fuerza laboral – RI Future

October 22, 2016

Boycott Wendy’s protest in Providence

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Nearly three dozen people marched and chanted outside Wendy’s on Charles St in Providence Friday afternoon to call attention to the boycott of the food chain called by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group that has fought for farmworker’s rights and fair treatment for two decades. Wendy’s remains the largest fast food chain that refuses to ethically source their produce from CIW supported growers. Rather than supporting the efforts of the CIW, Wendy’s began purchasing its produce from Mexico, where workers “continue to confront wage theft, sexual harassment, child labor and even slavery.”

CIW member Julia de la Cruz lead the protest, assisted by members of the Brown University Student Labor Alliance, the AFSC, Fuerza Laboral and the Fair Food Alliance.

When a coalition of five protesters approached the restaurant to deliver a message to the manager, they were loudly asked to leave the property, and did. The protest lasted 90 minutes and garnered the support and interest of many passersby.

September 16, 2016September 16, 2016

Workers to receive unpaid wages after second action

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2016-09-15 Fuerza 006 — Fabian calls David Civetti

After workers and activists from Fuerza Laboral gave David Civetti a 6am wake up call last August, he agreed to meet with the 8 workers who claim that his company owes them for work they completed but were never paid for. Civetti, the CEO of Dependable and Affordable Cleaning Inc, met the workers at the Fuerza Laboral offices, said organizer Raul Figueroa, but maintained he owed the workers nothing, became frustrated, and left. Hence the need for a second action, this timed aimed at Civetti’s offices in the neighborhood next to Providence College.

Fuerza maintains that on May 26-29, Civetti’s company “assigned a group of workers to clean apartments located in the area surrounding Providence College. The workers say that Civetti assigned workers to the houses that needed cleaning and supplied them with company tee shirts and cleaning supplies. After the job was completed, 8 workers were not compensated for those 4 days, 11 hours a day.” Civetti claimed that the people who cleaned his apartments were hired by subcontractors, and that the the subcontractors owe the money, not him.

On Thursday about a dozen workers and activists showed up at Civetti’s offices near Providence College, and began leafleting houses and passing students. Organizer Raul Figueroa carried a megaphone and broadcast the workers’ complaints to the neighborhood. Once the workers arrived at Civetti’s offices, Fabian, one of the workers, called Civetti on the phone and asked him to come down and pay him the money he is owed. When Civetti would not commit to do so, the protest continued.

Eventually, as can be seen towards the end of the third video below, Civetti agreed by phone to meet with the workers at the Fuerza Laboral offices for a second time. According to Fuerza organizer Raoul Figueroa and Mike Araujo of RI Jobs with Justice, Civetti agreed that he did owe the workers their unpaid wages at this meeting. He has agreed to pay the workers on Friday.

This story will be updated.

UPDATE: Raoul Figueroa has informed me that the employees have been paid.

August 4, 2016September 16, 2016

Workers demand pay in early morning action

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2016-08-04 Fuerza Laboral 011 — David Civetti

David Civetti, CEO of Dependable and Affordable Cleaning Inc, got a wake up call early Thursday morning about the importance of paying employees for work done.

At about 6am over a dozen people from Fuerza Laboral arrived at Civetti’s Johnston home and knocked on his door, waking him from his sleep. Fuerza maintains that on May 26-29, Civetti’s company “assigned a group of workers to clean apartments located in the area surrounding Providence College. After the job was completed, 8 workers were not compensated for those 4 days, 11 hours a day.”

The excuse given at the time was that Civetti was not satisfied with the work that had been done, say the workers.

“What’s the problem?” asked Civetti answering the door after protesters rang his bell and yelled for him to come outside and talk with them. “I have no idea who anybody is. I have no idea who you are.”

“No?” asked a woman incredulously, “Do you know her? Do you know him?”

“No,” said Civetti, before eventually admitting that he recognized one of the workers present.

“You need to pay your workers,” said Heiny Maldonado, executive director of Fuerza Laboral.

Civetti shrugged. “Everybody who works for me gets paid.”

“Let me ask you a question,” said Civetti, “Did I hire you? Or did someone else bring you to work with them?”

“We worked for you.”

“Did I hire you?” asked Civetti again. “Rosa hired you. Did Rosa bring them? Rosa and Chris brought them to a job. I didn’t hire them.”

“We know the game,” said Raul Figueroa, organizer for Fuerza, “we deal with it every day.”

The game Figueroa was referring to is the practice of classifying some workers as subcontractors in an attempt to circumvent labor laws. By hiring people on as subcontractors, some companies try to avoid the costs associated with properly hiring workers and sometimes manage to not pay workers at all.

“We use sub-contractors from time to time,” admitted Civetti. “Rosa and Chris are sub-contractors. They are responsible for paying [their employees].”

Claiming that the workers were hired as subcontractors doesn’t let Civetti off the hook says Marissa Janton, a lawyer with the Rhode Island Center for Justice, a public interest law office that has teamed up with Fuerza Laboral. Under the law, an employer is defined by what he does, she said.

According to Janson, Civetti “directly employed” her clients. Civetti met them at a house on Eaton St. near Providence College where he keeps his cleaning supplies. He set their $10 an hour pay rate and assigned them to the houses they needed to clean. After they finished a house, the workers called Civetti who told them which house they needed to clean next, said Janson.

This all adds up to being an employee, maintains Janson, not a sub-contractor.

Workers at the early morning action reminded Civetti that they were given tee shirts emblazoned with the company logo to wear while they worked. Civetti said that he gives out lots of tee shirts, and asked if wearing a Dunkin Donuts tee shirt means he works there.

“It does if you’re pouring coffee,” said Justin Kelley, who assisted Fuerza as the police liaison for the morning’s action.

Ultimately, after nearly a quarter hour of contentious conversation, Civetti agreed to meet with the aggrieved workers to settle the issue next week.

Driving to Civetti’s home, the group passed many campaign signs advertising a Civetti running for the Johnston City Council. When asked about the signs Civetti replied that the signs were for his brother, Robert Civetti, a longtime Johnston resident and accountant

Not getting paid for work is something few of us can afford, but this practice seriously impacts low wage workers. Everyone needs to eat and pay rent after all, and a week working without pay is a serious injustice.

