Louisiana State Representative Austin Badon Announces He Wants to Engage in Sex Trafficking

Louisiana state representative Austin Badon (a Democrat representing New Orleans East) is the sponsor of House Bill 1158, which he says was written at the direction of local law enforcement, to further penalize solicitation, whether it is panhandling, prostitution, or hitchhiking. According to an article on nola.com, Badon said that police "needed something to be able to stop (prostitutes), question them and find out what they're doing."

The proposed law has already received national attention for the mean-spirited way it targets the poorest people in our communities. The website ThinkProgress noted:

The bill’s author, State Rep. Austin Badon (D), told Post TV that he hoped that banning begging will somehow lead to fewer poor people on the streets. He doubted that many were in actual need, saying, “they’re paying their cell phone bills, they’re paying their computer bills. It’s a racket.” Badon is echoing a familiar trope — that panhandlers are living large from others’ charity. But it’s not based on any actual research. In fact, a major study of panhandlers in San Francisco last year found just the opposite: the vast majority make $25 a day ($9,125 per year) or less. That meager income is largely used to eat. Nearly every beggar — 94 percent — said they used the money they receive for food; less than half used it for drugs or alcohol.

But giving police new tools to harass the poor and desperate is just one aspect of the bill. According to nola.com, Badon also bragged that his bill would allow for sex workers to be "hassled by the cops," forcing them to move to another place or another state.

This statement by Badon that he seeks to force women to cross state lines should cause concern for many reasons. One definition of trafficking is forcing someone to cross state lines to engage in prostitution. From his statement, it seems this is Badon's intention - and that he intends to use the force of the state of Louisiana to back up his scheme.

This is not the first time police have been used to force sex workers to cross state lines. In a famous case in Washington, D.C. in 1989, police rounded up sex workers and forced them to march to the Virginia state line, until a couple of Washington Post reporters spotted them, at which point the police ran off.

A 2008 report called Move Along: Policing Sex Work in Washington, D.C. highlighted the way in which policies like "prostitution free zones" end up harming those already at the margins, and "pose serious threats to health and safety of community members identified or otherwise targeted as sex workers." Louisiana has already become notorious for targeting and harassing sex workers by making them register as sex offenders (a practice that finally ended last year), conducting mass arrests, and increasing criminal penalties.

It seems Rep. Badon has declared this to be "attack and dehumanize women week." He also has been pushing a bill, HB 1274 that, according to one recent article:

Would allow the state to prohibit a family from ending medical treatment for a comatose or incapacitated pregnant woman. Badon's bill would bar the removal of a pregnant woman from life support if the obstetrician examining her “determines that the pregnant woman's life can reasonably be maintained in such a way as to permit the continuing development and live birth of the unborn child.” If it becomes law, this bill would mandate that a brain-dead pregnant woman remain on life support for the rest of her pregnancy, regardless of her family’s wishes or how far along the pregnancy is. This could mean up to 40 weeks of a loved one remaining on life support.

We hope Badon and the Louisiana legislature will reconsider their plan to make life worse for those already living on the edge.

Neither Candidate: Fifteen Issues this Election is Not About, By Bill Quigley

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.

Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.

Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.

Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.

Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”

Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage.  In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour  – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.

Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.

Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.

Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.

Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.

Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.

Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.

Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry.  In fact both support expansion.

Bill Quigley teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and is Associate Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights.  You can reach him by email at Quigley@loyno.edu.

Aramark Uses Hurricane Isaac to Loot the City of New Orleans

From a press release by SEIU Local 21LA:

On August 29, Hurricane Isaac swept through New Orleans and surrounding areas with raging winds and torrential rains causing widespread flooding and epic power outages that lasted in some cases as long as a week. Businesses and schools were closed for up to one week. Whether people evacuated or chose to ride out the weather at home, most people experienced a financial loss due to being out of work since August 28. Shelters were opened. FEMA began processing applications and a disaster foodstamp program was implemented and extended for days to accommodate the outpouring of those in need due to the hardships caused by this disaster.

Everyone lost -- except Aramark and its Wallstreet owners. In fact, this Fortune 500 company, which receives taxpayer money to clean and provide food services in the Recovery School District (RSD), made money. Aramark was paid even though schools were closed. Instead of paying workers for their scheduled shifts that were canceled due to forces beyond their control, the company pocketed tens of thousands of dollars, while their workers, who already toe the poverty line, were put into precarious situations because of the loss of income.

