From the National Guestworkers' Alliance:

As the Senate votes this week on amendments to the immigration bill drafted by the “gang of eight,” it needs to make sure that it doesn’t bring one group of immigrant workers out of the shadows while trapping another in captive labor.

Hundreds of guestworkers have emerged from labor camps across America in recent years to expose severe labor abuse in federal temporary worker programs. From food processing to construction, from  the Wal-Mart seafood supply chain to the Hershey’s Chocolate packing plant, guestworkers have revealed how employers and their recruiters abuse guestworker programs as a source of cheap, exploitable labor. When they do, they also drive down wages and conditions for tens of millions of U.S. workers who work alongside guestworkers.

Please sign a petition to tell Congress that immigration reform must include key guestworker protections--for the sake of all workers.

FILED UNDER: Guestworkers | Immigration Reform

A new report, Home Truths, from the National Domestic Workers Alliance, reveals that 75 years after the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act, domestic workers in California have little protection and work under highly vulnerable conditions.

When federal minimum wage and overtime laws were passed 75 years ago, domestic workers were excluded from even those basic labor protections. Back then, domestic work wasn’t considered real work, and 75 years later, our nation’s labor laws still don’t recognize the contributions of domestic workers across California.

The report shows that:

• 25 percent of workers surveyed are paid below California’s minimum wage.
• 6 in 10 earn a wage that is below the level needed to adequately support a family.
• 23 percent had no food to eat in the last month because they lacked resources to obtain it—an extreme form of food insecurity.
• Only 6 percent work for employers who pay into Social Security.

You can read the full report here.

FILED UNDER: Domestic/Homecare Workers

From noon on Tuesday, June 11 to noon on Friday, June 14, Bay Area immigrant workers and their supporters will be engaging in a FAST AGAINST THE FIRINGS to draw attention to the unjust firing of hundreds of immigrants. 

Even though the full Senate has begun deliberations on the Immigration Reform Bill S. 744, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the federal Department of Homeland Security is requiring local employers to fire hundreds of workers, saying they have no immigration papers.  The administration calls its reform proposal "commonsense immigration reform," but the fasters say there is no common sense in firing workers while Congress debates it.

These firings are often called "silent raids," and the fasters seek to make them visible, and to express their moral outrage against the Federal government.  Rev. Dr. Phil Lawson, Pastor Emeritus of Easter Hill United Methodist Church and leader of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, one of the fasters, says, "These families have done nothing wrong.  They're being punished for working, which is what people in our community are supposed to do.  We will not allow these workers to be treated as though they are invisible.  Being terminated because of immigration status is a violation of their human and civil rights."

FILED UNDER: I-9/Employer Audits | Immigrant Workers | Immigration Reform

Happy International Workers' Day!

May Day Rallies Aim for Immigration Reform [Contra Costa Times] 

Exploiting immigrants: Labor laws need to protect undocumented workers, too [San Jose Mercury News] 

Bills to Protect California Immigrant Workers Introduced [San Jose Mercury News] 

A Pathway to Citizenship Should Create Workplace Protections [Huffington Post]

Five Ways Immigration Reform Will Help American Workers [Washington Post]

Immigration Raises Incomes in America [Slate] 

Palermo Villa Found Not to Violate Labor Protections With Immigration Check  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel] 

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers

Statement of Christine Owens, Executive Director, National Employment Law Project

Washington, DC—The National Employment Law Project welcomes the Senate’s introduction of bipartisan legislation to reform our nation’s immigration laws.  In the coming days, NELP will analyze the details of this complex and far-reaching proposal and its impact on workers’ rights and low-wage labor markets.  

The centerpiece of the Senate bill is a pathway to citizenship for most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.  A pathway to citizenship that enables undocumented immigrants to live and work out of the shadows will enable millions of workers and their families to overcome one of the greatest barriers to their own economic security and prosperity.  First-class citizenship will allow these workers to contribute fully to their communities and to our nation’s economic recovery.    

FILED UNDER: Immigration Reform