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Mexican Consulate, U.S. officials reach labor agreement
June 03,2006
Brittney Booth
Monitor Staff Writer


McALLEN — The Mexican Consulate in McAllen joined forces Friday with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Hour and Wage Division to let workers know about their rights and ensure employers follow labor laws.

The two agencies signed an agreement at the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, formalizing an ongoing collaboration between the two agencies to protect low-income workers and recent immigrants from unscrupulous employers .

Under the agreement, the consulate will educate Mexican nationals who work in the United States about their rights and help them file complaints against employers who don’t provide workers compensation or benefits required under law, regardless of the worker’s immigration status.

The consulate will then turn over the complaints to the Labor Department, which can help workers claim unpaid wages. The department has already taken legal action against employers who don’t follow the law.

"This relationship is very important," said Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno, the Mexican Consul in McAllen. "We have been working together to reach this agreement."

The department has similar agreements with Mexican consulates in many metropolitan cities, said Cynthia Watson, the Hour and Wage Division’s regional administrator.

"It’s a model that seems to be working," she said.

Because of the large amount of low-wage workers and recent immigrants in the Rio Grande Valley, the department receives a "fairly high complaint flow" from this area, Watson said.

"One of the challenges we face is that many of the recent immigrants are reluctant to approach a government agency," Watson said. Allowing those immigrants to file complaints at the Mexican Consulate, which is likely a more comfortable environment helps to alleviate that factor.

Consulate staff will receive training on certain requirements, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires employers to pay workers minimum wage and overtime and also follow child labor laws.

The training will also cover the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Protection Act, which sets out terms that employers must comply with when hiring seasonal or migrant workers; the field sanitation standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act and programs under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

La Union del Pueblo Entero, founded by Cesar Chavez, will monitor the agreement to ensure complaints are followed and enforced if necessary, said Juanita Valdez-Cox, the organization’s Texas director.

"We are optimistic that now with the assistance of the Mexican consulate more complaints will come forward," she said. "We don’t want it to be an accumulation of complaints without a process to a solution."

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Brittney Booth covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4437.