Aramark and its private equity investors from Wallstreet made a week’s worth of profits off of the pain and suffering of New Orleans and the New Orleans people.

“Aramark and its Wallstreet investors looted during Hurricane Isaac from the workers and the taxpayers,” said Helene O’Brien, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 21 LA. “Louisiana law requires a three-year prison sentence for looters. Aramark needs to pay its workers or pay back the taxpayers or go to jail.”

Aramark workers as well as concerned New Orleanians will deliver a letter of demands to the Aramark office (3800 Desire Parkway, New Orleans, 70126) at 10 a.m., Tuesday, September 18. For more information or to interview Aramark workers and concerned New Orleanians, contact Jewel Bush, SEIU Local 21 LA, by phone at (225) 454-3853 or via email at jewel.bush@seiu21la.org.

Coalition of Black and Latina Women, Women from Arizona, Demand Sheriff Stop Submitting to Immigration Hold Requests

From our friends at the Congress of Day Laborers:

A delegation of undocumented women from Arizona will join local immigrants and civil rights leaders from Women United for Justice, in demanding that Sheriff Gusman stop holding undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The visit will happen Thursday, August 9, at 1:30pm at the office of Sheriff Marlin Gusman, 819 South Broad Street.

The delegation is part of Women United for Justice, a group of New Orlean women of all races and backgrounds organizing against over-incarceration and deportation of communities, families, and children. They will join an Arizona delegation, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice,’ a group of undocumented immigrants traveling across the south working for immigrant rights. They will bring the example of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s notorious treatment of undocumented immigrants, and ask Sheriff Marlin Gusman to stand on the right side of history.

The delegation includes undocumented women from Arizona, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear’ Ride for Justice, a journey that began in Phoenix, Arizona on July 29th; Deliny Palencia, member of the Congress of Day Laborers and local leader who was unconstitutionally held by the Sheriff’s department; Latoya Lewis, organizer with Stand with Dignity, New Orleans.

The Sheriff’s submission to immigration hold requests has led to numerous, grave, constitutional violations and a deterioration of trust between the immigrant community and local authorities. The Sheriff could follow in the footsteps of Cook County, Washington D.C. and the state of Connecticut, and no longer use city resources to divide families and deteriorate civil rights. This is an opportunity for the Sheriff to hear how people in Arizona have been affected by implementation of similar policies, and to chose to be on the right side of history.

Actions by undocumented students, such as coming out of the shadows events and civil disobedience actions, have demonstrated the power and results of communities acting and speaking for themselves. The riders are undocumented people  from all over the country and their allies, including mothers, fathers, day laborers, people in deportation proceedings, students, and many others who continue to face threats of deportation, harassment, and death while simply looking for a better life in the only nation many of them know and call home.

More information on the No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice is at www.nopapersnofear.org.

Working and Poor in the USA, By Bill Quigley

“Our nation, so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population, should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied men and women, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937
Millions of people in the US work and are still poor. Here are eight points that show why the US needs to dedicate itself to making work pay.

One. How many people work and are still poor?

In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked. The US poverty line is $18,530 for a mom and two kids. Since 2007 the numbers of working poor have been increasing. About 7 percent of all workers and 4 percent of all full-time workers earn wages that leave them below the poverty line.

Two. What kinds of jobs do the working poor have?

One third of the working poor, over 3 million people, work in the service industry. Workers in other occupations are also poor: 16 percent of those in farming; 11 percent in construction; and 11 percent in sales.

Three. Which workers are most likely to be working and still poor?

Women workers are more likely to be poor than men. African American and Hispanic workers are about twice as likely to be poor as whites. College graduates have a 2 percent poverty rate while workers without a high school diploma have a poverty rate 10 times higher at 20 percent.

Four. What about benefits for low wage workers?

Ten percent of US workers earn $8.50 an hour or less according to the US Department of Labor. About 12 percent have health care and about 12 percent have retirement benefits. Nearly one in four get paid sick leave and less than half get paid vacation leave.

Five. What rights do the working poor have?

