant before writing any checks. Even though Gualpa does not succeed in getting any of the women paid, she says that she has achieved a broader goal – making the employer aware that there are repercussions to hiring women off the Williamsburg street corner and treating them unfairly.

“I am going to check back with him next week,” Gualpa says. “In the meantime, I will go ahead and submit the cases and run an investigation on the factory.” According to Gualpa, agents will visit the company in question, around two weeks after presenting a complaint to the State Department of Labor.

Gualpa was raised in the Bronx after her family emigrated from Ecuador when she was eight years old. She grew up seeing the neighborhood’s working men and women, including her parents, exploited on a daily basis through low wages and ill . “My family came for a dream,” Gualpa says. “It’s the dream of every American, which is to feed your family, give them a right to a good education and offer them good opportunities.”

Gualpa says she wants to be the agent of change and show immigrants how to obtain the American Dream. She is now cultivating a group to campaign for a portable hiring center at the intersection in Williamsburg. With an annual budget of $150,000, the Day Laborers Organization Project relies entirely on foundation donations and fund-raising. The facility would offer the women relief from the heat and cold as well as a suitable location for employers to approach the domestic workers and agree on a set hourly pay and duration.

Gualpa knows she has a huge hurdle ahead with this campaign, since the hiring center would support undocumented workers. Regardless, Gualpa says she understands how effective a big group can be rather than just one voice. “If I can empower one lady to be a leader within her own community,” she says, “then I have empowered many.”

Centers Help Day Laborers Get a Hand and Get Paid

Centers Help Day Laborers Get a Hand and Get Paid

By KARI LYDERSEN and BRIDGET O’SHEA | Aug 24, 2011 | Source: ChicagoNewsCoop.org

 

Centers Help Day Laborers Get a Hand and Get Paid

Day laborers talk with a potential employer at a gas station at Belmont and Milwaukee avenues at 8 a.m., July 25, 2011. Image Credit: Paul Beaty

Every morning, rain or shine, Miguel used to head for the corner of Belmont and Milwaukee avenues and wait at an informal gathering spot of day laborers near a BP gas station in hopes he would be hired to set tile, pour concrete or lay sod.After the job, sometimes he would be paid as promised but often he was not–a daily risk for the thousands of workers like Miguel who are hired off street corners by contractors or homeowners who need help with construction or landscaping.Today Miguel, 48, still makes a living doing temporary construction work. But instead of braving cold temperatures or stifling heat at a busy intersection, he meets employers at a storefront office of the Albany Park Workers Center at Bryn Mawr and Kimball avenues.

He starts each job with a contract spelling out his pay and working conditions that a lawyer at the center will help him enforce, if necessary.

“Here we have a roof over our head, we have coffee,” said Miguel who moved to Chicago from Mexico 16 years ago. “And a contract is signed so we know we will get paid.” Workers’ last names are withheld in this article because some are undocumented immigrants.

The Albany Park Workers Center is one of about 40 throughout the nation set up in an effort to reform the day labor industry. The center, which opened in 2004, was founded and is run by the Latino Union, a group created in 2000 by immigrant women working at temporary staffing agencies that grew into a larger workers rights and immigrants rights non-profit organization.

Some local business owners and residents oppose the workers centers, arguing they facilitate the hiring of people in the U.S. illegally and encourage illegal immigration. Laborers gathering on street corners also have caused local controversies, with some neighbors complaining they block traffic and sometimes make women passersby feel uncomfortable.

Without a workers center, undocumented laborers can be vulnerable to unscrupulous employers. A 2006 study by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of California Los Angeles found that two thirds of day laborers surveyed in the Midwest, including Chicago, had not been paid wages due them in the past two months, and 27 percent had been threatened with violence by employers.

Nationally, almost half of the day laborers told researchers they had been denied food or water breaks and the vast majority reported being hurt on the job or left at faraway work sites without transportation home.