“It’s sad and disappointing to work so hard for someone who ends up stealing your wages, after working for over 40 hours,” said Maria Hoyos, one of the affected workers. She was involved with a direct action several years ago, demanding lost wages for other workers. She never thought this would happen to her. “Being told that your work was not done properly, just to use it as an excuse to not pay you is not only wrong but immoral.”

Below is the full interaction between Civetti and Fuerza Laboral.

June 23, 2016June 24, 2016

Significant protections against wage theft passed

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After years of struggle the Rhode Island General Assembly under the leadership of Senator Donna Nesslebush, and Representative Joe Shekarchi have passed a bill that finally makes the scourge of wage theft a crime. Stealing workers’ wages has always been civil offense with serious hurdles from the bureaucracies that were supposed to help. With close consultation with the DLT and Director Scott Jensen and legislative stakeholder meetings, House Bill 7628 and Senate Bill 2475 passed in the small morning hours on Saturday June 18.

These bills will provide for serious penalties including fines and imprisonment for taking from working Rhode Islanders. Perhaps the most significant penalty is the loss of a business license, the bills also empower the director of the Department of Labor and Training to determine compliance. Encouraging responsible reporting and discouraging false claims, the process of private suit has meaningful safeguards in place.

“Too often we see workers awarded a judgment by DLT only to have the employer refuse to pay what is owed,” said Robert McCreanor executive director of the worker advocacy law firm The Rhode Island Center for Justice. With the power to revoke business licenses from offending employers who refuse to comply with its rulings, DLT will be able to compel prompt payment and get more money, more efficiently, into the hands of the worker who earned it. While more work needs to be done to address the growing problem of wage theft, this bill provides an important tool for Rhode Island workers.”

Said Lidia Jimenez a member of Fuerza Laboral, “As a worker that has had their wages stolen, I feel proud that my testimony and that of Flor Salazar helped elected officials understand the atrocities that are committed daily by bad employers who feel that justice will not reach them and take our daily bread. This will help put an end to some of the abuse.” It is estimated by Economic Progress Institute that over $50,000,000,000 per year are stolen from workers’ wages. The process of enforcement historically has been spotty and difficult to apply.

Jeremy Rix who is running for 2nd ward of the Warwick City Council said, “I’m thrilled that the wage theft reforms introduced by Rep. Shekarchi become law. This law will deter many unethical employers from stealing wages, and provide a meaningful path for vulnerable employees to recover their stolen earnings.”

The organizations that have participated in the effort to pass these two vital bills are: Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, The RIAFL-CIO, Fuerza Laboral, and the Rhode Island Center for Justice. Each of these organizations is committed to improving the conditions of Rhode Island’s working people.

March 23, 2016March 25, 2016

State House licenses for all rally gets loud

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Providing licenses for undocumented immigrants in Rhode Island is an idea that is not going away. After Governor Gina Raimondo failed to deliver on her campaign promise to issue an executive order allowing the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue operator licenses to undocumented immigrants, the General Assembly took up the issue at the Governor’s request. Bills were introduced in the House and Senate. The House bill was heard by the Judiciary committee and held for further study.

Todos Somo Arizona (TSAZ) is a coalition of groups including Jobs with Justice, English for Action, Fuerza Laboral, Comite de Inmigrantes, RI Interfaith Coalition, 32BJSEIU RI, AFCS, Estudios Biblicos and ONA, that is holding a series of actions at the State House to keep attention focused on the issue and on Tuesday activists were loud and their presence was felt, even in the midst of a Second Amendment Rights rally happening at roughly the same time.

At least 400 2nd Amendment Coalition members turned out to pressure the House Judiciary Committee on a raft of bills being heard concerning guns. Nearly 100 members of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence (RICAGV) turned out to have their say on the bills as well.

This lead to some friction, like when former candidate for Mayor of Warwick Stacia Huyler decided to chide the Licenses for All coalition for being too loud. The irony of a Second Amendment activist complaining about people using their First Amendment rights was lost on Huyler.

The issue of granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants is not going away. Everyone, regardless of status, deserves to be allowed to function in our society, and until this becomes the law in Rhode Island, these protests will continue.

Here’s all of this year’s coverage of the issue from RI Future:

2016-03-22 Licenses 020 — Mike Araujo- RI Jobs with Justice

January 22, 2016

Teriyaki House surrenders to direct action, pays workers

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Workers declared victory today after Teriyaki House management finally gave into the pressure of direct action and paid their employees the money the US Department of Labor stipulated.

Teriyaki House workers and their supporters once again protested outside the restaurant in Downtown Providence during lunch to demand that the restaurant pay its employees thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. During the last protest, just before Christmas, Teriyaki House management and lawyers agreed to pay Fidel de Leon, Emilio Garcia, Vicente Lobos and Pedro Gomez their back wages (and damages) as stipulated by the US Department of Labor, by January 22.

As the workers and supporter, organized by Fuerza Laboral and RI Jobs with Justice (JWJ) marched in front of the restaurant on Friday, dissuading customers from eating at the restaurant, the manager of Teriyaki House came out and discussed surrender terms with JWJ executive director Michael Araujo. After Araujo spoke with Teriyaki House’s lawyer on the phone, the restaurant manager headed directly to the US Department of Labor offices downtown and paid.

Minutes later, the unpaid employees, who had been fighting for what they have been owed for years, emerged holding checks. It was a surprising and joyous end to a long and difficult battle for fair pay.

This was the fourth demonstration at Teriyaki House over this issue. For years workers were not being paid minimum wage or overtime for 70-85 hour work weeks. You can see the demonstration and its successful conclusion in the first video below. In the second video, Heiny Maldonado of Fuerza Laboral talks about the power and necessity of direct action against a system that does not empower workers against their employers. Keally Cieslik provided the English translation in both videos.

December 22, 2015December 23, 2015

Teriyaki House ruining Christmas for unpaid employees

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Former Teriyaki House workers and their supporters picketed, held signs and sang Christmas Carols outside the downtown restaurant Tuesday afternoon to remind the owners that they have agreed to pay $36,000 in unpaid wages by March 5, 2016 as per an agreement made with the US Department of Labor. Workers held the action to “to keep up the public pressure” against Teriyaki House and “to make sure they make good on this settlement and pay up as soon as possible because workers have waited long enough for their wages.”

