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establishment
of workers' rights centers. And its success has been stunning.August 2005, Union Labor News
Low-wage workers who lack the benefits of a union are winning a measure of
justice through a community resource center that provides access to
information, advocacy, referrals, and training to resolve workplace
problems.
The Workers’ Rights Center which opened two and a half years ago in the
Villager Mall on South Park St. is part of a nationwide movement of Faith
and Labor coalitions who are responding to workplace problems through the
establishment
of workers' rights centers. And its success has been stunning.
Operated by the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, the Workers’ Rights Center (WRC) is guided by values shared by the faith and labor communities – a belief in the dignity of work, the right to a safe work environment, and the rights of workers to be fairly compensated. According to a report produced by Janice Fine of the Center for Community Change, there are now more that 150 worker centers throughout the country.
In just the last year alone, the WRC assisted 336 mostly low-wage workers, the vast majority who are Latino. The most common complaints were for unpaid wages (41 percent), work authorization issues (16 percent), and cases of discrimination (14 percent), according to Patrick Hickey, director of the Interfaith Coalition for Workers Justice (ICWJ).
While the number of workers seeking help last year far exceeded expectations, the WRC’s success in helping to resolve complaints was nothing short of remarkable.
On behalf of 63 workers the WRC was able to negotiate cash settlements totaling $36,341.50, mainly for unpaid wages and overtime pay. In more than fifty instances, the WRC’s mediation between workers and their employers won job reinstatements, work schedule changes and pay raises for workers; and more than a hundred workers were referred to other services or government agencies to get help with specific issues.
Out of 336 workers who have used the Center’s services over the last year, 282 cases were resolved, with work continuing in 54 cases.
The WRC has also made progress over the past year in identifying and developing leadership among low income workers so that they can lead and participate in the WRC activities. Currently 5 of 9 members of the Worker Council which helps to oversee the WRC are low-wage earners. Three became involved with the WRC initially as clients with workplace problems. Two came in as a volunteer advocates and subsequently joined the Council. One of the five, Claudio Selva Salamanca, was recently elected chair of the Worker Council.
"We are working toward a Center that is run by the workers who use it,” said Selva. “We are not interested in just resolving people's individual problems, we want to get to the root of the problems and equip workers to create their own solutions.”
”One part of what we do,” Selva explained, “is to monitor government agencies and work with them to improve their enforcement. For example, we have had success working with the Dane County District Attorney, and the Wage & Hour and Unemployment divisions of the Department of Workforce Development.”
Over the past year, 277 workers also received workers’ rights training that focused on topics such as unpaid wage claims, workers’ compensation, discrimination, immigration, work authorization and Social Security “no match” letters. Of the 49 new worker advocates who received training to help staff the WRC during the past year, 27 were low wage workers.
Given the high demand for WRC resources and the need to maintain effectiveness, says Hickey, “We made a conscious decision to limit our outreach efforts. Even so, we’ve received calls from Green Bay, Wausau, Janesville and even Illinois, because many workers do not know what their rights are, or where they can turn for assistance.”
Currently most referrals to the WRC come from half a dozen agencies and word of mouth from previous clients. “The need and demand for these services are much higher than we anticipated and we hope to grow into better meeting them.”
One step being taken is to ask local community organizations and religious congregations to take responsibility for recruiting participants for worker rights and advocate training programs, allowing the WRC to focus solely on the training and the follow up.
In October, the Worker Council is planning a WRC Stakeholders Gathering to bring together the various groups involved with the Center to give input and feedback about how to better carry out the mission of the WRC.
The WRC is also collaborating with the University of Wisconsin's Neighborhood Law Project and several area labor attorneys to provide workers with legal representation when necessary.
Advocates are trained to advise workers who come into the center with workplace problems during specific intake hours. The advocates – who often come with various social services, religious, labor or community organizing backgrounds – learn the basics of labor law, advocacy techniques, and how to file complaints with government agencies.
“Workers are helped to make informed decisions on how workplace problems can best be resolved, which might mean simply following through on a complaint, seeking advocacy in the community, or forming a union where they work,” said Hickey. "One of our central guiding principles is self-determination. Workers need to assess and weigh the possible risks for decisions that they make for themselves about workplace problems.”
"In a small way, we advocates are the union representatives for workers without a union," said Josh Healey, a volunteer advocate at the WRC and member of the Student Labor Action Coalition. "Unfortunately all we have for a contract are the inadequate worker protections of State and Federal law. So we need to rely a lot more on solidarity and community pressure to be successful."
The need for the Workers' Rights Center came out of recommendations made by a fact-finding delegation of the ICWJ-sponsored Latino Workers Project. The project undertaken in 2001 determined that low-income workers often faced poor working conditions and they needed a place to go for information and support.