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NLG L&EC MANUAL - Immigrant Workers Rights - Resources for Labor & Employment Attorneys. Click here to ORDER the Immigrant Workers' Rights - Resources for Labor & Employment Attorneys. Click here to view updates for the manual. Click here for details about this manual including the table of contents. Click here to jump to the new AFL-CIO and NILC site for low wage immigrant worker issues with RESOURCE MATERIALS.
ACTIONS - SUPPORT the campaign against abuses of the H-2B visa program by Signal International, LLC and their labor recruiters in the US and India. In addition to filing a class action lawsuit for violations of human trafficking, the workers started a hunger strike on May 14th in Washington, DC to protest the injustice.
Today, please take a moment and send a birthday wish to Mr. Paul Konar, one of the hunger strikers who turns 54 tomorrow (June 4, Wednesday). Birthday wishes must be sent by 12:00 EST via hungerstrikestrongman@gmail.com.
Click here to contribute a DONATION to the campaign.
ACTIONS - VOLUNTEER to help immigrant and low wage workers victims of wage theft in post-Katrina New Orleans. Click here for an email describing this project. Contact Marielena Hincapie, Director of Programs for the National Immigration Law Project, at (213) 639-3900 x 12 or Melissa Crow, Gulf Coast Policy Attorney, at (202) 216-0261.
ACTIONS - RIGHT to PROTEST - To download a handout regarding worker legal rights to engage in protests (California law) - click for MS Word version or click for PDF version
ARTICLES & BLOGS - Click here for articles and blogs related to immigrant workers.
CASE LAW (just a little) - Click here for information about case law related to immigrant workers and labor law issues.
LEGISLATION - Click here for information about legislation related to immigrant workers.
RESOURCES - Click here to jump to the section below listing other resources.
SAFETY & HEALTH - Click here for more information about occupational safety and health issues related to immigrant workers.
TRAINING -
OTHER RESOURCES
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California Labor Federation AFL-CIO - Click here for actions related to immigrant workers on the California Labor Federation website.
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California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative (CIWC)
Click here for update of August 12, 2005
Click here for update of October 9, 2005
- Low Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition - this coalition, which is co-convened by the AFL-CIO and NILC, has launched a website dedicated to the no-match issue. Click here. You can get background information, know-your-rights pamphlets, and other materials. If anyone has anything to add to the site, please email Ana Avendano at AAvendan@aflcio.org or Mike Munoz at NILC at munoz@nilc.org .
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National Immigration Law Center - click here for the NILC website for lots of resources - listed below are just a few examples:
- The Legal Aid Society of San Francisco - Employment Law Center - click here for the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center website. Click here for the section of their website that relates to National Origin, Immigration and Lanugage Rights. Click here for their related fact sheets. Click here for their new (Nov 2007) fact sheet entitled Document Abuse (Identification Documents at Work): Things You Should Know about Proving Your Work Status to Your Employer.
SPECIAL ISSUES - NEW ORLEANS - And Injustice for All: Workers? Lives in the Reconstruction of New Orleans by the National Immigration Law Center, the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition, and the Advancement Project. Most comprehensive documentation of post-Katrina worker conditions to date. This report is a compilation of personal narratives based on more than 700 worker interviews that raises the voices of New Orleanians struggling to return and of reconstruction workers, all of whom are attempting to survive in the face of inequitable and unjust policies and practices of public and private institutions. In the final analysis, this report advocates multi-racial, organized, collective action as a strategy for workers, most of whom are migrant or displaced, to hold public officials and private industry accountable.
NLG L&EC Project on Immigrant Workers' Rights
The National Lawyers Guild is currently fighting on a variety of fronts a growing anti-immigrant sentiment. The L&EC recognizes immigrant workers are the fastest growing segment of the workforce and the backbone of recent successful organizing efforts among low-wage workers. Of these workers, some six million are undocumented, subjecting them to additional hardships if fired during a union organizing drive or subjected to other forms of workplace discrimination or retaliation.
Although documented and undocumented workers are protected by federal labor law, the recent US Supreme Court decision in Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc., v. NLRB and subsequent federal and state court decisions interpreting Hoffman have changed the landscape regarding immigrant workers' labor and employment rights. Remedies previously available to undocumented workers are being constantly challenged by management-side lawyers. In addition, employers increasingly rely on Social Security No Match Letters to undermine unions and destroy union organizing drives.
