Workers’ Rights Law Center Blog

Check out this (unbelieveable) article about CJH, Inc. and Roger Hoek from the Times Herald Record: 

 http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070506/NEWS/705060332/-1/NEWS0205

CJH and Hoek were defendants in a WRLC case in which our clients went unpaid for several months!   With the WRLC’s help, our clients recovered part of their unpaid wages, and they – like many others discussed in the article — have a judgment against CJH, Hoek, and Hoek’s wife for the rest.  Our next step is to enforce the judgment so that our clients can recover all of the money they are owed.

Unfortunately, we see contractors like CJH and Hoek fairly regularly.

 – Tricia

Today’s NY Times editorial page has one of the more thoughtful critiques of the immigration “compromise” that became public late last week.  It examines the good, the bad, and the awful components of the proposed legislation.  It concludes:

It is the nation’s duty to welcome immigrants, to treat them decently and give them the opportunity to assimilate. But if it does so according to the outlines of the deal being debated this week, the change will come at too high a price: The radical repudiation of generations of immigration policy, the weakening of families and the creation of a system of modern peonage within our borders.

I couldn’t agree more.

To read the complete editorial, click the following link:  The Immigration Deal

Dan

There was an excellent story on NPR yesterday highlighting corruption in the H-2 guestworker programs.  As the debate over immigration reform continues in Congress, the story should serve as a warning about the dangers of an expanded guestworker program.  Any immigrant worker bill should, among other things, (1) allow workers to participate in the free market of labor, rather than having their visa tied to a single employer or employer association; (2) provide a path towards citizenship so a permanent underclass of temporary workers is not created; and (3) prohibit recruitment fees and put resources into investigating and prosecuting recruiters who charge these fees, which frequently lead to debt peonage once the worker is in the U.S.

Read or listen to the NPR story:  Corruption Leads to Deep Debt for Guest Workers

All of us at the WRLC are very grateful to all of the people and organizations who helped make our first annual dinner and silent auction a resounding success! 

Thanks to the planning committee:  Jay Mahler, Jen Fuentes, Peter Frank, and Diana Vazquez.  Thanks to our hardworking volunteers:  Ann Citron, Patrick McDonough, Linda Provenzana, Ursula Ingham, Jonathan Raye, Rose Bookbinder, Max, BJ Peterson, and Tom Caplan.  Thanks to our speaker, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith.  Thanks to those who purchased journal ads.

Thanks to our silent auction donors:  Hudson Valley School of Massage, Partners in Massage, Terrapin Restaurant, Kavitha Rao, Nan Tepper, Common Fire Foundation, Skytop Steakhouse & Brewing Co., Upstate Films, Yoga on Duck Pond, Town Tinker Tube Rentals, Brotherhood Winery, Ameribags, the Depuy Canal House, Frog Hollow Farms, Mike Schlanger, Martha Davis, Jill Dunn, Yogalifestyle.com, Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records, Jan Whitman, Rock & Snow, Jennifer Gordon, Ron Soodalter, Richard Witt, Tracey Leavitt, the Wander Inn, Rudy Stegemoeller, Boiceville Inn, Richard Ratner, Van Emery, Mohonk Preserve, Mohonk Golf Course, Morris Dees/Southern Poverty Law Center, Sandra Oxford, Jennifer Peterson, Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, William Hoynes, Walter Cadette, Carlos Orellana, Mizue Aizeki, and Sean Sullivan. 

And thanks to everyone who attending and contributed.  Join us again next year!

– Tricia

Thanks to everyone who attended or contributed to last night’s Annual Dinner and Silent Auction.  It was a huge success.  We’ll post photos shortly.

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