The workers organized through Fuerza Laboral / Power of Workers, a community organization that builds worker leadership to fight workplace exploitation, and RI Jobs with Justice, a coalition of community and labor groups. In June 2015, former Teriyaki House workers filed a complaint with the US Department of Labor regarding their unpaid wages. The employees who filed the complaint had worked at the restaurant for up to three years, between 72 and 85 hours per week. During that time, they were only getting paid between $450 and $600 a week. The restaurant management discounted two hours of lunch/break each day when workers were actually given only 15 minutes to eat their lunch and took no other breaks.

The Christmas theme was especially poignant, as unpaid workers will be foregoing many aspects of Christmas that many who celebrate the holiday take for granted. “Christmas is an important time to be with family and buy gifts for your children, but we won’t have money this holiday,” says former Teriyaki House employee Fidel de Leon, “By stealing our wages, Teriyaki House stole Christmas from us and our children.”

During the action, a man who identified himself as the manager of the restaurant stood nearby with his cellphone, filming those who spoke out about the wage theft they experiences. his actions seemed intended to intimidate the former workers, and he laughed as speaker’s asserted the facts of their case. Later, the same man exited the restaurant a second time. This time he attempted to force a worker to lower his protest sign so that the cellphone camera could capture the worker’s face.

“I worked first 6 days a week, 12 hours a day but I was only paid $514 a week, which comes out to only $7/hr without any overtime,” says Vicente Lobos, one of the former Teriyaki House workers taking action today. “I’m very happy that the DOL has reached an agreement with Teriyaki House to pay us, and we want Teriyaki House to know that we will make sure they come through with this payment. I need my money now, I cannot wait any longer than I already have.”

Teriyaki House workers are part of a greater push to organize workers all along the food chain through Food Chain Workers RIsing, led by Fuerza Laboral and other members of RI Jobs with Justice. The workers’ struggle against wage theft at Teriyaki House is also part of a larger national campaign with Jobs with Justice to pressure the US Congress to pass the Power Act. The Power Act would expand protections for undocumented workers who are organizing for their rights in the workplace.

Workers claim unpaid wages at Teriyaki House rally

Fast food workers rally for $15 and a union at Wendy’s in Warwick

November 24, 2015November 24, 2015

Coalition demands driver’s licenses for all, regardless of immigration status

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“In June of last year, when the candidates were running for governor, we got a promise from all the candidates, including Gina Raimondo, that she would sign an executive order granting driver’s licenses to undocumented people in Rhode Island within the first year of office,” said Juan Garcia, from the Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción.

Garcia was speaking at a State House press conference organized by Todos Somos Arizona, (We Are All Arizona) coalition, a group that supports immigrant rights. Since the Paris attacks last Friday, say organizers, “we have seen a surge in xenophobic messages and remarks made by politicians and the media against refugees and immigrants across Europe and the United States, including Rhode Island.”

2015-11-23 Driver's Licenses 03 — Todos Somos Arizona

Garcia said, “We just want to send a message, especially with everything that has happened in Paris with the terrorist attacks. The people standing behind me are not terrorists. We are human beings, and what better way to promote safety in Rhode Island than to give everybody a driver’s license?”

The coalition argues that this is a human rights issues and that, “driver’s licenses for all residents of Rhode Island would mean safer roads for everyone… Parents need driver’s licenses to drive their children (many of whom are US citizens) to school, doctor’s appointments, and to get to work. They shouldn’t have to live in fear everyday simply to provide for their families.”

“We do not want to be criminalized,” said Heiny Maldonado, director of Fuerza Laboral, “We only want to be recognized for the people that we are.”

José has been in the country in since 2000 and has been driving without a license since 2009. “It’s a safety issue,” he said, “I drive in fear, looking through my rear view mirror… I work a lot, I drive a lot and I need to provide for my loved ones.”

Veronica, speaking on behalf of Inglés en Acción / English for Action (EFA), said that she was speaking for undocumented parents who need to meet with teachers, meet with doctors and need to attend English language classes. They are, says Veronica, “afraid that they can’t get somewhere because they don’t have licenses.”

A dozen states, including Illinois, Vermont, California, New Jersey and Connecticut, have already passed legislation to provide licenses for all of their residents, regardless of immigration status. “We demand that Speaker [Nicholas] Mattiello support the governor, and not block this action,” said Garcia.

So far, Governor Raimondo has failed to keep her campaign promise and sign the executive order. In response to a query, the Governor’s office replied, “The Governor supports providing licenses for undocumented Rhode Island residents and remains committed to pursuing a solution. She has a team across state agencies working on this, but no decisions have been made on timing or process at this time.”

The Todos Somos Arizona coalition includes English for Action (EFA), Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA), Jobs with Justice, SIEU, Fuerza Laboral, Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción / Immigrant Action Committee and the American Friends Service Committee.

November 22, 2015October 22, 2016

Pressure builds on Wendy’s to join Fair Food Program

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The Brown Student Labor Alliance, with members of Fuerza Laboral, visited another Wendy’s in Providence Saturday, to deliver a letter and picket the restaurant to demand “Wendy’s to commit to signing onto the Fair Food Program, a program that ensures that farmworkers are provided a living wage and good working conditions.”

The activists entered the restaurant on Eddy Street and presented a letter to the manager. After the manager accepted the letter the activists moved peacefully out of the restaurant and to the sidewalk, where they marched and chanted. This was part of a series of similar actions covered in part here and here. In accepting the letter, the manager of the Wendy’s kept the disruption of business within the restaurant to a minimum.

According to the Fair Food Program website,

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program is a unique partnership among farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies that ensures humane wages and working conditions for the workers who pick fruits and vegetables on participating farms. It harnesses the power of consumer demand to give farmworkers a voice in the decisions that affect their lives, and to eliminate the longstanding abuses that have plagued agriculture for generations.

The Program has been called ‘the best workplace-monitoring program’ in the US in the New York Times, and ‘one of the great human rights success stories of our day’ in the Washington Post, and has won widespread recognition for its unique effectiveness from a broad spectrum of human rights observers, from the United Nations to the White House.

According to the activists, of “the five largest fast food corporations in the country — McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s — Wendy’s is the only one to not yet sign onto the Fair Food Program.”

