On Tuesday, the New York Attorney General's Office arrested the owner of Tortilleria Chinantla in New York City, where Juan Baten, an immigrant from Guatemala, was killed last year when he fell into a dough mixer. The owner, Erasmo Ponce, now faces felony charges for falsifying business records and misdemeanor charges for wage violations. Juan Baten is survived by his partner and infant daughter. Brandworkers, a worker rights group who organized around Baten's death, applauded the New York Attorney General's actions.

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | Local Campaigns | Low-Wage Workers | Organizing

Birmingham, AL. In response to Alabama's HB 56, the harshest anti-immigrant state law passed to date, a delegation of seventeen women leaders met with immigrant women in Birmingham to bear witness to the impact of these laws on women and children. This delegation included women leaders representing women, children advocacy, worker rights, immigrant rights, and human rights organizations, including Haeyoung Yoon, NELP staff attorney. Check out the webelongtogether.org website for testimony and statements from the delegation's visit.

FILED UNDER: Human Rights | Immigration | Organizing

Congratulations to Warehouse Workers United!

Last October, after working in scorching heat with no breaks for hours on end, roughly 100 workers at a major Walmart contracted warehouse took legal action against Schneider Logistics after noticing wages were being stolen from their paychecks.  The action prompted a notice to terminate the workers en masse, a discharge that was scheduled to take effect on February 24th, and a series of legal battles in which a California District Court barred the Walmart contractor from firing the workers.

FILED UNDER: Immigrant Workers | Litigation | Organizing | Retaliation | Unions | Worker Centers

Local Leaders for Migrant Worker Rights Will Convene With Hundreds to Raise Working Conditions, Challenge Unjust Immigration Policies.

On February 20, 2012, day laborers from across the country kicked off a historic gathering convened by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) in Los Angeles.  The network is celebrating its 10th year anniversary at a time when immigrant and worker rights hang in a precarious balance.  And despite an unprecedented assault on their rights, day laborers are celebrating their extraordinary achievements as leaders within the movement for migrant worker rights.

FILED UNDER: Day Laborers | Immigrant Workers | Immigration | Organizing | Worker Centers

In late 2011, more than 200 workers of the Pacific Steel Casting plant in Berkeley, CA were subject to a forced layoff resulting from a “silent raid,” or an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) I-9 audit. These audits require an employer to provide ICE with employee I-9 form documents to verify U.S. government authorization to work in this country.

Despite attempts by Local 164B of the Glass, Molders, and Pottery Union to halt the layoff of workers, Pacific Steel terminated workers caught in the I-9 audit. Former workers, the majority of whom had five to twenty years of seniority, now lack income and have lost access to their health insurance benefits. Workers have organized a mutual support committee and will hold a public march on Friday, February 17, 2012 in Berkeley, California.

FILED UNDER: I-9/Employer Audits | Immigrant Workers | Labor | Local Campaigns | Organizing | Unions