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Worker Center, Washington State Fed Join Forces to Help Immigrant Workers
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.
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3 Comments
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I’m glad unions and this immigrant worker rights organization are working together. They should find ways to force employers to respect all workers and respect the law. If employers can’t pit one group of workers against another, then workers win. Solidarity is what gives unions and all workers a fighting chance against the boss.
This is a pretty basic idea. Solidarity 101. I’m glad it is still alive.
Immigrant workers should absolutely be entitled to the exact same rights as all other workers in the United States. All other workers in the United States LEGALLY, that is.
ALL Workers Unite wrote: ” They should find ways to force employers to respect all workers and respect the law.”
How ironic. Do you think Casa Latina, the Washington State Labor Council and the AFL-CIO is respecting the law?
You appear to think employers should “respect the law” but it is absolutely acceptable for illegal immigrant advocates to break our immigration laws, employment laws, tax laws, etc. etc.
Clearly a double standard here.