Workers in the Madison area have a new place to go if they think they're getting unfair treatment on the job.
The Workers' Rights Center opened Wednesday at the Villager Mall on the South Side.
A project of the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice, the center was established as a result of a study by the coalition last year that found Latino workers in Dane County struggle with problems of documentation, discrimination and a lack of information about their rights.
The center has one paid employee and 20 volunteer advocates, 18 of whom also
speak Spanish, including one who also speaks Hmong. But the center is for
workers, no matter where they're from, said coordinator Sarah Shatz.
"Latino workers have a specific set of workplace problems that we educate
ourselves about but we are also reaching out to all workers," she said.
"It's a place for people to go where it would be non-threatening ... where they could come and talk about issues they were having," added Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor and a member of the center's interim steering committee.
The center's estimated $70,000 annual cost is being financed primarily by the Catholic Diocese of Madison, United Way of Dane County, Rockefeller Foundation and First Unitarian Society.