IMMIGRANT WORKERS LAUNCH INNOVATIVE EFFORT TO ENFORCE LABOR LAWS, AND END IMPUNITY FOR LAWLESS WORKING CONDITIONS IN NEIGHBORHOODS THROUGHOUT THE 5 BOROUGHS
AFTER
A PRESS CONFERENCE AT THE NYS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, TRAINED "WAGE AND
HOUR WATCHERS" FROM COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS AND LABOR UNIONS WILL HIT
THE STREETS FROM BUSHWICK TO STATEN ISLAND TO LET EMPLOYERS KNOW,
"WE'LL BE WATCHING YOU!"
Workers will spend hours each week
training immigrant workers about their labor rights and how to enforce
them, and educating employers about how to comply with the law. Exploitative employers will be promptly reported to the NYS Department of Labor.
What:A large, lively crowd will assemble on the street outside the NYS
Labor Department's office.
Wage and hour watchers will then travel to Bushwick, Brooklyn to get to
work. They will be handing out pamphlets and speaking to workers and
employers about their rights under state labor law.
Who:State
Labor Deputy Commissioner Terri Gerstein; Make the Road New
York, a
grassroots membership organization of low-income New Yorkers; the
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union; Centro del Inmigrante in
Staten Island; the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local
1500; and The Workplace Project in Long Island.
When:10:30 a.m., Thursday, April 2nd
Where:75 Varick Street, Lower Manhattan.
Photo Opportunity / Interviews with affected workers available
"Today, with 12,600 dues-paying members, MRNY is a unique amalgam of worker center, legal clinic, citizenship school, mutual aid society, policy shop, protest factory and church. Its four offices in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and Long Island are an egalitarian oasis for members, who gather there for conversation and classes..."
