Logo

Wage theft is rampant, whether it be the unpaid workers at Yellow Rat Bastard before they got a union, the countless people talked about in Kim Bobbos' book "Wage Theft In America", or the almost 400 undocumented workers, some as young as 13, who were underpaid and overworked in the Agriprocessor's Kosher meat plant in Ohio, here's whats happening, got this in an e-mail, :

Leading National Organization on Wage Theft Convening Major Gathering with Federal Government Officials

Interfaith Worker Justice, the nation’s largest network of faith leaders mobilized to improve wages and conditions for workers in the low-wage economy, is holding a major national summit at Tulane University this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, at which a key new piece of federal legislation to end the pernicious practice of wage theft – “the crime wave no one talks about” – will be announced for the first time.

Jody Calemine, Deputy Director of Labor Policy for U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, will discuss plans to introduce the new anti-wage theft bill in a plenary address at 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the Kendall Cram Lecture Hall, Room 213 of Tulane’s Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life (LBC).

The bill will be designed to empower worker advocates and community organizations to partner with the U.S. Department of Labor on wage theft prevention and enforcement efforts. It would establish mandatory minimum penalties for employers who willfully and repeatedly violate wage and hour laws.

“When this legislation passes, unscrupulous employers will have to think twice about stealing their workers’ wages, because they’ll be on alert that the penalties will be serious,” said Ted Smukler, Director of Public Policy for Interfaith Worker Justice. “Not only will they face monetary penalties, they could also face jail time.”

Smukler authored IWJ’s 2007 report on the rampant violations of labor rights in post-Katrina New Orleans, also the subject of congressional testimony he delivered in June of 2007.

Joining Calemine on Sunday’s plenary will be Michael Kerr, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Administration and Management. Kerr will address the commitment of the Department of Labor’s new leadership to cracking down on wage theft and health and safety violations in the workplace.

Preceding Kerr’s remarks there will be a special videotaped message from Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. In her message, Solis praises IWJ’s campaign to stop wage theft, calling the book Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—And What We Can Do About It, by the organization’s executive director, Kim Bobo, “excellent.”

More than 100 leaders representing over 40 worker centers around the country will be present to exchange local strategies for fighting wage theft, making the summit the largest gathering of worker center leaders in recent years.

I have also posted an article with a video On Joe's Union Review entitled "Video: Kim Bobo author of Wage Theft speaking before Congress in July 2008", it has more on the subject and how to follow whats going on in this authors life

New York's Department Of Labor has created a grass roots style organization to battle wage theft in our city, you can learn more aboiut that, who's involved and how you can help in this article "Wage Watch, NY Dept. of Labor reaches out to grass-roots campaign to fight wage violations"