Most workers have a right to earn at least the federal minimum wage of $7.50 an hour. Tipped employees are supposed to get at least $2.13 each hour from their employer and if the worker does not earn enough in tips to make the $7.50 minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference. People who work more than 40 hours in a workweek are entitled to one and one-half of their regular pay for each hour of overtime.

Six. What about wage theft from the working poor?

Many low wage workers have part of their earnings stolen by their employers. Examples include not paying people the full minimum wage, not paying required overtime, stealing from tipped employees, or fraudulently classifying workers as independent contractors. A survey of over 4000 low wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York conducted by university and non-profit researchers found: 26 percent of the workers were paid less than the minimum wage in the previous week, a majority were underpaid by more than $1 an hour; a significant number worked overtime the previous week and were not paid the legally required overtime; many were required to come early or stay late and work “off the clock” and were not paid for it; almost a third of the tipped workers were not paid the minimum wage and more than 1 in 10 tipped workers had some of their money stolen by their employer or supervisor.

Seven. What is a living wage in the US?

Dr. Amy Glasmeier of Penn State University has created a Living Wage Calculator that estimates the hourly wage needed to pay the cost of living for low wage families in the US. It breaks down the cost of living by state and locality across the nation. In New Orleans, a mom with one child needs to earn $17.52 to make ends meet. In New York, the mom with one child should earn $19.66 to make it. If we now realistically calculate the number of people who work and do not earn a living wage, the numbers of working poor in the US skyrocket to several tens of millions.

Eight. What about jobs for the unemployed and underemployed?

The US Labor Department estimated recently that 13 million people were unemployed. Another 8 million people were working part-time but wanted full-time work. Even more millions who are not working are not counted in those numbers because they have been unemployed so long.
A study by Northeastern University found that in the poorest families, unemployment is nearly 31 percent. Underemployment is also much more of a problem in poor homes, with over 20 percent of those workers reporting they are working part-time but seeking full-time work.

Our nation can do so much more. We say our country values work. It is time to do something about it.

If the US truly values work, we need to support the millions of our sisters and brothers who are low wage workers. Steps needed include: raising the minimum wage to a living wage; protecting workers from getting ripped off; making it easier for workers to organize together if they choose to; and creating jobs, public jobs if necessary, so that everyone who wants to work can do so. Many are already working on these justice issues.

For those interested in learning more about this, see the websites of Interfaith Worker Justice, the National Employment Law Project, and the National Jobs for All Coalition.

Bill teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans and is Associate Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Thanks to Rob Dordan and Kim Bobo for help with this. A version with sources is available. You can reach Bill at quigley77@gmail.com.

National Labor Relations Board Finds Evidence of Illegal Activity by Sodexo in New Orleans

From a Press Release by the Service Employees International Union:
Sodexo Could Face Trial Over Alleged Violations of US Labor Law as NLRB Takes Up Charges against the Company

The National Labor Relations Board has determined there is enough evidence to pursue charges against Sodexo for allegedly violating US labor law. After an investigation, the NLRB found that charges of interrogating, spying on, firing and/or threatening to fire workers suspected of supporting the union, and illegally using campus police to force a union organizer off campus have merit and has ruled it has enough evidence to bring Sodexo to trial.

The charges stem from union activity at Tulane and Loyola universities from February to May of 2010. They include charges that Sodexo:

· Spied on workers engaged in union activity;

· Fired a pro-union Sodexo employee in retaliation for her union activity;

· Threatened employees with termination in retaliation for their union support;

· Used Tulane University police to expel a union organizer from campus;

· Used Tulane University police as its agent to interrogate employees regarding their union activity; and

· Retaliated against employees for union activity

The NLRB also found merit in charges against Tulane University including allegations relating to: illegally detaining and expelling pro-union Sodexo employees from its campus and unlawfully restricting access to the campus; illegally videotaping pro-union Sodexo employees; spying on pro-union employees by permanently posting its police officers outside cafeteria buildings on its campus; and illegally interrogating pro-union Sodexo employees in the presence of Sodexo managers and questioning employees regarding their union activities during those interviews. SEIU chose to withdraw several charges after Sodexo workers involved in the incidents were too frightened to testify against the company.

