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La semana pasada, algunos trabajadores agrícolas del Valle de Yakima participaron en un programa de radio junto con Fair Work Center para celebrar la Semana Nacional de Trabajadores Campesinos. Compartieron historias de los retos que enfrentan en el trabajo, cómo están organizando para exigir y expandir sus derechos, y que sería una manera para que se sintieran de verdad que su trabajo fuera valorado y celebrado por nuestra sociedad. 

Muchos trabajadores dijeron que una sola semana en marzo para celebrarlos no es suficiente para realmente honrar su trabajo y aportar a sus comunidades. En vez de una semana de celebración, los trabajadores pidieron que tomamos acción para proteger sus derechos—y algo que podemos hacer ahora es aprobar a SB 5172 y asegurar que todos los trabajadores agrícolas reciban un pago extra cuando trabajan horas extras. 

>>>Haga clic aquí para contactar a sus representantes estatales y pedir que aprueben SB 5172 sin enmiendas cuando haya un voto en la Cámara de Representantes.

¿Qué más dicen los trabajadores agrícolas sobre lo que sería una celebración verdadera de su trabajo?

“Que festejaremos de verdad, es de si habrá esta reforma migratoria para trabajadores. La mayoría no tienen documentos—y tienen años trabajando en la agricultura. Somos trabajadores esenciales…que el gobierno nos apoye con esta reforma migratoria para que podamos trabajar libremente 

“El gobierno estatal no tiene los oficiales suficientes para estar vigilando cada ranchero, cada compañía. Así que es los rancheros si saben esto…y ellos hacen lo que los da la ganas, entonces los trabajadores tenemos que ser los responsables para cuidarse nosotros mismos. 

“Siempre vemos abusos contra los trabajadores, a veces los mayordomos no quieren darnos las horas de enfermedad. Y si una vez reclames tus horas de enfermedad, se enojan. Es muy injusto todavía. Se hay que hacer valer los derechos.” 

“Para mi, celebrarnos sería las formas de apoyar a los campesinos con lo que nos hace falta…De verdad no se de que se trata de celebrar, sino más bien exigirnos los derechos.”

“Celebrarnos significa que las compañías nos den el respeto que merecemos como trabajadores.”

Los trabajadores también compartieron historias de los varios retos que enfrentan en el trabajo agrícola: el acoso, el estrés, la falta de equipo de protección, el robo de salario, los patrones quitando los breaks, y trabajo fuera de tiempo de pago. Haga clic aquí para escuchar al programa de radio archivado.

Cómo podemos tomar acción

Ahora en el estado de WA, la legislatura estatal tiene una oportunidad de eliminar una exclusión racista en nuestras leyes y asegurar que todos los trabajadores agrícolas reciben un pago extra cuando trabajan horas extras. 

SB 5172 eliminará la exclusión de los trabajadores campesinos de las protecciones de horas extras. Esta propuesta ya se aprobó el Senado Estatal entero, e igual se aprobaron dos comités en la Cámara de Representantes Estatal. Pronto, habrá un voto en la Cámara de Representantes entera, así que estamos a punto de convertir esta propuesta en ley!

Pero aliados del comercio agrícola van a intentar pedir enmiendas al último momento para restringir la fuerza de la propuesta y ablandar los derechos de algunos trabajadores agrícolas. Entonces hay que levantar nuestras voces y exigir nuestros derechos! Añade tu voz para asegurar que los Representantes nos escuchan y votan para aprobar SB 5172 sin enmiendas. 

CONTACTE TUS REPRESENTANTES:

DILES QUE ASEGUREN EL PAGO DE OVERTIME 

PARA TODOS LOS TRABAJADORES AGRÍCOLAS

It’s now official: across the country, it is illegal for your employer to fire you or otherwise discriminate against you based on your sexual orientation or gender identity. That’s because of a ruling last month by the US Supreme Court, a landmark civil rights victory that will protect millions of workers across the United States from unlawful discrimination. 

With federal anti-discrimination laws in the news, it’s a good time to get familiar with Washington State’s anti-discrimination laws. Thankfully, LGBTQ workers in our state have been protected from discrimination at work since Washington’s own landmark legislation in 2006. And, in fact, our state law goes further than federal law in protecting LBGTQ rights in other areas of life, too. 