In a release announcing the action, the Brown Student Labor Alliance said, “With 14 food retailers now part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program, we are seeing incredible changes — from a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and modern-day slavery, to access to shade, water, and bathrooms, to a real voice on the job — made real not only in Florida, but across state-lines. Just a few months ago, the CIW traveled up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States — Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey — carrying out worker-to-worker education sessions about these new rights for the first time ever with thousands of workers beyond Florida. With these changes, there is now a deep urgency for reinforcement and expansion of the Program, which will only be possible through more retailers joining — yet, corporations like Wendy’s and Publix continue to utterly deny their responsibility to farmworkers.”

November 10, 2015October 22, 2016

Fast food workers rally for $15 and a union at Wendy’s in Warwick

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Fast food employees, restaurant workers and labor allies rallied outside the Wendy’s restaurant at 771 Warwick Ave in Warwick around noon as part of a national effort to kick off a year-long $15 minimum wage campaign ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Nearly 100 people gathered in the parking lot of Wendy’s, where the management had locked the doors ahead of the protests and only served meals through the drive-thru window.

Led by outgoing Rhode-Island Jobs with Justice executive director Jesse Strecker, workers chanted and marched around the building, finally settling in front for a series of speeches from various workers and advocates “all the way down the food chain.”

Long time Wendy’s worker and minimum wage advocate Jo-Ann Gesterling spoke not only about fair wages, but about wages stolen when management forces workers to work through their breaks, lack of accountability in the management structure, and other issues fast food workers deal with on a daily basis.

Demonstrators were not only demanding $15 an hour, fair treatment and a union, they were also demanding that Wendy’s join the the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP). Attentive readers will remember that the Brown Student Labor Alliance lead a protest in October around the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields.”

Emelio Garcia, a former employee of Teriyaki House Restaurant in downtown Providence spoke about not having been paid for work he did at the restaurant. Wage theft is a story sadly common in Rhode Island, as more and more employees stand up and demand the wages that have been stolen from them by employers. Garcia says that he was docked for two hours of pay a day for breaks he was never actually allowed to take.

Flor Salazar, who worked at Café Atlantic and was owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, was allegedly assaulted by owner Juan Noboa with a baseball bat when she and a group of workers confronted Noboa at his home Halloween morning. “We are tired of having our work stolen, we are tired of being disrespected in our workplace,” said Salazar, “It’s enough.”

The final speaker was a not a restaurant worker but Magdalene Smith, a CNA working at a Pawtucket nursing home. “This is not a fight for just restaurants, but for everybody,” said Smith. “Everybody deserves $15. We work hard.”

In addition to Jobs With Justice and the Brown Student/Labor Alliance the event was sponsored by 1199 SEIU Rhode Island, Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers and Restaurant Opportunities Center of Rhode Island.

October 31, 2015November 1, 2015

Violence at early morning wage theft demonstration

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An early morning “trick-or-treat” themed anti-wage theft action at 23 Julian St. in Providence, the home of Juan Noboa, was met with violence Saturday morning as Noboa allegedly assaulted one of his former workers with a baseball bat. About two dozen demonstrators arrived at Noboa’s door at 5:30 am, wearing costumes and carrying signs, there to demand that Noboa pay his former employees the $3,691.35 the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training deemed to be owed on June 30th, a small fraction of the $17,427.00 in unpaid wages that workers claim to be owed.

To date, Noboa and his partner, Jose Bren, have not paid, necessitating Saturday morning’s action. Instead of paying, Noboa came out swinging with a baseball bat.

According to Fuerza Laboral community organizer Phoebe Gardener,

In our early morning wage theft action today, former Café Atlantic restaurant owner Juan Noboa physically assaulted one of the worker leaders, Flor Salazar, with a bat, hitting her three times in the arm and shoulder but aiming for her head. Flor was there with two other workers who Juan Noboa and business partner Jose Bren owe over $17,000 in stolen wages to. Café Atlantic workers have been organizing for 10 months for their wages, including a previous action at Juan Noboa’s house back in January.

“On June 30th, the RI Department of Labor issued an official order for Juan Noboa and business partner Jose Bren to pay just below $4,000 (only a fraction of the money claimed in their original complaints) to 4 of the 6 workers who filed complaints. It’s been 4 months, and Noboa and Bren still haven’t paid. Workers had no other option then to use community pressure to force Noboa to pay, and Noboa responds by assaulting workers.”

Flor Salazar was taken to the hospital where she was released after determining that she had no broken bones but two or three contusions.

2015-10-31 Fuerza Laboral 003 — photo courtesy of Fuerza Laboral

When Providence Police arrived just after 6:30am, Noboa answered the door, according to Providence in Espanol, “screaming about the protesters. Noboa then tried to run, and the police chased him in his home, authorities said… After the altercation, an officer [was] transported by a rescue vehicle fire department at Rhode Island Hospital with a possible broken foot.”

This was the second time workers demonstrated outside the home of Juan Noboa over this issue. Back in January workers went to Noboa’s home, and days later Noboa, through his lawyer, denied owing any money.

In a statement prepared before the action and before she was assaulted, Flor Salazar, who worked between 60 and 70 hours a week at Café Atlantic between August 1st and September 28th of 2014, said, “The DLT decision requires Café Atlantic to pay just a percentage of the total wages we are due, but we thought that Noboa and Bren would at least pay up now with an official order from the state. Workers won’t come forward if they feel that the DLT doesn’t have the tools to actually recover their wages. This isn’t just about our wages. This is about bringing justice for working families and single mothers.”

Wage theft is endemic in the restaurant industry in Rhode Island, yet there is very little recourse available to workers wanting to collect stolen wages. If an employee steals from their employer, they can face arrest and serious legal consequences. If an employer steals from an employee, there is little chance that they will suffer any serious legal consequences.

2015-10-31 Fuerza Laboral 001 — photo courtesy of Fuerza Laboral

2015-10-31 Fuerza Laboral 004 — photo courtesy of Fuerza Laboral

2015-10-31 Fuerza Laboral 005 — photo courtesy of Fuerza Laboral

2015-10-31 Fuerza Laboral 006 — photo courtesy of Fuerza Laboral

October 28, 2015October 28, 2015

RI Center for Justice discusses lawyering for social change

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It was a packed house at the RI Center for Justice as Executive Director Robert McCreanor lead a discussion about the collaborative work of community organizers and public interest lawyers in the area of social justice. On the panel were organizers and lawyers who work with DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) and PrYSM (Providence Youth Student Movement) in Providence, and MFY’s Housing Project, the Three-Quarter House Tenant Organizing Project (TOP) in New York City.

