Thread: Clear Channel interesting article

http://www.clearchannel.com/LocalSpirit ... aseID=1370


Contacts:

Lisa Dollinger

Chief Communications Officer

(210) 832-3348

lisadollinger@clearchannel.com






Clear Channel Community Service-"Know Your Rights"



Aug. 1--OUTREACH EFFORT INFORMS ASIANS OF WORKPLACE RIGHTS: Two years ago, several Latin American consulates, federal agencies and civil rights groups joined to encourage Hispanic immigrants, including those without proper working papers, to report workplace violations.

The billboards, which advertised a central telephone number to call for help, generated hundreds of tips for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In fact, as a direct result of the tips, the Labor Department collected $1.3 million in back wages for 2,033 employees, while the EEOC sued an environmental company that refused to hire Hispanic women, as well as a recycling company on behalf of 98 Hispanic workers.

And the calls about workplace safety resulted in eight OSHA inspections that uncovered 25 safety violations and penalties of $67,100.

Now the EEOC, which initially put together the Justice and Equality Project for Latinos, has launched a similar outreach effort for Asian-Americans in Houston. It hired a writer and producer, recruited "actors" and put together a 23-minute video that describes common employment discrimination and wage, hour and safety violations.

One vignette features two Asians talking in Mandarin while they're working. The mean-looking "boss" -- who's really an EEOC investigator when he isn't in front of a camera -- tells the "employees" that they must speak English because they could be "plotting something, like a labor strike or something."

Other vignettes feature "bosses" making racial slurs and "employees" complaining among themselves that they aren't getting the correct amount of overtime or that their factory isn't properly ventilated.

The film will be shown at Asian community centers during citizenship classes and English classes, as well as before employer groups. The EEOC hopes to translate the video into Vietnamese and Mandarin to broaden the audience.

The Information Group for Asian American Rights, or TIGAAR, also is putting up 55 billboards across the city telling Asians to "know your rights." Clear Channel Outdoor donated the billboard space.

The agencies wanted to reach out to a community that doesn't traditionally ask for help, said H. Joan Ehrlich, acting director of the office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs in Washington, D.C., and the longtime district director of the EEOC's Houston office.

Part of that reluctance to come forward is cultural, because they don't want to be seen as complaining, Ehrlich said. And many Asians don't trust the government, she said.

Raymond Wong, national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans, reminded the video's viewers that when the group brought complaints to the EEOC that a large Houston employer was failing to promote qualified Asians, the agency investigated.

As a result, the company changed its performance appraisal system and paid the employees $1 million.

The reluctance to come forward also has become complicated by the post-Sept. 11 environment in which some Asians have become targets of discrimination, Ehrlich said.

Mari Okabayashi, past president of the Houston Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, one of oldest Asian-American civil rights organizations in the nation, said that one of the biggest problems Asians face is that they aren't getting the promotions they deserve.

Okabayashi, who has a nonspeaking role in the video, said the glass ceiling, or "sticky floor," is prevalent enough that Asians need to know their rights.

Asians are one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups, but many don't know the employment laws, especially new immigrants who don't realize there is help out there, she said.

Asian immigrants also need to know that they can't be forced to exclusively speak English at work.

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Please lord give some common sense to our politicans and make english the official language for America.

several Latin American consulates, federal agencies

Why are consulates joining with our feds...and in encouraging criminal aliens?????
We really know why...now don't we
Could someone throw me a bone...Duh!

Clear Channel Outdoor donated the billboard space.

Last year this outfit refused to SELL space on billboards against illegal immigration because they didn't want to offend John McCain.