Thread: NYT Editorial: Wage Watchers

Editorial
Wage Watchers


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Published: February 12, 2009

Most businesses try to compete by being efficient and smart. Some do it the nasty way. They undercut their competitors by hiring and exploiting low-wage workers. Recent years have been especially good for this repellent bottom-feeding thanks to weak and indifferent government enforcement of workers’ rights and a darkening political climate against illegal immigrants — the backbone of the cheap, disposable work force.

Bad employers confidently cut corners, steal wages and ignore overtime and workplace-safety laws because they know that governments at all levels are unable or unwilling to investigate and workers are too frightened to complain. But here is a heartening sign of change: New York State has begun a new effort to expose and prosecute abusive employers by enlisting the people who know them best: their immigrant employees.

Last weekend, the State Labor Department began a pilot partnership with six nonprofit workers’ organizations, whose members will be the government’s eyes and ears in the abuse-prone immigrant workplace.

In New York City and on Long Island, workers at day-labor corners, laundries, restaurants, nail salons, supermarkets and department stores will be trained to know and defend their rights and be given contacts in the Division of Labor Standards to report violations.

All sides of the immigration debate should be able to agree that this sort of program, one of the first in the nation, is wise and overdue. For too long, at too many levels of government, efforts to help immigrant workers have been thwarted by the poison politics of immigration.

Blame the tag “illegalâ€

"Last weekend, the State Labor Department began a pilot partnership with six nonprofit workers’ organizations, whose members will be the government’s eyes and ears in the abuse-prone immigrant workplace."

What?!! Unregulated not-for-profit organizations are going to be the US government's "eyes and ears" in the abuse-prone immigrant workplace?!

Better research this!

http://www.labor.state.ny.us/pressrelea ... 6_2009.htm

"This pilot program will begin with a small number of groups who are already working on labor issues. Each group has referred a number of cases to the Department of Labor in recent years. The groups are Centro del Inmigrante in Staten Island; Chinese Staff and Workers' Association; Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU); Make the Road New York; United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500; and The Workplace Project in Long Island."

Not sure how this will work out. Why wouldn't they already be doing this as part of their union activities?!

So, this is state money going to immigrant workers' advocacy groups---which apparently will make no effort to discern legal from illegal---which will then lodge legal complaints against employers. Someone needs to do some oversight on this, because it sounds like taxpayer money is going towards furthering the presence of illegals in this country, if I am not mistaken. Already Caucasians, males and Christians have been stripped of their rights by liberal government policies, and now we even have to fund our replacements?

I've seen this sort of thing taking place with "fair employment" policies that advocacy groups can exploit at will. But this is the next step towards actual government direction of the same.

I'm sure this is a foretaste of what Hilda Solis will do if she is Labor Secretary.

...well if businesses then find that they can no longer hire cheap, illegal alien labor b/c theyrepresent lawsuits waiting to happen....then they might just avoid the whole scene and hire legally authorized workers verified by E-Verify...then there's no question. This might be a good thing.