What became clear over the next ninety minutes is that lawyering works in support of community organizing, not the other way around. What this means is that lawyers interested in social justice work need to “find the legal work that can support the organizers,” according to Shannah Kurland, a community lawyer and Soros Justice Fellow at PrYSM.

Kurland started as a community organizer at DARE, and struggled with her decision to become a lawyer. She was “not sure if becoming a lawyer was a right fit” and asked herself, “was it selling out?”

Michael Grinthal, supervising attorney for MFY’s Housing Project and Three-Quarter House Project, also started as a community organizer. For him, lawyering is a better fit, especially now as a father of a two year old. In New York, “all battles come back to housing because its so hard to live in NYC,” said Grinthal.

MFY “was the legal office for the welfare rights movement,” says Grinthal, making a local connection by adding, “George Wiley is one of the founding organizers in that movement.”

The funding for much legal service work comes through “legal services corporation” but under a law pushed through by Newt Gingrich (in a deft example of racist legislating, I should add) “organizations that get such money cannot do community organizing,” said Grinthal

Michael Zabelin, Staff Attorney at Rhode Island Legal Services and a lawyer who often works closely with DARE was never a community organizer. His work with the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau made transition to working with DARE “the obvious thing to do.” Zabelin twice mentioned the influence of community lawyer Steve Fischbach on his ideas around being a lawyer. Fischbach’s work around housing issues was instrumental in getting Just Cause passed a few years ago.

Paulette Soltani works with MFY Legal Services as a community organizer for the Three-Quarter House Tenant Organizing Project (TOP). TOP started five years ago to help organize tenants living in three quarter houses, described as an unregulated housing industry that pretends to offer transitional services for people recently released from prison or substance abuse centers. “They open buildings and pack 6-8 people in,” says Soltani, they sometimes “force the use of certain medicaid providers, as a form of Medicaid fraud.”

People living in these conditions can find themselves evicted without due cause. Often they are locked out and separated from their possessions. This can have the effect of sending these tenants back onto the streets, into homeless shelters, or into conditions that can ultimately send them back to jail or substance abuse.

As a community organizer Soltani must often deal with the immediate and personal issues of those she meets, “but the point of an organizer is to target systems” in addition to base building, outreach and leadership development. Her goal is to allow “people to develop their voices” as leaders and to work within coalitions.

Christopher Samih-Rotondo, Community Organizer at DARE and the Tenant and Homeowner Association (THA) agrees. He organizes low income communities of color in the south side of Providence. He works to develop team leaders for direct action and to effect legislative and policy change.

Samih-Rotondo spoke about Just Cause, passed because during the foreclosure crisis “banks became de facto landlords and would evict tenants without cause.” With lawyers his group “developed legislation to hold banks responsible for landlord tenant act.” The services DARE provides for individuals are done to “bring people in to form a movement, radicalize people, and change the system.”

Shannah Kurland doesn’t want this to sound too mercenary. Not all people who come to a group like DARE will stick around. Still, it’s important to help them. “Here’s a human being, part of our community, facing an issue,” said Kurland, later adding that, “a movement isn’t about one issue.” People who come one year to work on an issue like childcare may come back years later to do foreclosure work.

Samih-Rotondo thinks it is important to build individual capacities in people who come to his group for help. There are many things people can do without a lawyer, if they have the rules explained to them and can be empowered to act on their own behalf.

Soltani said that it is important for community organizers to meet “people where they are and understanding why they’re there in the first place. If they don’t come, ask why?”

For Sarath Suong, co-founder and executive director of PrYSM, lawyers have always been required. We needed “immigration lawyers early on to end Cambodian deportations.” More recently, PrYSM’s work on the Community Safety Act (CSA) required careful legal writing. The CSA has “twelve provisions that will curb profiling” and seeks to free people from “state, street and interpersonal violence.”

However, says Suong, “we know that policy will not save our communities. We know that communities need to save themselves, build a sense of resistance.”

Kurland agrees. “There are a ton of laws to protect you,” she says, “but they not enforced.” People in low-income communities of color learn that “here are your rights on paper,” now, “how do I stay safe on the street?” In other words, is asserting one’s rights in the moment worth the risk of being arrested or beaten?

When PrYSM started back in 2001, “only the police were engaging with SouthEast Asian youth” in Providence,” said Suong. PrYSM is based on Love, Power and Peace, and seeks to “hold Police accountable for the way they profile young people.”

The RI Center for Justice has a mission of “Protecting legal rights to ensure justice for vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in Rhode Island.” The Center currently works with Fuerza Laboral on the Wage Justice Project, with the Community Action Partnership of Providence (CAPP) on the Tenant Advocacy Project and with the George Wiley Center on it’s Lifeline Project.

October 20, 2015October 20, 2015

Workers protest construction sites, demand unpaid wages

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Workers and activists from local workers’ rights organizations paid a surprise visit to housing development construction sites at The Parc at Medfield and Modera Natick Central in Melrose, Massachusetts Friday morning, demanding $42,000 in unpaid wages. This crew of workers continues to work at these two sites and were employed by Allstate Interiors, a subcontractor hired by Dellbrook Construction and Mill Creek Residential.

They called on Dellbrook and Mill Creek to pay workers their unpaid wages.

This is the third time Fuerza Laboral, in concert with two Massachusetts based workers rights groups, Metrowest Worker Center and the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, have confronted worksites about the wage theft issue. (RI Future covered those visits in April and August.)

2015-10-16 Fuerza Laboral 005 — photo (c)2015 Fuerza Laboral

“This group of workers made a verbal agreement with Allstate to be paid $25/hr for drywall workers and $15/hr for laborers. Every week, they would submit invoices for this hourly rate,” said Phoebe Gardner, an organizer at Fuerza. “However, Allstate would send back pay checks and purchase orders that didn’t match up with the invoices but instead were by piecemeal and were consistently less than their agreed upon rate. In total, Allstate underpaid the workers $42,333.”

