Thread: LA-New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime

New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime
by David Hammer, The Times-Picayune
Friday June 12, 2009, 8:27 PM

The traditional Spanish empowerment chant "Si, se puede!" ("Yes, we can!") rang a little truer Friday as New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow told a crowd on the steps of City Hall that he would push for an ordinance criminalizing wage theft.

New Orleans has become ground zero in a national effort to protect mostly Hispanic day laborers after recent surveys found about 80 percent of them have been stiffed on promised wages in the New Orleans area, mostly after finishing jobs rebuilding homes and other buildings destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

According to a survey by the Southern Poverty Law Center, New Orleans has by far the highest incidence of wage theft in the region, and the workers, who are often in the U.S. illegally, have had little success bringing complaints to authorities.

About 50 people, representing a nationwide coalition of groups from Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, gathered at City Hall on Friday, hoping New Orleans will lead the way in making wage theft a criminal offense.

Fielkow committed to holding hearings on the issue June 30. He also said he would push for an ordinance "with teeth, " adding later in an interview that he has legal experts looking at how current laws can be strengthened.

While it is already possible for workers to file civil action against employers who don't pay their full wages, it's difficult for illegal immigrants to pursue such a remedy. If they are connected to advocacy groups, they can get suits filed on their behalf, but the workers often don't trust local authorities, who have been known to report complaining workers to federal immigration officials.

The New Orleans Police Department's new Hispanic community liaison, Janssen Valencia, has said that in those rare cases when victims do call police, officers generally back off, advising the worker to file a complaint in civil court.

The U.S. Department of Labor is supposed to crack down on employers who violate wage laws, but a March report by the Government Accountability Office found the department's enforcement has been lax.

But worker advocates from the National Congress of Day Laborers and others say wage theft should be treated more like robbery, and police should be empowered to slap the cuffs on employers immediately.

"They think they can use intimidation to not pay us for work we've done, " said Jeronimo Salguero, the director of the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, speaking in Spanish at the New Orleans rally. "Well, this is the first time we've put these local forces together with the day-laborer community, and I think this is going to make it better for sure."



David Hammer can be reached at dhammer@timespicayune.com


http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009 ... _want.html

But worker advocates from the National Congress of Day Laborers and others say wage theft should be treated more like robbery, and police should be empowered to slap the cuffs on employers immediately.

Wait a GD minute...we're constantly told that local law enforcement agencies can't afford to dedicate any manpower to enforcing Immigration Law but THEY want to dedicate manpower to protecting IAs?

Yes Rat that is where the National Congress of Day Laboprers priorities are.

police should be empowered to slap the cuffs on employers immediately

Police should be empowered to slap the cuffs on illegals immediately.