BACKGROUND:

Unions and workers in seven countries including, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Morocco and the United States have repeatedly asked Sodexo to sign an enforceable global framework agreement that guarantees a fair and fast process through which Sodexo workers can gain the right to be represented by a union and the right to bargain collectively through the most efficient process set by each country’s law without fear of retaliation or reprisal.

According to Sodexo’s own figures, a mere 15 percent of its workers in the United States have the right to bargain collectively with Sodexo, the other 85 percent have no collective bargaining rights at all. They have the lowest percentage of workers represented by unions of the three major foodservice companies in the United States. Sodexo, the 21st largest employer in the world, despite making more than a billion dollars profit in 2010, is criticized by its workers for paying them in the United States poverty wages and for not offering affordable healthcare options; two-thirds of Sodexo’s non-managerial employees in the United States are not covered by health insurance offered by the company.

New Orleans Workers Take to the Streets on Mayday

For the fifth year in a row, workers from the Congress of Day Laborers, STAND with Dignity, and the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity organized a Mayday march through downtown New Orleans, starting at historic Congo Square, marching up Canal Street and down Poydras, and ending at City Hall. Among other organizations represented were ROC New Orleans and the Teamsters union. The march began and ended with speeches by workers and their supporters (including activist and former political prisoner Mwalimu Johnson), and more than a hundred workers - and a brass band - marched proudly through the streets,
Mayday is an international holiday dedicated to workers rights, and every year around the world millions of people participate in Mayday marches. Ironically, the holiday was started in the US, but because of its origins among anarchist activists and later adoption by socialist and communist movements, it is not widely recognized in this country. On May 1, 1886, tens of thousands of people marched in Chicago on a protest called by anarchist organizers in support of striking workers and the 8-hour-workday. Four of these organizers were later killed by the state in what was widely seen as revenge for their organizing. The struggle for an 8-hour workday was ultimately successful (though many of those and other achievements in the area of workers rights have since been undermined) but the radical organizers that died in that struggle rarely receive recognition.

In recent years, immigrant workers in the US - many of whom come from countries where Mayday is a much more widely celebrated occasion - have reclaimed the holiday. In 2006, hundreds of thousands of workers across the US, mostly Latino immigrants, marched on May 1 for immigration reform. In New Orleans, thousands of workers who had come to the city to work in reconstruction and been demonized and exploited marched on May 1 2006. This was the first large public expression of what would become a movement in this city. Today, these workers have built principled coalitions with other workers, and won real victories at City Hall.

While this year's march was not as large as the 2006 protests, it provided an important opportunity for immigrant workers in New Orleans and their allies to publicly demand their rights.

Guestworkers Win Victory in US Department of Labor's Proposed Changes to Regulations for the H-2B Visa Program

From our friends at the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity:
Proposed DOL regulations move guestworkers one step closer to inclusion in basic labor protections, civil rights, and the right to organize

Statement by the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity on the Department of Labor’s Proposed H-2B Regulations:

“When we started our organizing in labor camps across the South, we dreamed of dignity and respect at work. We urge all those on the side of dignity to say, loudly, that these new rules are right, so we can make that dream real.”
– Daniel Castellanos, founding member, Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity

On March 17, 2011, the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity won a major victory and a vindication of five years of organizing, advocacy, and litigation as the Department of Labor proposed new regulations for the H-2B non-agricultural visa program. We laud these proposed regulations – now we have to ensure the Department of Labor adopts them as proposed. Businesses are gearing up to fight them. We urge all allies to submit written comments within the 60-day comment period to ensure these proposed regulations become law.

These new regulations, if adopted, will help prevent employers from manipulating the H-2B program to engage in labor trafficking and debt servitude of guestworkers. Among the proposed new policies, three are the most significant:

Employers must pay for all costs that workers incur on their way to the first day at work on the H-2B visa program. Under the new regulations, each employer must pay for transportation, visa, recruitment, and all other costs related to using the program. This prevents employers from creating conditions of debt servitude: guestworkers routinely take on crushing debt in order to get a visa. Arriving at work in debt, they cannot afford to organize or report an employer’s illegal conduct, because employers have the power to deport them back into debt servitude.