LGBTQ workers are protected from employment discrimination. Your employer cannot discriminate against you based on your sexual orientation or gender identity. This covers all aspects of your employment, such as in applying and interviewing, hiring and firing, discipline, promotion, layoffs, and work environment.

State law also protects your right to stand up for your rights on the job. That means your boss can’t retaliate against you when you raise concerns about discrimination you’re experiencing at work. 

In addition to protections from employment discrimination, LGBTQ people in Washington also have the right to be free from discrimination in other key aspects of life:

• Housing: Landlords can’t refuse to rent to you or lie to you about the availability of a rental property because of your gender identity or sexual orientation. 
• Public accommodation: You can’t be refused entry, participation, or service in places that provide goods and services to the public – that means places like restaurants, theaters, hotels, hospitals, libraries, gas stations, retail stores, and more. 
• Credit and Insurance: You can’t be refused credit or insurance services because of your LGBTQ identity.

If you are being discriminated against because of your sexual orientation or gender identity, we encourage you to reach out to Q Law or the Lavender Rights Project. Our legal clinic would normally be a resource as well for employment-based discrimination you may be experiencing, but we are currently closed to new cases as we manage a large volume of other cases.

Employers are failing in their responsibility to provide safe workplaces, especially in the agricultural industry. Last year, 76 workers across the state died on the job from traumatic health and safety incidents. One of those workers was Omar Gomez Lopez, a hop picker from Central Washington who was killed in a tragic equipment malfunction.

Last month, Fair Work Center and Working Washington hosted the inaugural Omar Gomez Lopez Farmworker Rights Training and vigil in Grandview. Friends and family members of Omar’s were in attendance, as well as dozens of agricultural workers. Omar’s wife Rebecca said, “My heart is broken because there’s kids with no dad or no mom out there — and this continues to happen. At the training, I was so happy because I saw a lot of workers there learning what their rights are and what’s out there for them, and it made my heart at peace for a while.”

In the wake of Omar’s death, Rebecca has decided to take action to improve workplace safety.

She invited family and friends & helped lead the training we held in Grandview. She’s been reaching out to community members to teach them about their rights, and has returned to school to study translation because she wants to make sure workers can learn about their rights in Spanish.

As Rebecca put it: “The training was the best thing that could have come out of Omar’s death. We brought the knowledge people needed, and let them know that they’re not alone and don’t need to be afraid.”

Everyone can help make our communities and our workplaces safer. Fair Work Center and Working Washington are holding regular trainings for farmworkers in central Washington. 

And over November 2-3, we’ll be hosting a vigil in honor of Omar and those 76 workers who died at the 2019 Día de Muertos Festival. Día de Muertos – or the Day of the Dead in English –  is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular, the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican heritage elsewhere. Día de Muertos celebrates the lives of those who passed with food, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life, and it is said that their spirits are awoken by the revelry and partake in the celebration.

We think it is a fitting way to honor the life of Omar and so many other immigrant farmworkers killed or injured on the job. Seattle’s festival is held at the Seattle Center Armory and runs all weekend. We hope you’ll attend to pay your respects, honor, and celebrate the life of Omar and others who needlessly died on the job.

Washington is boldly proposing to restore overtime protections to hundreds of thousands of salaried workers across the state. This could well be the biggest advancement in standards for workers since raising the minimum wage and providing paid sick leave through Initiative 1433. 

This week, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries held public hearings in Ellensburg, Tri-Cities, and Spokane, to hear from people around the state what restoring overtime pay would mean to them. Working Washington and Fair Work Center were represented in each of these hearings to support the proposal to bring back time and a half pay to salaried workers.

There hearing from workers like Lauren, E., and Alec, who shared their overtime stories with L&I and Working Washington.

