Labor & Employment Law

Worker Center, Washington State Fed Join Forces to Help Immigrant Workers

By James Parks

Casa Latina?a worker center that serves all workers, including immigrant workers?is affiliating with the Washington State Labor Council to encourage closer cooperation in the fight for immigrant workers’ rights.

Seattle-based Casa Latina is the 11th worker center to join the AFL-CIO under a program we launched in 2006 that enables state and local bodies of the AFL-CIO and neighboring workers’ centers to establish formal ties and work together to meet the needs of America’s workers.

Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender says:

Low-wage and immigrant workers in the United States face enormous challenges in enforcing their labor and employment rights, rendering them ripe for exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous employers. This exploitation hurts us all because when standards are dragged down for some workers, they are dragged down for everyone. 

The group’s first joint project will be creating a pilot project identifying, documenting and remedying wage theft in King County, which includes Seattle.

Hilary Stern, founding executive director of CASA Latina, adds:

Low-wage immigrant workers are under tremendous stress at this time in our country.  We look forward to joining forces with the Washington State Labor Council to raise the floor for all workers in our community.

Casa Latina’s affiliation with the Washington State Labor Council sends a signal to employers that the state’s workers, union and nonunion, immigrant and U.S. born, will work together to advance all workers’ rights.

“We welcome Casa Latina into the AFL-CIO family,” says Ana Avendaño, assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and director of the AFL-CIO’s Immigrant Worker Program.

 They are the first worker center in Washington State to join and we look forward to supporting the creative and significant work to come from this partnership.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on December 14, 2009 (boomark / email).