In 2007, founding members of the Alliance of Guestworkers—among the first guestworkers imported to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina—organized to hold their employer responsible for travel, visa, and recruitment costs. Each guestworker had paid approximately $5,000 in costs, plunging their families into debt. They were trapped in debt and their employer Decatur Hotels did not comply with its contractual promises. The DOL stood with the guestworkers as they argued in federal court, in Castellanos v. Decatur Hotels, that they were, in effect, excluded from the minimum wage. “The DOL’s new regulations are a vindication of our fight,” said Jose Sanchez, member and plaintiff in the litigation. “Even though the court ruled against us, these regulations can overturn the misguided court ruling. As a result, more guestworkers will be able to exercise their rights.”

Employers must guarantee workers ¾ of the hours promised in the contract on a month to month basis. The comments section of the Department of Labor quotes the expert Congressional testimony of members of the Alliance to describe the problem: “Daniel Angel Castellanos Contreras, a Peruvian engineer, was promised 60 hours per week at $10-$15 per hour. According to Mr. Contreras, ‘The guarantee of 60 hours per week became an average of only 20 to 30 hours per week – sometimes less. With so little work at such low pay [$6.02 to $7. 79 per hour] it was impossible to even cover our expenses in New Orleans, let alone pay off the debt we incurred to come to work and save money to send home.’” Because workers cannot switch employers, and cannot return to debt, employers are able to hold workers even when they do not fulfill their promise of providing work. Guestworkers become a captive workforce, waiting to be put to work by employers who have a ready supply of temporary labor. This new policy would give workers a lever to fight for the employment they were promised.

The DOL is implementing real protections for U.S. workers, so that employers cannot use the H-2B program to pit guestworkers against local workers. Guestworker Miguel Angel Jovel Lopez arrived on an H-2B visa in Nashville at a time when the city was experiencing close to 10% unemployment. He recounts: “We realized we were being used. Used as cheap labor, and used to undercut the local American workers.” Again and again, the Alliance’s campaigns have exposed how employers have defrauded the U.S. government in order to exclude local workers from jobs – and exploit guestworkers. The new regulations would create much-needed protections for U.S. workers to intervene in the race to the bottom.

The new regulations, if passed, would go a long way in making sure guestworkers can access their basic civil and labor rights. We urge all advocates, unions, workers’ centers, civil rights organizations and high-road employers – all those who are on the side of respect and dignity at work – to submit comments to the Department of Labor within the 60-day comment period through the regulatory commentary process supporting these new regulations.

Please follow these simple instructions for filing comments online:

The proposed regulations are online at this link.

Comments can be submitted online here.

The Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity is anchored by the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. Please send copies of comments to guestworkers@nowrcj.org and contact Jacob Horwitz, Lead Organizer, Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity with any questions: (504) 452-9159 jhorwitz@nowcrj.org.

New Revelations of Problems With Major City Contractor

Since the loss of many of its manufacturing jobs since the 1960s, New Orleans has become synonymous with low-wage work in the service industry.

It wasn't always this way. New Orleans is a city with a long history of labor activism, including some of the nation's first multiracial labor unions. Much of the city's culture - like the Po' Boy sandwich, which was birthed during a strike of streetcar workers - comes from this history of working-class resistance.

But as rents and other expenses have risen post-Katrina, the city's low wages have remained stagnant while public services (like mass transit) have been cut, and it has become even harder to pay your bills from a full days' work in this city.

In this context, New Orleans is a key battleground in the national struggle for fair wages. And in that struggle the giant international food service provider Sodexo has become a symbol of corporate profiteering at the expense of local workers.

Sodexo is a major contractor in Louisiana, with accounts at both public and private institutions including Tulane University, Loyola University, Southern University of New Orleans, and the Recovery School District.

For almost two years, Sodexo workers and students at Tulane and Loyola University have been fighting for better workplace conditions and have faced retaliation and intimidation. The cafeteria workers earn as little as $8 an hour and many lack access to affordable health insurance. While the workers experience unfair working conditions, Sodexo continues to profit, posting more than $1 billion profits in 2009.

Sodexo also recently eliminated 33 custodial positions, and reduced dozens of full-time jobs to 20 or 30 hours a week, forcing many full-time workers further into poverty. Employees say this forced them to choose between working extra hours for free, or leaving the school they work at in unacceptable condition.

