Jobs With Justice

As workers and unions attempt to organize in the U.S. economy, we are confronted with a broken immigration system as well as corporate driven U.S. labor laws. When these two systems meet at the worksite, it’s no wonder that it has become extremely difficult for workers to organize for their rights.

Our broken immigration system is exploited by large corporate interests and used to lower labor standards. We have a two-tiered system of rules and standards that denies millions of workers access to basic rights and benefits in the workplace. All workers lose ground in a system that allows unscrupulous employers to suppress basic organizing rights, intimidate and retaliate against employees, and treat workers differently based on immigration status.

We need to make immigration reform work for workers — not just corporations!

Here are three important areas for worker protections for immigration reform:

o The POWER Act: provides immigrant workers exercising labor and civil rights with protections against retaliation and exploitation. We believe the POWER Act is an essential strategy in stopping the exploitation and abuse of immigrant workers by unscrupulous employers who profit from these practices.

By Denise Diaz, Executive Director, Central Florida Jobs with Justice

Democracy speaks loud and clear!

Last Friday, a three-judge panel ruled that Orange County commissioners broke the law by refusing to put an earned sick time referendum on the ballot in November, effectively suppressing the voices of 50,000 voters in the county.

Many months following the revelation that county commissioners were texting corporate lobbyists during supposedly open public meetings, the courts came back with a major ruling.

The Earned Sick Time ballot initiative  was unlawfully kept from being voted on and now must be put on the ballot for the 2014 primary election. This is major progress in winning a policy that would improve the lives of thousands of workers that currently do not have this safety net policy.

During the last two weeks of February, the United Workers Congress (UWC) is sending a small delegation to India, including three representatives from Jobs with Justice.

The purpose of the trip is to introduce the United Workers Congress as a growing platform projecting the voices of workers not protected under current US labor law, share strategies with leaders of the Indian trade union and social movements and to move conversations that will build the United Workers Congress long-term.

In addition sharing organizing models used to build our base and our power with similar sectors in India, UWC delegates will discuss strategies impacting employment structure/practices, including day laborers (daily wagers), contract workers, self-employed, cooperatives, and labor-community alliances.

Why is this happening now?