The workers first descended on The Parc at Medfield, a Dellbrook Construction. A delegation of about 20 workers and activists spoke to reps from Dellbrook, “to hold them responsible for the payments that Allstate refuses to make good on.”

According to Gardner, “Dellbrook was somewhat ‘diplomatic’ and promised to consider withholding further payment from Allstate until Allstate paid its workers if we can present sufficient proof that Allstate owes the money.” Allstate denies owing money and claims that they’ve paid workers in full. There is no written contract with the workers.

2015-10-16 Fuerza Laboral 004 — photo (c)2015 Fuerza Laboral

Dellbrook claimed that this was the first they were hearing about this issue, says Gardner, which she maintains is not true because workers had approached the company about this problem back in August, at which point Allstate foreman Willie Cerna paid a portion of what was due. Dellbrook also refused to acknowledge any other problems at their sites and declined to listen to advice on how to better treat workers in the future.

“When leaving the site,” says Gardner, “we noticed a truck belonging to Olympic Painting and Roofing, infamous for a long history of documented wage theft.”

The second stop was at Modera Natick Central a development of Mill Creek Residential. Here the reception was “hostile,” according to Gardner.

2015-10-16 Fuerza Laboral 006 — photo (c)2015 Fuerza Laboral

“When we entered their trailer, they told us that they would talk with us if we just stepped outside. As soon as we did so, they ran behind us and shut and locked the trailer door. When I tried to put my foot out to block them from closing the door, one Mill Creek rep pushed me out of the way. The police came almost immediately and kicked us off the property but agreed to deliver the letter we had for Mill Creek.

“Allstate crews were working on the work site while we were there. Willie Cerna was also on the site, who acted as if he didn’t know about the issue and ‘promised’ to review the workers’ invoices again. This is ridiculous because workers and our organizations have been trying to recover this money from Allstate for almost a year now.”

Gardner further referred me to this MetroWest Daily News article.

“Violations like this at local job sites are an ugly symptom of a trend that has swept our state and country,” says Fuerza Laboral in a press release. “The increasing use and misuse of subcontracting and outsourcing is a major contributor to the low wages and unsafe working conditions in our economy today. While sometimes these practices reflect more efficient ways of doing business, too often they are the result of explicit employer strategies to evade labor laws and erode worker protections.

“Legal processes for holding small subcontractors accountable to complying with labor law are often long and ultimately unsuccessful in recovering wages or ensuring safe working conditions. Small subcontractors can easily change names or leave the state. Many builders use contractors and subcontractors that are based out of state to begin with, which means workers would have to travel out of state and deal with out of state agencies to recover their wages.

“Even if the court or the state decides that the subcontractor owes workers money, it can be hard to recover if the subcontractor moves or has no assets. When workers have tried to bring these labor rights violations to the general contractor, they are told that the general contractor is not responsible because the workers are not direct employees.

“Workers are prepared to lien these two apartment complexes if Dellbrook and Mill Creek do not pay immediately. ‘We want justice,’ says Edwin Rosales, who worked under Allstate at the Medfield and Natick sites. ‘Our messafe to Dellbrook and Mill Creek is that it’s your property, you have to be responsible. We need to make owners of properties liable for workers’ justice. Allstate is not taking responsible and someone has to. Pay or lien!’

“Labor law needs to be updated to reflect the increased use of subcontracting to ensure that workers are protected. Community Labor United and its partners have filed state legislation in Massachusetts, entitled An Act to Prevent Wage Theft and Promote Employer Accountability, which seeks to update the law and build more worker protections into subcontracted work. While this legislation is pending, it is up to workers and advocates to put pressure on contractors to ensure they are doing business in a responsible manner and abiding by labor law.”

October 4, 2015October 22, 2016

Brown students, Fuerza Laboral protest Wendy’s over treatment of farmworkers

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A Wendy’s restaurant in Providence was the site of a protest Saturday evening as members of Brown Student Labor Alliance and Fuerza Laboral protested the chain’s refusal to sign onto the Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ Fair Food Program (FFP). After holding signs and marching outside the location, the thirteen Brown University students entered the restaurant until the manager on duty ordered them to leave.

Most of the restaurant patrons seemed okay with the surprise protest, some even joining in with the chants, but one family became extremely agitated. A man told me that if I turned the camera towards his kids he would assault me. The same man approached the protesters, took a sign from one of them and ripped it in half before tossing it on the floor. He was very angry.

The protest was part of the Student/Farmworker Alliance‘s protest, “Schooling Wendy’s National Week of Action” intended to pressure Wendy’s into joining the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields,” say organizers.

According to their website, of “the five largest fast food corporations in the country — McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s — Wendy’s is the only one to not yet sign onto the Fair Food Program.”

The program works by having companies pay one extra penny per pound of produce purchased. That extra penny goes into a fund that allows for six benefits to farmworkers, according to FFP’s Code of Conduct:

1. A pay increase supported by a “penny per pound” premium paid by Participating Buyers;
2. Zero tolerance for forced labor, sexual assault, and other abusive conduct;
3. Worker-to-worker education sessions carried out by the CIW on the farms and on company time to ensure workers are aware of their new rights and responsibilities;
4. A worker-triggered complaint resolution mechanism comprising of a timely investigation, corrective action plans, and if necessary, suspension of a farm’s Participating Grower status, and thereby its ability to sell to Participating Buyers;
5. Health and Safety Committees on every farm to give workers a structured voice in the shape of their work environment; and
6. Ongoing auditing of farms to insure compliance with each element of the FFP.

Organizers are asking people to boycott Wendy’s until the corporation signs on to the FFP.

August 12, 2015

RI workers to Wood Partners: Pay us our wages!

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Workers from Rhode Island and Massachusetts visited the Alta Stone Apartments in Melrose, developed and owned by Wood Partners, to demand payment for $34,000 worth of work done on the apartments at 72 Stone Place and 1000 Stone Place between July and October 2014. According to Fuerza Laboral, these workers were employed by a subcontractor hired by Wood Partners. As part of their demonstration workers delivered a “citation” calling on Wood Partners to pay workers their stolen wages.

According to Fuerza Laboral organizer Phoebe Gardener, “When workers formally brought complaints to the subcontractor for their unpaid wages in April 2015, Wood Partners denied all claims. Ten workers have submitted wage theft complaints with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Since the subcontractor has refused to pay and Wood was the ultimate beneficiary of the work performed, workers are holding Wood directly accountable for their unpaid wages.”