The Latino Union set up the storefront office in Albany Park to combat the abuses and convince day laborers at street corners around the city to get jobs through workers centers instead of on their own.

Eric Rodriguez, the Latino Union’s executive director, said most street corners have informal networks and leaders who typically agree on a base wage. At the corner of Milwaukee and Belmont, for example, he said it’s $12 an hour, higher than the $8.25 an hour Illinois minimum wage.

But he said it is difficult to enforce the agreements when someone drives up looking for workers and is surrounded by men jockeying for a job.

At a workers center, there’s little jostling or bargaining for work. The center’s staff doesn’t ask day laborers about their immigration status, although it is widely understood that many are undocumented. Patricio Ordonez, a former day laborer turned Albany Park job coordinator, uses a lottery system to assign men to jobs and then negotiates their contract.

“The current broken immigration laws give predatory employers an advantage,” said Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. Mr. Newman said undocumented immigrants are reluctant to speak up if employers abuse them, but workers centers and their lawyers are not.

Mr. Rodriguez often visits other street corners and passes out pamphlets on workers rights and safety. At the Albany Park center, day laborers can take advantage of English language classes and free works on construction skills such as plumbing and other topics. The center also hosts barbecues and soccer tournaments where workers from different street corners compete and then talk about improving working conditions for day laborers.

As it has for other occupations, the poor economy is hurting day laborers, who face increased competition for jobs, Mr. Rodriguez said.

And the anti-immigrant sentiment that often intensifies in hard economic times is evident in legislation being considered in the United States Congress. Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, has introduced a bill that would force workers centers to close or greatly alter their practices. The proposed Legal Workforce Act would mandate that all employers, including workers centers, use the government’s E-Verify electronic system to validate employees’ Social Security numbers.

Most legislative experts don’t expect the bill to become law, as it probably would not pass the Senate.

In assessing the intended impact of the bill, Tyler Moran, policy director for the National Immigration Law Center, said she didn’t think it would accomplish its goal of forcing day laborers to return to their native lands. “For the day laborers who are undocumented,” Ms. Moran said, “it’s not going to send them back home. It’s just going to move them from on-the-books to off-the-books.”

In other words, back to a street corner.

Workin’ at the car wash

Workin’ at the car wash

08.23.11 | Rebecca Bowe | Source: SFBG.com

Workin’ at the car wash Worker advocates with La Raza Centro Legal and the San Francisco Day Labor Program are partnering with city officials for a creative approach to addressing the pervasive issue of wage theft: A worker-owned car wash.

On Aug. 17, attorneys from La Raza joined with City Attorney Dennis Herrera to announce that a lawsuit had been filed against the owners of Tower Car Wash for longstanding labor law violations that resulted in workers earning less than minimum wage. The complaint, filed jointly with the city and La Raza, seeks to recover up to $3 million in compensation, penalties, and interest for the cheated workers.

The Tower Car Wash lawsuit, along with other high-profile complaints alleging wage theft that the city has filed against the owners of Dick Lee Pastry and Danny Ho, who allegedly cheated day laborers out of the money they were owed, would never have come to fruition if low-wage workers hadn’t come forward. Individuals like Tower Car Wash employee Rosa Ochoa, who’s involved with La Raza’s Colectiva de Mujeres, have publicly challenged their employers for labor violations, a tough stand in a state with exceptionally high unemployment in the midst of a recession.

“What we feel like is really important about this lawsuit is that for us, it’s about worker empowerment,” says Workers’ Rights Coordinating Attorney Kate Hegé of La Raza. “It wouldn’t be possible without these workers being able to come forward.”

The idea for a worker-owned car wash emerged out of a desire to advance the goal of worker empowerment, Hegé notes. With help from Sup. David Campos, interim Mayor Ed Lee, and pro bono assistance from the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, La Raza and the San Francisco Day Labor Program hope to establish a regular car wash on weekdays in the city-owned lot on Bayshore and Alemany boulevards, the location of the Alemany Farmer’s Market and the Alemany Flea Market on Saturdays and Sundays.

