New York State Protects Workers Against Wage Theft
Workers in New York State soon will be protected against wage theft by a new law. The State Assembly yesterday passed the Wage Theft Prevention Act, which will increase penalties significantly and improve enforcement of state laws on wage theft. The State Senate passed the bill in June and Gov. David Paterson (D) has vowed to sign it into law.
Wage theft is a national epidemic that robs millions of workers of billions of dollars they’ve worked for but never see, says Kim Bobo, author of Wage Theft in Americae and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), which coordinated the National Day of Action Against Wage Theft last month.
Domestic Workers Seeking Rights Need Unions
 |
||||
|
||||
Jenya Cassidy of the Labor Project for Working Families reports on the importance of unions joining the campaign for domestic workers’ rights.
Many workers have a hard time balancing work and family, but the workers who take care of other people’s families have the hardest time of all. There are more than 2.5 million domestic workers in the United States who work as nannies and maids. They care for other families’ homes and children while they are separated from their own children, often by a continent. They work long hours without overtime pay and, more often than not, without health benefits.
In the most recent edition of Labor Family News, Andrea Cristina Mercado of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (Active and United Women, MUA) and Ai-Jen Poo of Domestic Workers United (DWU) tell the story of Maria, a Central American woman who came to New York as a domestic worker to support her family.
AFSCME Members Rally to Save Public Services
 |
||||
|
||||
While state and local governments and school districts across the country struggle with budget deficits, AFSCME members are standing up to tell their elected representatives that raising revenues is the best solution to a budget crisis instead of cutting critical public services just when they are needed the most.
State and local governments and school districts have a $178 billion budget shortfall this year alone.
In Illinois, more than 3,000 activists, including hundreds of members of AFSCME Council 31, rallied at the state Capitol rotunda in Springfield this month to demand that lawmakers pass legislation to increase the individual income tax rate and expand the state’s sales tax base.