Despite the company’s stated commitment to rebuilding New Orleans, recent evidence suggests that Sodexo has illegally overcharged its clients, the cost of which is ultimately borne by the community. The New York Attorney General recently settled a $20 million law suit in which Sodexo was accused of illegally overcharging public schools and universities by failing to acknowledge or pass on volume discounts obtained on their clients' behalf. The Attorney General’s investigation found that in New York, Sodexo promised to provide goods at cost but failed to acknowledge rebates from suppliers, resulting in illegal overcharges.

As our city is faced with ever-increasing financial insecurity, it is more important than ever that we make sure contractors are held accountable for their behavior.

Cutting waste, fraud and abuse by contractors – and capturing every dollar due to local workers – may help prevent at least some of the budget cuts to vital public programs. Standing up to Sodexo and forcing them to pay living wages - or giving the work to local companies with both better pay and without Sodexo's history of fraud - would be an important step towards a real recovery for our region.

Excluded Workers Unite to Expand the Human Right to Organize

From our friends and allies at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference, which starts today in Birmingham, Alabama:
Excluded Workers Report Introduced on International Human Rights Day

Today, International Human Rights Day, workers from sectors historically excluded from labor protections and the right to organize are speaking out in Birmingham, San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and here in New Orleans.

After launching the Excluded Workers Congress at the US Social Forum in Detroit earlier this summer, representatives from 9 different sectors have released “Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at Work,” a report highlighting on-going efforts to dramatically expand workers’ human right to organize and collectively bargain.

The Excluded Workers Congress and the report highlight workers who have historically been excluded from labor protections, the right to organize, and underrepresented in the labor movement - domestic workers, farmworkers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, day laborers, guestworkers, workers from Southern “right to work” states, workfare workers and formerly incarcerated workers.

In addition to highlighting specific stories of workers, the report discusses on-going campaigns of their organizations, and innovative strategies to expand the right-to-organize in the United States, including the fight to win collective bargaining rights for domestic workers and the campaign for the POWER Act, which would protect immigrant workers from employer retaliation if they file a labor complaint. “Unity for Dignity” lays out a vision for an expanded labor movement, including collaboration between sectors, traditional trade unions, worker centers, and international partners.

“Expanding the workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain in existing and new jobs is a key factor in guaranteeing a real economic recovery,” said Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice. “When working families have the means to live a dignified life, the economy as a whole will benefit.”

The Excluded Workers Congress is currently laying the groundwork for upcoming action in the New Year.

To see a video of the first Congress of Excluded Workers at the US Social Forum, go to this link.

New Orleans’ Food Service Workers Organize and Advocate for Fair Workplace Conditions

By Alison McCrary
Food service workers at Tulane University walked off the job at 6:00 AM yesterday, to demonstrate their outrage over the unfair labor practices of their employer, Sodexo.

Students and workers gathered together for a rally and march later that morning in support of the workers’ right to organize. State Senator-elect Cynthia Willard Lewis addressed the crowd at Tulane in support of the workers.

For more than a year, Sodexo workers and students at Tulane and Loyola University have been fighting for better workplace conditions and have been met with management retaliation and intimidation. The cafeteria workers earn as little as $8 an hour and many lack access to affordable health insurance. While the workers experience unfair working conditions, Sodexo continues to profit, posting more than $1 billion profits in 2009.

The demonstration yesterday is part of a national campaign to hold Sodexo accountable for its unfair labor practices and work environment hostile to organized labor.

Alison McCrary is an attorney and Soros Justice Advocacy Fellow at the Louisiana Justice Institute. She received her Juris Doctor of Law from Loyola University College of Law where she served as a member of Moot Court and president of the Public Interest Law Group. Alison is a member of the National Lawyers Guild.

Photo: LJI Board Member Davida Finger addresses Loyola students and workers at Sodexo Rally and Protest in April 2010.

LJI Guest Column: Standing up for Worker's Rights, By Ted Quant

May 1st is International Labor Day, also called May Day. I will be celebrating May Day at a rally and second line sponsored by the Congress of Day Labors that will also be raising the demand for the passage of a city ordinance making wage theft a crime in New Orleans.

I urge you to join me on May 1st, in the common cause of human rights and worker solidarity, starting at 11:30am at Armstrong Park.

