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.
Carwash Campaign Highlights Success of Community-Labor Teamwork
One of the best ways for unions to reach out to new groups of workers is by joining with community-based worker centers across the country—and the campaign to gain better working conditions for carwash workers in Los Angeles recently has done just that, according to several union leaders involved in the campaign.
AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt, speaking at a brown bag discussion yesterday at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., said worker centers and unions have a lot in common. They both fight for enforcement of wage and hour laws, oppose misclassification of workers and they fight for immigrant rights. Hiatt says:
We have the experience, the expertise. Worker centers have a strong community base. Bringing the two movements together is good for workers. A few years ago, I couldn’t imagine local or national unions would be working so closely with worker centers.