“They owed us money every week and didn’t pay us at all the last two weeks of work,” said Gianni Batres in a statement. Batres worked as a drywaller at the Alta Stone Place apartments. “This isn’t fair for workers. Wood Partners needs to be ultimately responsible for making sure that the workers who are hired by their contractors and subcontractors get paid.”

The workers previously demonstrated at the Hanover Development worksite at University Station in Westwood back in April.

Fuerza Laboral, along with sister organization Metrowest Worker Center, the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, Massachusetts Community Labor United, the Greater Boston Labor Council and other community and labor partners, “are working in more intentional ways to build campaigns around holding builders responsible for the working conditions of subcontracted workers,” says Gardener.

Gardener added that small subcontractors can easily change names or leave the state. Many builders use contractors and subcontractors that are based out of state to begin with, which means workers would have to travel out of state and deal with out of state agencies to recover their wages. Even if the court or the state decides that the subcontractor owes workers money, it can be hard to recover if the subcontractor moves or has no assets. When workers have tried to bring these labor rights violations to the general contractor, they are told that the general contractor is not responsible because the workers are not direct employees.

[This report is compiled from a press release and email correspondence with Phoebe Gardener.]

June 24, 2015

Final push to get driver’s licenses for all, regardless of immigration status

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Comité en Acción 002 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción is leading the charge on getting driver’s licenses for undocumented workers in Rhode Island. Senate bill 391, which “would allow the department of motor vehicles to issue driving privilege licenses and driving privilege permits to applicants unable to establish lawful presence in the United States” has been held for further study, which is General Assembly language for “going nowhere.”

But the fight isn’t over yet.

I spoke to Sabine Adrian and Catarina Lorenzo, two leaders with Comité en Acción who are leading volunteers in a phone banking effort targeting Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, who has the power to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote in the Senate.

According to Sophia Wright, “States like Chicago, California, New Jersey and Connecticut, to name a few, have already taken the step towards greater equality by passing similar laws that provide licenses for all, regardless of immigration status.”

During the May 21 public testimony on the bill, said Adrian, those in favor of allowing licenses for all were in the majority. Arguments against the bill almost exclusively focused on what opponents refer to as illegal immigration, but these issues are not really related. Allowing licenses prevents workers from operating a motor vehicle without the required training and testing. iT becomes a safety issue, and a quality of life issue for workers and their families. The licenses allowed under this bill would not usable for the purpose of legal identification.

The Comité en Acción is not the only organization in the fight. They are part of a coalition, Todos Somos Arizona, that includes the Olneyville Neighborhood Association, English for Action, RI Jobs with Justice, RI Jobs with Justice, the American Friends Service Committee, Fuerza Laboral and others.

Those in favor of this legislation can sign this petition at MoveOn.

You could also call Senate President Paiva-Weed and let her know that you support this important bill.

Comité en Acción 001 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 011 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 010 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 009 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 008 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 007 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 006 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 005 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

Comité en Acción 004 — (c) 2015 Sophia Wright

June 16, 2015August 9, 2016

Former employees protest Gourmet Heaven, demand stolen wages

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Ahead of his court appearance on charges that his upscale deli Gourmet Heaven, located in downtown Providence, owes nearly $150,000 in unpaid wages, activist groups Fuerza Laboral, RI Jobs With Justice, and Restaurants Opportunities Center United of RI (ROC RI) held a press conference calling on owner Chung Cho to pay up.

“We want Mr. Cho to respond to us and pay us what he owes,” said Roberto Quinilla, a former employee of Gourmet Heaven who is seeking over $32,000 in unpaid wages. “A group of us went to Mr. Cho’s house this weekend to try to track him down, and demand what he owes us, because we’ve been waiting too long, and we need an answer now.”

Cho has denied all charges, according to the organizers of the press conference, despite being found guilty in Connecticut of 43 charges of employment law violations, and being ordered to pay roughly $150,000 in a settlement with workers at stores in New Haven, CT, now closed.

Mike Araujo, Policy Organizer with the ROC RI, and co-chair of RI Jobs With Justice, said, “We must pass stronger penalties for employers who steal workers’ wages, and raise the tipped minimum wage—a mere $2.89—so workers don’t have to make ends meat by kowtowing to the whims of the customers whose tips pay the vast majority of their salary.”

In a statement, Senator Donna Nesslebush said, “Workers are the engine and backbone of our economy, our families and our society. We need to treat them well which means we must rout out wage theft wherever we see it, wherever we find it. Too often, workers are abused in the shadows of industry for the greed and aggrandizement of unscrupulous employers/owners. We need to shine the light of day on these shadows by strengthening our laws to better protect and honor workers, and this means increasing the penalties for wage theft and increasing the minimum wage.”

Jesse Strecker of RI Jobs With Justice said that he did not expect anything to be decided in court today, as proceedings were just beginning, but he was optimistic that the case would be decided in the worker’s favor.

June 14, 2015August 9, 2016

RI workers pay an early morning visit to Gourmet Heaven owner’s home in CT

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Early Saturday morning about 20 people, including former employees of Gourmet Heaven Rhode Island and their supporters, traveled by bus to Woodbridge, CT to wake up Gourmet Heaven owner Chung Cho, who owes workers hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages across two states.

Organized by Fuerza Laboral and RI Jobs with Justice, the group exited the bus and walked up the driveway towards Cho’s mansion, loudly calling on him to pay his workers what he owes, even if it means selling off his fabulous home and moving into lesser digs. Cho did not show his face at the windows or respond to the crowd, but the Woodbridge Police Department did respond minutes after the action started.

The police, once they determined that this was a peaceful labor protest, did not interfere, much to the consternation of some of Cho’s neighbors. Since Cho decided against meeting with his former workers, the protesters took a walk through Cho’s neighborhood, chanting and distributing flyers.

This was the morning that Cho’s neighbors, if they didn’t already know, learned what kind of person he is.

Chung Cho was found guilty in Connecticut of 43 violations of employment law, and was ordered to pay $140,000 in back pay to workers. In Rhode Island, Cho is accused of not paying over $150,000 in back pay. Cho denies that he owes any money. The trial is scheduled to start on Tuesday.

