Immigrant Workers in Boston Win Unpaid Wages

Cross-posted from Massachusetts Jobs with Justice

After nine months of organizing a grassroots campaign to recover their salaries and educate the immigrant community about their rights as workers, a group of Latino immigrant workers have recovered their salaries that had been unjustly denied them by a cleaning company that subcontracted with Boston area restaurant chain Legal Sea Food.

More than 30 immigrant workers employed by different subcontracting companies to clean in the Cheesecake Factory and Legal Sea Food restaurants were paid with bad checks or not paid at all for regular and overtime hours worked. "The workers are eager to continue the campaign to recover all of their wages, as only one company has agreed to pay so far and there are still workers who have had their rights violated," stated Yessenia Alfaro, Organizing Director of the Chelsea Collaborative and board member of the Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.

"The violation of labor rights is a systemic problem affecting all workers in this country and immigrant workers are even more vulnerable to this exploitation," said Patricia Montes, Centro Presente's Executive Director. "The Department of Labor must invest resources into the enforcement of current U.S. labor laws to dissuade employers from thinking that these laws do not apply to their immigrant labor force. We must also highlight that the enormous movement of immigrants to the U.S. is the result of a global economic system that exploits the rights of workers in their own countries. We need an economic dynamic that respects the labor rights and dignity of all workers including immigrant workers."