Workers’ Rights Law Center Blog

I think I may have found a violation of the law that is almost as rampant as failure to pay overtime:  unconstitutional parade ordinances.  Last year, the City of Poughkeepsie issued a citation to one of the organizers of the May 1 immigrant march for “helping to organize a parade without a permit.”  The City parade ordinance is glaringly unconstitutional.  Among its many problems, it gives the Chief of Police unbridled discretion to grant or deny permits based on the applicants’ politics, and it requires that permit applications be submitted 15 days in advance of the event (courts routinely strike down requirements for 3-days notice). It is also so vague that folk waiting in line for a movie could be cited for having an unpermitted assembly.   The WRLC represented the organizer in criminal court, and based on our motion, the judge dropped the charges.  If the City of Poughkeepsie does not modify the ordinance, we may end up filing suit in federal court (later, the City also denied a permit to some labor unions who wanted to hold a rally)
This year, opponents of First Amendment free speech are back.  Already, the WRLC has advised organizers of two immigrant marches scheduled for May 1.   The mayor of one municipality told the organizers that he would deny the permit because he did not want to pay overtime wages to the police who would be stationed at the march (at least some people get overtime).  He said he’d grant the permit if the organizers agreed to pay the officers’ overtime.  In case you were wondering, this is an entirely unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.  Another municipality told the organizers that they would not get a permit because the town board had to meet to approve the application, and “there is no way we can get the board to meet on time.”  After we communicated with the town attorney, they convened an emergency meeting of the town board and the permit was granted, avoiding having to deal with the obvious constitutional shortfalls of their policy.

Municipalities need to adopt parade ordinances that are constitutionally sound.  This impacts organized labor, immigrants…  all of us.  I am certainly committed to taking whatever legal action is necessary to assure that immigrants’ and workers’ rights to speak out are protected.

Dan

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center sent us a copy of his book, A Lawyer’s Journey: The Morris Dees Story, for the May 1 silent auction.  He signed it, “In honor of the very important work of the Workers’ Rights Law Center.  Best Wishes, Morris Dees”

We are honored and flattered by Morris Dees’ contribution to the auction and his acknowledgment of the work we do.

Don’t forget to bid on this chronicle of Dees’ and the SPLC’s struggle for racial and economic justice.

The following is a quote from today’s New York Times article:

Across Washington, political appointees — often former officials of the industries they now oversee — have eased regulations or weakened enforcement of rules on issues like driving hours for truckers, logging in forests and corporate mergers.

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million workers, but it has yet to require them.

Click the following link to view the complete NY Times article:   OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry

Who will win the next WRLC computer geek of the month award?  Diana is certainly in the running.  She has set up an account with goodsearch.com.  Every time you use goodsearch for your internet search, we get a penny.  This can really add up.  Goodsearch is powered by Yahoo, so there’s no question about its reliability.

If all of our supporters stop using Google and start using Goodsearch, this can potentially really help the WRLC.  Use the following link to go directly to the WRLC’s Goodsearch page:  http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=841800 .  You can also go to the WRLC’s Goodsearch page by clicking the link on workersrightsny.org’s navigation bar.
Thanks, Diana.

Dan

According to an article in today’s USA Today,

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend found that 78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.

Read the article:  Public favors giving illegal immigrants a break

Tickets are still available for the WRLC’s May 1st dinner and can be purchased through our website.   Come have some great food, dance to Mambo Ki-Kongo, bid on our terrific silent auction items, and support the WRLC!   We hope you will join us.

 – Tricia

The list of items that’ll be auctioned off at our May 1 dinner is growing.  It’ll be interesting to see what items are hot at the auction.  I have a feeling one particular item that involves the Yankees and the Red Sox will be very popular.

You can check out the latest list of items with links to the contributors’ websites at http://www.workersrightsny.org/WRLCMay1.php#auction.  I’m trying to keep the list up to date, so check back periodically.

We’re all really looking forward to this.

WRLC Board Member Jen Fuentes has been on the front lines of a heated and well-publicized battle over labor policies at the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).  The IDA grants tax benefits and other subsidies to qualifying businesses that locate in the county.  Jen is spearheading an effort to require recipients of IDA tax benefits to pay the prevailing wage (usually a living wage that is significantly higher than the minimum wage) to their employees.

The WRLC has been involved in litigation against two IDA benefit recipients who not only did not pay the prevailing wage, but actually did not pay the minimum wage or overtime, as required by federal and state law.  The WRLC is preparing a lawsuit against a third IDA recipient who didn’t pay some of its employees at all for several weeks of work, and never paid overtime.  This is shameful.   While some IDA businesses are certainly good employers, there has been zero meaningful oversight of the program which is, after all, designed to create jobs in economically challenged parts of the county.

If IDA businesses are to continue to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax breaks and other benefits in order to create jobs in Ulster County, there must be a requirement that these jobs pay a living wage, and there must be oversight.  Minimum wage jobs do nothing to remedy economic stagnation.  Rather, allowing tax breaks for corporations without imposing living wage requirements for workers concentrates wealth even more and expands the ranks of the working poor.

Keep up the good work, Jen!