Pedro Guarcas, in a statement, said, “I worked in the kitchen of Gourmet Heaven in Providence for over a year. For months I worked grueling 72 hour weeks for only $400 a week. Twice I fell down the kitchen stairs carrying heavy boxes of fruit because my supervisor was pressuring me to work faster. In April of 2014, the kitchen supervisor met me out back when I was taking out the trash and punched me several times in the stomach. Eventually I had to stop working because I couldn’t handle the pain in my foot and my hip where I had fallen and where my supervisor had punched me.”

This is at least the second time workers have taken early morning action against business owners who steal wages. In January workers paid an early morning visit to the home of Juan Noboa, accused of owing his workers at least $17,000 in unpaid wages from his failed Café Atlantic restaurant venture. His neighbors were also displeased.

Owners of businesses stealing wages from workers should take note: You could be next.

April 16, 2015August 9, 2016

Providence fights for $15; local march part of national day of action

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On April 15th, Providence became one of over 200 cities to participate in a “National Day of Action to Fight for $15.”

In a two hour march through downtown Providence, nearly 100 workers and activists visited businesses engaged in wage theft, low pay and anti-unionization efforts. The event was organized through Rhode Island Jobs with Justice in collaboration with Restaurant Opportunities Center of RI (ROC-RI), Fuerza Laboral, Carpenters Local 94, SEIU Rhode Island, UNITE HERE Local 217, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) and IUPAT Local 195 DC 11 Painters.

The groups are “seeking a city ordinance that would require all companies getting tax breaks in Providence to pay workers a living wage of at least $15/hr, provide paid sick days, health benefits, and fair, predictable schedules.” They also want the city to “follow the First Source ordinance by hiring residents of Providence, prioritize hiring people from high poverty neighborhoods, and make sure that people working these jobs have a pathway to a real career by using apprenticeship programs.”

The groups are also asking Mayor Jorge Elorza to live up to the campaign promises he made while still a candidate at a mayoral forum in South Providence, “to set up a community board with the power to approve/disapprove projects, take back money if companies aren’t living up to what they say they’ll do, and negotiate the construction of projects community members identify as needs, such as affordable housing, or fixing up an abandoned lot into a park.”

The Providence Police Department cleared the streets ahead of the marchers, who started their protest outside of Gourmet Heaven on Weybosset St. This is the third time protesters gathered outside the restaurant, which is accused of stealing wages from employees here in Rhode Island in a situation similar to Connecticut where substantial fines have been levied against the company for wage theft. Two workers addressed the crowd, and spoke about the abusive working conditions they say they endured. One worker said he was told, when he demanded his pay, that if he complained the management would have him deported.

The marchers then walked a short way up the street to Cilantro restaurant, a chain recently fined by the US Labor Department for wage theft to the tune of $100,000. Oddly, a Cilantro worker met the crowd, offering tortilla chips and bottled drinks, which were refused. “We don’t want your crumbs, we want our money,” quipped Michael Araujo of ROC-RI.

The march then continued across the city to the Providence Hilton Hotel, owned by The Procaccianti Group, where hotel workers were already outside picketing. The two groups merged into a protest of well over 150 people. The workers at the Providence Hilton announced a worker-led boycott of the hotel, joining the boycott efforts of workers at the Renaissance Providence Hotel (also owned by Procaccianti Group.) Employees from the Omni Providence Hotel were also on hand to support the boycott effort.

City Councillor Carmen Castillo spoke to the crowd about her experiences working at the Omni Providence Hotel, which was owned by the Procaccianti Group when it was called the Westin. Since the Procaccianti Group sold the hotel, worker conditions have markedly improved. Also speaking to the crowd was hotel worker Santa Brito.

The protest then headed for the Providence City Hall, stopping along the way at the Subway sandwich shop attached to the skating rink. Here Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker from Wendy’s, spoke to the crowd. Gesterling has led previous at her store and was arrested last year in Hartford CT during a Fight for $15 protest there. Gesterling talked about the importance of raising the minimum wage to $15, and about the effort to improve working conditions at her restaurant.

The final stop of the march was Providence City Hall, where Malchus Mills of DARE called on Mayor Jorge Elorza to honor his campaign commitments and enforce the First Source ordinance, which prioritizes city hiring from Providence communities. Mills also called upon the City Council to demand fair wages and benefits for workers from companies seeking tax stabilizations from the city. Also speaking at the City Hall was Jeffrey Santos, member of Carpenters Local 94.

April 14, 2015April 15, 2015

Workers demand $14,800 in unpaid wages from Allstate Interiors

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About 35 workers and their supporters descended on a Hanover Development worksite at University Station in Westwood, MA on Monday to demand that subcontractor $14,800 in unpaid wages from Allstate Interiors. Ten workers, Cristian Lopez, Jorge Jaramillo, Oscar Calmo, Carlos Colon, Lucio Tejada, Hugo Quijada, Walter Vivas, Caleb Romero, Ventura Tucama and Gianni Batres were subcontracted by Allstate Interiors in 2014 to do drywall installation at Stone Place in Melrose, MA. According to the workers, they were not paid for their last two weeks of work.

Since Allstate Interiors has declined to settle, the workers brought their complaint to Hanover Development, a company presently subcontracting Allstate Interiors. The process of sub and sub-sub contracting workers on real estate development worksites makes it too easy for companies to evade the responsibility for properly paying worker wages says Fuerza Laboral organizer Phoebe Gardner.

“We weren’t stealing from anyone,” agrees Carlos Colon, one of the affected workers, “they are stealing from us.”

Until laws are enacted to catch up with the new worker reality of independent and sub-subcontractors, it is up to workers to hold project development companies responsible for properly paying subcontracted employees. Demonstrations and actions help convince companies like Hanover Development that for the sake of its reputation, the company should only be working with subcontractors that do not engage in wage theft.

The demonstrating workers were assisted in their efforts by Fuerza Laboral, “a community organization of workers who take action to stop workplace abuse” in cooperation with worker collaboratives from Massachusetts, including the Immigrant Worker Center Collaborative, Metrowest Worker Center, MassCOSH and the Lynn Worker Center for Economic Justice.

According to the Economic Policy Institute wage theft in the United States is an “epidemic” that costs workers more than $50 billion a year.

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