Lauren is a volunteer coordinator at a nonprofit organization. “I didn’t have the option to miss an event if I was sick. We only had a staff of 2-3 people, some of whom were often working other events, so they wouldn’t have been able to cover for me. We had volunteers to help with the events, but our volunteers weren’t able to run events on their own. If I was responsible for the event, I had to be there. Taking on so much just wasn’t sustainable for the staff. I wanted to do well in my new job, be seen as a positive and flexible coworker, and learn new skills like managing volunteers and public speaking, so I was enthusiastic at first about working overtime and taking on so much. Just coming out of college I was used to spending a lot of time studying, so it didn’t occur to me, at least not right away, that I was sacrificing my health for my job.”

E. is a chef working for a catering company. They said: “My salary is $56K, and I’m not paid for overtime. Typically, I work a minimum of 50 hours a week, but over the last six months, I’ve been working 60-65 hours a week. Right now, the more I work, the less I make per hour. I make less money per hour than I did when I was an hourly worker, and that’s really depressing.”

Alec is a manager working in retail. He said: “My partner and I both work in customer service/retail. Every holiday season, I watch as my partner is expected to work up to 90 hours a week, getting paid only cents on the hour after he hits overtime. For every hour my partner works over 40, his hourly take home pay drops. Businesses are more than aware of their ability to take advantage of salaried employees below the overtime threshold and they do so — this is reprehensible and the state must put an end to it.”  

If you are an hourly worker, you should already be getting overtime when you work more than 40 hours in a week. (If you’re not getting overtime pay and you think you should be, contact us!) But almost no salaried workers in Washington qualify for overtime pay, because the overtime rules are so far out of date. By raising the salary threshold for overtime exemption to 2.5x the minimum wage, the proposal would restore overtime to more than 250,000 workers across the state, regardless of whether they’re classified salaried or hourly, and no matter what their job title is. It is critical the state hears from workers and supporters of the proposal because it is being met with fierce opposition from business and employer groups. Add your voice to Lauren’s, Alec’s, Chris’s, and thousands of others in calling for the state to restore overtime to salaried workers. Because our time counts. 

Fair Work Center fights for the rights of immigrant workers every day. From our know your rights trainings and free legal services to our partnerships with immigrant community organizations, we stand with low-wage, immigrant workers fighting for their rights on the job.

Recently, we joined the fight for immigrant rights that has been raging for years at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma. The NWDC is a privately-operated, for-profit prison that contracts with the federal government to detain community members fighting their immigration cases. It is operated by the GEO Group, the 2nd largest private prison company in the country. GEO has long been under fire for the NWCD’s abysmal conditions and mistreatment of detainees, including those whose labor keeps the detention center running. GEO pays these detainee workers just $1 a day, even though Washington minimum wage is $12 an hour. For the record, $1 a day at the state minimum wage buys you about 5 minutes of work. GEO’s entire business model relies on stealing at least 91% of detainees’ wages, all while generating more than $2 billion in annual revenue. 

In September 2017, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued GEO Group for failing to pay detainee workers the state minimum wage. This summer, the Fair Work Center was asked to support the lawsuit by filing an amicus brief due to our expertise in enforcing minimum wage protections for Washington workers. An amicus brief is the legal term for providing expertise, information, or other insights to the court to aid in a case that isn’t your own. You can read the brief we filed in support of the Attorney General’s case here. In it we argue that Washington’s wage and hour laws apply to all employees, that wage theft is rampant in our economy, and that GEO is committing wage theft from detained workers. 

This lawsuit is about the value of work, and specifically the value of immigrant work. Immigrant workers, even detained immigrant workers, have the right to the legal minimum wage for their work.

As we argue in the brief, “wage theft is a systemic problem that disproportionately impacts vulnerable low-wage workers.” There probably isn’t a more vulnerable worker than a detained immigrant who faces deportation – but all employers in Washington have to follow the law, and all employees in Washington are covered.  By calling out GEO’s particularly egregious acts of wage theft, Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit has the potential to put all employers on notice: no worker is ripe for exploitation in Washington, which is why Fair Work Center is proud to be lending our expertise to support the suit in this way.

Read the full amicus brief here, and remember to contact Fair Work Center if you or someone you know is having their rights violated at work.

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PS – We are seeking third-year law students or recent law graduates interested in applying for public interest fellowships with Fair Work Center beginning in fall 2020, including Skadden, Equal Justice Workers, Justice Catalyst, and other independently funded programs. Learn more here!