The Guild Labor & Employment Committee developed materials to aid labor and employment attorneys, the union movement and individual workers. The materials outline labor and employment rights of immigrant workers to be used by lawyers, union representatives and workers to defend these rights.
This materials are the product of a collaboration among the NLG Labor & Employment Committee, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the AFL-CIO. We particularly would like to thank Anita Sinha (Sinha@nilc.org) and Marielena Hincapié (hincapie@nilc.org) of NILC and Ana Avendaño Denier (aavendan@aflcio.org) of the AFL-CIO's General Counsel's office for drafting these materials. Special thanks as well to the attorneys who helped by contributing materials they previously developed and who reviewed these materials.
These materials are designed for lawyers and legal workers, including union representatives. The last three sections contain materials designed specifically for immigrant workers that unions can use when organizing or training immigrant workers.
UPDATES. We will be and have added updates. Updates are available on the NILC website. We welcome your comments, suggestions and additions to these materials. For updates, go to nilc.org and click on Employment Issues; there you will see the manual listed as Immigrant Workers Rights Materials. If you click on "Immigrant Workers Rights Resource Manual",
you will find 3 different sections listed: Resource Material for Legal Advocates; Resource Material for Community and Labor Organizers; Resource Material for Immigrant Workers. Each section contains updates to the material developed in April 2004, if there were updates. Or click here to jump to that page.
The Labor & Employment Committee would like to organize programs in various communities to present this material to train lawyers and union representatives on how to use this material effectively, how lawyers might train other union representatives, and how union representatives might present the material and train stewards or immigrant workers directly. We hope to work with the AFL-CIO to conduct trainings of union attorneys at future regional or national meetings of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee. If you are interested in organizing a program, hosting or participating as a panelist, please contact one of us.
TO ORDER a MANUAL. The Immigrant Workers' Rights - A Resource Manual is available for purchase for $25 payable to the NLG L&EC. Contact us at fcs@kazanlaw.com for an order form with information about where to send your check, and we will then send you a copy.
TABLE of CONTENTS
Section 1: The Fundamentals
§ Immigration and Immigrant Workers: The Basics
§ Checklist for Attorneys Advising or Representing Immigrant Workers
§ Ten Tips on How to Protect Workers From Questions on Immigration Status
§ Glossary of Key Immigration Terms
Section 2: Immigrant Workers & Work Verification
§ Basic Information Brief: Reverification
§ Classes of Immigrants Authorized to Work in the United States § Filing an Employment Discrimination Charge: A Do-It-Yourself Packet
§ Basic Information Brief: DHS Basic Pilot Program
Section 3: The Statutes & Administrative Guidelines Impacting Immigrant Workers' Labor & Employment Rights
§ Issue Brief: Workplace Rights of Undocumented Workers After the Supreme Court's Hoffman Plastic Ruling
§ Table of Authorities
Section 4: Union Contract Language Addressing Immigrant Workers' Issues
§ Model Contract Language
Section 5: Social Security Numbers
§ Toolkit: Social Security Administration's (SSA) 'No-Match' Letters
Section 6: Organizing Immigrant Workers
§ Introduction: Organizing Immigrant Workers
§ The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride's Labor Curriculum
§ Basic Media Guide for Immigrant Workers (in English & Spanish)
Section 7: Fact Sheets for Immigrant Workers on Their Labor & Employment Rights
§ Document Discrimination - Worker Can Choose Which Documents to Show
§ Citizenship Discrimination - Bob's 'U.S. Citizens Only' Policy Illegal
§ National Origin Discrimination - Immigrant Janitor Claims His Rights Work Authorization
§ The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) - Workers Must Get at Least the Minimum Wage
§ The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) - Workers File Unfair Labor Practice Charge
§ Work Authorization - Worker Seeks Help for Work Authorization Program
Section 8: Materials for Immigrant Workers on Safeguarding Against Retaliation & Enforcement
§ How to Protect Yourself When Filing a Complaint Against Your Boss
§ Protecting Yourself Against Immigration Enforcement
§ What to Do If You Are Arrested or Detained by Immigration
§ Handout for Workers: Learn How to Protect Yourself if You've Been Arrested or Detained (in English & Spanish)
Section 9: Other Education Materials for Immigrant Workers
§ Proving Work Authorization & Reverification
§ Workers: Know Your Rights About the Social Security 'No-Match' Letter (in English & Spanish)
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