“We’ve been working with the city for the past several months to start a green, worker-owned car wash cooperative where workers of the San Francisco Day Labor Program would not only administer it, but work and gain benefits,” Renee Saucedo, Community Empowerment Coordinator at La Raza, told the Guardian. “The main thing about this day labor car wash is that it’s going to be run by the workers themselves.”

The project comes on the heels of a broader local effort to improve protections for low-wage workers. Earlier this month, the Board of Supervisors approved the Wage Theft Prevention Ordinance, crafted in partnership with the Progressive Workers Alliance to strengthen the the city’s Office of Labor Standards & Enforcement.

LAWRENCE: Learn to serve others, and enrichment will follow

By The Rev. Robert P. Lawrence | Source: The Herald News | Aug 19, find 2011

“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
— Philippians 2:4

Several years ago, the executive of a steel company in Pittsburgh resigned his position and applied for work in a steel mill in another city. This one-time executive became a day laborer for the first time in his life. Some of his friends who knew what he had done thought his actions were very strange. Some saw his decision as a stunt. Others thought he was out of his mind.

But his decision to move from management to laborer was very deliberate. Working six months side-by-side with other laborers, the one-time executive gained a viewpoint of the workers’ problems from a new and entirely different perspective. This man, who spent summers in Westport, became a recognized authority in management-labor relations as he was fulfilling Paul’s statement that we should learn to see matters from other people’s points of view.

This lesson applies not only to business and industry, but to community and family relationships as well.

If a family or a community becomes dysfunctional, we can find the cause generally in a breakdown of relationships. If there is any one reason for a person to feel isolated, divorced or separated, we can find the cause as a feeling of being unimportant. One of the stronger human needs that every person requires for a happy relationship in the work force, a happy marriage or in academia is that of feeling important.

A person merely watching the clock on the job; a spouse who is taken for granted for what is expected or a student wanting a grade of 72 when a 70 is passing is a person who fails to see their role as being important enough to make a difference.

We live in a sociological, psychological and spiritual milieu where everybody is a somebody and relationships may always remain fractured when the interests of theirs are ignored.

One of the great losses in family life is the disregard for that time when families gathered for the family dinner and each family member was provided with the opportunity to share the moments of the day, both good and bad. What the member experienced was not only the time to unload their joys and high moments as well as their hurts and disappointments, but also the satisfaction that someone was interested enough to listen.

What better way to communicate our love for someone than to trust that person with our feelings, from which the listener wants the best for us. Not only is our text sound spiritual counsel, but it also points the way to healthy satisfactions for a life well-lived.

We all have had the experience of being in a relationship where the conversation is all one way. We are told that a person all wrapped up in themselves is a very small package. Nothing is more frustrating than to relate with someone with strong narcissistic needs.

Most every situation one can imagine receives either a healthy or neurotic need.

Eating is obviously healthy for nutrition of the human body. But think of the neurotic needs one has for junk food that creates obesity.

Love is obviously a healthy experience for the human condition. But think of those neurotic needs to manipulate or control others in the name of love.

Work is obviously a healthy expression of our creativity. But think of those neurotic times used as avoidance from family responsibilities.

When neurotic, we think only of our own needs. As Paul suggests, when healthy, we think of others.

When we consider the needs of others and make people feel good about themselves, it is amazing that the response is often the recipient giving back many times over what they have received. The Master had insight on this point by saying “to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

We all have two kinds of relationships: intrapsychic, when we think only of ourselves; and interpersonal, where we think of others. Paul made it clear that the egos of most people care for themselves, but the healthy self with a good self-image will consider the needs of others.

There is a wonderful message from American Indians that reads: “Don’t judge a person until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.” Therapy and counseling are most effective not by telling someone what to do, but when a troubled person is brought to that point when he sees he has value and worth that motivate a healthier style of life.

