New Study: Workers in America, Cheated

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An important new study has cast an appalling light on a place where workplace laws fail to protect workers, where wages and tips are routinely stolen, where having to work sick, injured or off the clock is the price of having a job.

The place is the United States, all across the lower strata of the urban economy.

The most comprehensive investigation of labor-law violations in years, released Wednesday by the Center for Urban Economic Development, the National Employment Law Project and the U.C.L.A. Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, surveyed 4,387 workers in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Its researchers sought out people often missed by standard surveys and found abuses everywhere: in factories, grocery stores, retail shops, construction sites, offices, warehouses and private homes. The word sweatshop clearly is not big enough anymore to capture the extent and severity of the rot in the low-wage workplace.

More...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/opinion/03thu2.html

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The report has particular significance for immigrant workers, who made up 70 percent of the survey (39 percent of them were undocumented). Workplace abuses are flourishing in the absence of a working immigration system, where illegal immigrants are vital to the economy but helpless to assert their rights.

The report upends the argument that the way to help American workers is to make illegal immigrants ever more frightened and exploitable. Only by protecting all workers will the country begin to rebuild a workplace matching its ideals of decency and fair play.


Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America’s Cities

We incurred numerous debts in conducting this study. Most of all, we thank the 4,387 low-wage workers who participated in our survey. We also are grateful to the members of our four advisory boards who assisted us at many stages in the project’s development, and to the many organizations who provided space for us to conduct the surveys. The staffs at the UIC Center for Urban Economic Development, the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and the National Employment Law Project all provided vital support for our efforts.

Click the link below to see the report.

http://nelp.3cdn.net/1797b93dd1ccdf9e7d_sdm6bc50n.pdf

Topics Covered:

• Minimum wage
• Overtime
• Meal breaks
• Rest breaks
• Retaliation
• Workers’ comp
• Right to organize
• Off the clock work

Authors of the Report:

• Annette Bernhardt
• Ruth Milkman
• Nik Theodore
• Douglas Heckathorn
• Mirabai Auer
• James DeFilippis
• Ana Luz González
• Victor Narro
• Jason Perelshteyn
• Diana Polson
• Michael Spiller

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National Advisory Board
Eileen Appelbaum, Rutgers University
Jennifer Gordon, Fordham Law School
Mark Handcock, University of Washington
Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
Martin Iguchi, UCLA/Rand
Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
Cathy Ruckelshaus, National Employment Law Project

Los Angeles Community Advisory Board
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Bet Tzedek Legal Services
California Community Foundation
Central American Resource Center
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
Economic Roundtable
Employment Law Unit, Legal Aid Foundation
of Los Angeles
Korean Immigrant Workers Alliance
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
Los Angeles Board of Public Works
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund
Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund
National Alliance of Latin American
and Caribbean Communities
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
National Immigration Law Center
Neighborhood and Community Services,
Office of Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa
Neighborhood Legal Services
Pilipino Workers’ Center
SEIU Local 434B
SEIU Local 1877
Teamsters Joint Council 42
UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty
UCLA Labor Occupational Safety & Health Program
UNITE HERE Local 11

Chicago Community Advisory Board
ARISE Chicago
Centro Romero
Chicago Workers Collaborative
Latino Union
North Lawndale Employment Network
West Humboldt Park Family & Community
Development Council
Working Hands Legal Clinic

New York City Community Advisory Board
African Services Committee
Andolan - Organizing South Asian Workers
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Bronx Defenders
Community Voices Heard
Consortium for Worker Education
Domestic Workers United
El Centro (Project Hospitality)
Fifth Avenue Committee
Garment Industry Development Corporation
Latin American Workers Project
Legal Services NYC
Make the Road New York
New York City Central Labor Council
New York City Taxi Workers Alliance
New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
New York Jobs with Justice
North West Bronx Community Clergy Coalition
Queens Community House
Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York
Seedco
The New York Immigration Coalition
YKASEC – Empowering the Korean American Community