Organizing Against Sweatshops: For Real Wage Increases and Full Enforcement of Labor Laws
Wage theft is rampant in our communities. An estimated $1 billion is stolen from workers each year statewide. Many workers come forward and file complaints each year, but recovering stolen wages is an uphill battle that sometimes results in workers recovering not even a penny. This discourages workers from coming forward or believing that our legal system exists to serve and protect them from abuse.
Every day, workers fight to recover their wages, stop sweatshop conditions, and hold their employers accountable to minimum wage and overtime laws. However, to get at the root cause of why wage theft is so prevalent in our society, workers must come together and fight for deep changes. This is why workers across trades have teamed up with lawyers and state legislators to draft and advocate for the SWEAT bill (Secure Wages Earned Against Theft) which will allow workers to temporarily freeze the assets of their employer as they fight to recover their stolen wages. The wage lien that will be created by passage of the SWEAT bill will be a tool for all workers from all industries, as well as a tool for lawyers, the Department of Labor and the Attorney General. Workers having the tools to enforce the labor laws will encourage and allow more workers to come together, organize and fight for more than the bare minimum, and have real increases to our wages.
Organizing Against Racism: Ending the 24-hour Workday
Many in our community–whether they are low-wage workers or highly-paid workers–suffer from long hours and are not able to refuse overtime and overwork. The worst manifestation of this problem is the 24-hour workday for home care workers in New York State, and especially in New York City. Tens of thousands of women of color and immigrant women are forced to work 24-hour shifts, for days on end, doing the important work of caring for our elderly and disabled. As a result, these women workers are facing serious injuries and physical and mental trauma. It’s no surprise that those who suffer these brutal shifts, and additionally have half of their wages stolen (as they are only paid for 13 hours of a 24-hour day), are women of color.
Together with our partners in the Ain’t I A Woman campaign, we have united home care workers and workers of all trades and backgrounds to demand an end to this racist violence against women. If we allow employers to force women of color to work 24-hour shifts to survive, we accept that there is no bottom for working conditions in our society. This is racism and sexism, killing women of color and also dragging down working conditions for all workers.
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