Worker's Rights and Economic Justice
Tens of thousands of employees in the Louisiana Gulf Coast Region face tremendous barriers to regaining meaningful employment post-Katrina. These individuals were our teachers, our healthcare workers, our hospitality industry workers, many of whom lived paycheck to paycheck on poverty wages. And, by some estimates, close to 100,000 new migrant workers – Latino, Asian, Native-American – were recruited to the gulf region for reconstruction work, or have migrated her on their own seeking better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. What is clear is that neither the mostly African-American displaced workers nor the new immigrant workers will be served if the working conditions and wages return to their abysmal pre-hurricane state.
Tracie Washington has worked in partnership with the Brennan Center and the National Employment Law Project to develop FAQ brochures on Wage and Hour Law Rights and other employee rights issues. Tracie has also advocated for the rights of guest workers to receive Louisiana identification cards and state driver’s licenses. Based on this combined effort, in June 2006 over 200 guest workers received state identification, which allows them to open bank accounts, rent apartments, and participate in many of the other social benefits citizens of our nation enjoy. LJI currently serves as local counsel with Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Immigration Law Center in the federal case Castellanos-Contreras, et al. vs. Decatur Hotel, Inc., fighting for wage payments due guest workers here in the U.S. under the H2-B visa program. In addition, LJI serves as local counsel with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in the David vs. Signal International, Inc. case, a collective action wage case, alleging fraud, and illegal trafficking of Indian nationals into the United States to work in the Mississippi shipbuilding industry under deplorable, slave-like conditions.
LJI is now actively planning the Pay Us Fair - Pay Us Legal! Louisiana Low-Wage Workers' Rights Campaign. The campaign will bring to the forefront worker exploitation in the Gulf Coast Region, uniting workers to campaign for better working conditions, and living wages. This work has begun, but it needs resources to grow and achieve the unprecedented alliance amongst low-wage workers to fight together for employment rights. LJI’s work will be multi-faceted on this campaign, first moving through organizing, then moving to training and finally advocacy in the following areas: wage theft, home owner and worker collaboration on contractor violations, state minimum wage and benefits laws with a private right of action, first source hiring agreements, strengthened enforcement of wage and hour laws and making worker rights an inextricable part of economic development. Depending on funding, this campaign is set to launch in summer of 2008.