The author sir Alexander Peterson agrees with our text today when he writes: “Make us masters of ourselves that we may be the servants of others.” It is amazing how enriched one’s life becomes when they serve the needs of others.

Hispanic Center Helps Workers Get Paid

Hispanic Center Helps Workers Get Paid

There are many reasons employers don’t pay up, and people who don’t get paid can get help.

By Christine Rose | Source: Danbury.patch.com

Hispanic Center Helps Workers Get Paid

Executive Director Ingrid Alvarez-Dimarzo Credit Christine Rose

The current economic climate is hot for workers who aren’t getting paid for the hours they work, and this is as true for employees of large corporations as it is for the day laborers on Kennedy Avenue.

While undocumented residents may fear they have less rights to go after deadbeat employers, there are remedies for anyone who is not getting to paid to recoup their wages.

Police Capt Thomas Wendel said he doesn’t doubt that immigrant workers may be suffering lost wages by unscrupulous employers, but Executive Director Ingrid Alvarez-Dimarzo said, “In this time of economic hardship, it’s a problem that effects everyone.”

Gary Pechie from the state Department of Labor’s Wages and Workplace Standards agrees with both Wendel and Alvarez-Dimarzo. He says that he has worked with the department since 1977 and he has never seen it this bad.

The Hispanic Center is reporting that as many as ten people a day are coming in for help. Pechie says that in the 1970s the Department of Labor received about twenty complaints a year, and now they are receiving as many as twenty a day.

“It isn’t just blue collar workers, either. It’s the white collar people, management, who hold on hoping things will smooth over, and go quite a while without getting paid,” Pechie said.

When a business is failing, both employee and employer often ignore reality.  Employees who continue to show up for work may find that things will not improve, while hoping that if they work this week, the boss will pay them for last week. Yet, their optimisim does not always pay off, and workers are complaining across the state, they aren’t getting paid.

Besides the economy, there are many other reasons for employers don’t pay. Sometimes the boss and the worker disagree about how much is owed and neither will settle except for what they believe is owed. In these cases, the labor department will investigate the claims to determine the actual amount owed.

Companies that are struggling sometimes withhold federal taxes and don’t pay them. In other cases, companies neglect to pay unemployment insurance. Under those circumstances, both the company and the worker could suffer.

Pechie said that not paying back pay is a Class D felony and could result in jail time, but that employers shouldn’t be afraid to come forward for help.

“We will call their bosses, file the reports,” said Leslie Leon, Intake Spet at the Hispanic Center.  ”We have people coming in who speak Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish; all ethnicities are having a problem these days.”

The Hispanic Center has developed clinics to help both businesses and employees understand the options available to help them escape a never-ending cycle of non-payment of employees and taxes.

“Many small business owners have been deducting taxes that were never paid to the IRS. That money was supposed to be used for unemployment insurance. Those businesses might fear the consequences and avoid our calls. But they should know that we can help them,” said Alvarez-Dimarzo.

The Center arranges payment plans with the IRS to help workers get paid and for businesses to pay their back taxes. According to Alvarez-Dimarzo, ”As long as they come forward and there is a plan, we can help them work it out.”

Administration Announcement Falls Short

In Response to the announcement made by Senior Officials that DHS would review its caseload of 300,000 currently in deportation proceedings, Chris Newman, Legal Director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, issued this statement:
“The administration has earned the President the title of ‘Deporter-in-Chief.’ We hope the statement today announcing review of the current caseload of victims of indiscriminate enforcement is carried forth. However, we have heard elegant statements of priorities before, and the problem is that those announcements have been belied the administration’s actions.
In order to fulfill its promises, the Obama administration must end policies like Se Communities that result in the criminalization of innocent immigrants who are Americans in Waiting like those who came before them. To date, the administration has pursued policies that are sowing and fear and devastation among immigrant communities, and it must reverse course to stop the Arizonification of the country.” …