May 1st is a day of international working class solidarity. It was born in the United States on May 1st, 1886, when more than 300,000 workers across the United States walked off their jobs to demand the 8-hour day. It spread from the United States around the world and eventually won the 8-hour day in country after country.

We don't have to look around the world for international working class solidarity. Globalization and the Katrina disaster have placed the international working class in our city. This new reality is creating for us both a threat and opportunity. The threat is that we will blame and victimize immigrants for the lack of jobs and low wages, instead of uniting in a fight for our shared need for jobs, peace and justice in our community and in the world.

May 1st is a day to seize this opportunity and to begin building the solidarity we need for the challenges ahead. The old slogans, “an injury to one is an injury to all,” and “solidarity forever” are as true now as they ever were. Let us unite on this International Labor Day and make the first concrete act of solidarity be a united effort to pass the city ordinance making wage theft a crime in New Orleans. People of every race and ethnicity are impacted by wage theft in New Orleans. Also honest businesses that pay their workers their just wages are undermined by the competition with the criminal businesses that steal from their workers. This is truly a case where, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Ted Quant is the director of the Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice, based at Loyola University in New Orleans. The Twomey Center seeks to shape social justice consciousness through education, and to take action on critical social problems confronting society.

New Orleans Workers Stand up for Justice and Against Wage Theft

Today is a good day to stand up for worker justice.

New Orleans' Congress of Day Laborers (Congreso de Jornaleros) has been organizing to pass a City Ordinance to combat the rampant wage theft in New Orleans. Today, they will join organizations across the country who are engaging in demonstrations and vigils to commemorate National Wage Theft Day.

According to members of the Congress, "the urgent need for this ordinance was demonstrated all too dramatically in a recent case that has shocked and saddened us. On Monday, November 2nd, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers approached his employer in an attempt to recover several weeks of unpaid wages. The employer refused to pay. When the worker attempted to negotiate, the employer pushed him and threatened the worker with physical violence – brandishing a hammer. Terrified, the worker called the New Orleans Police Department. When police officers arrived, they took it upon themselves to punish the worker instead of protecting him. They interrogated him about his immigration status, and issued a citation for disturbing the peace."

On September 9, Police Superintendent Riley announced that the New Orleans Police would not be asking about the immigration status of victims of crimes, saying, "We are not going to make someone a victim twice." Today, at 3:00pm at 715 S. Broad Street (near Orleans Parish Prison, at Tulane and Broad), the Congress of Day Laborers will hold a demonstration, joined by clergy, to ask Riley to fulfill his promise.

Then, later tonight, a new organization called the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans (ROCNO) will be holding an interfaith prayer vigil in front of Tony Moran’s, a Bourbon Street restaurant that workers say has engaged in a pattern of nonpayment of wages and created a discriminatory workplace

Members of ROCNO are asking supporters to meet at 7:30pm at the 100 block of Carondelet Street, near the intersection of Canal, to then walk over to Tony Moran’s Restaurant together by 8:00pm.

On Labor Day, Four Years After Katrina, New Orleans Workers Face Lower Pay and Discrimination

Tomorrow is Labor Day, a holiday that was popularized as a substitute for the more radical international worker’s rights commemorations on May First. On this Labor Day, four years after New Orleans was flooded, what is the state of worker’s rights in Louisiana?

In the days after the storm, virtually the entire staff of New Orleans’ public school system was fired. Not long after, the school board voted to officially cease recognition of their union – one of the largest and strongest in the city. In the months and years since, Black and Latino workers in the reconstruction of the city have been pitted against each other by some employers in a “race to the bottom,” where all working people lose.

Louisiana is one of 22 so-called “Right to Work” states. These state laws prohibit workplaces where all employees are part of a union. Studies have found that states with these laws – which effectively limit the power of workers to advocate for better pay and benefits – have salaries almost 15% less than states without these anti-union prohibitions.

Nationwide, about 12% of workers are in unions. In Louisiana, only 4.6% of workers had union representation in 2008, one of the lowest rates in the US. Nationwide, there has been a decline in union membership for almost three decades – a decline that has also caused a drop in average salaries for workers, and in health coverage. Workers with unions are nearly 50% more likely to have health insurance covered by their employer.

Louisiana Justice Institute stands with organizations like the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice in a fight for justice for all workers.