ten ways to protect undocumented migrant workers - picum

This report is an effective contribution to thedevelopment of a just and pragmatic policytowards undocumented migrant workers. Ittouches on issues key to economic growth, aswell as dealing with debates on migration andintegration.

Every day hundreds of thousands of undocu-mented workers labor in different sectors of theeconomy in Europe. Undocumented workers of -ten work and live in inhumane conditions, earn-ing very little or no pay at all, and are insufficient-ly protected by legislation.

Facing exploitation and abuse, many undocu-mented workers believe that they have no otheroption than to accept this situation. Fearing thatthey may be deported if they speak out, an over-whelming number suffer in silence.

Meanwhile some economic sectors in theEuropean Union are to a considerable extent de -pendent upon undocumented workers, who

make up a substantial part of their workforce.This dependence may be hidden, not just bymigrants’ silence, but by sub-contracting chainsand employers’ complicity.

This report presents detailed informationobtained from NGOs, trade unions and otheractors working with and advocating for undocu-mented workers, both in Europe and in theUnited States. Grouped in ten actions, a range ofmethods are presented that contribute to the aimof respecting the dignity of undocumentedmigrants as humans and as workers.

All those concerned with rights and justice willfind the pragmatic approach taken by this reportuseful, be they policy makers, unionists, activists,migrant workers and employers. This report pro-vides expert insight on all issues that should beconsidered to reach just and pragmatic policiesin the fields of migration, economic growth andsocial inclusion.

ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1

Ten Ways to Protect UndocumentedMigrant Workers

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ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1

Copyright © 2005 by PICUM

By Michele LeVoy, PICUM Researcher/Networkerand Nele Verbruggen, PICUM Coordinator

PICUMPlatform for International Cooperation

on Undocumented MigrantsGaucheretstraat 164

1030 BrusselsBelgium

Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org

Layout: beëlzepub • Brussels • www.beelzepub.com

This report was made possible with the gen-erous support of the German Marshall Fundof the United States and the following foun-

dations through the NEF (Network ofEuropean Foundations): King Baudouin

Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo, andthe Fundação Luso-Americana.

101711 cover PIC 001-05_Layout 1 1/04/11 15:51

ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1






Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org





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ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1






Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org






ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1






Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org






ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1






Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org






This report was made possible with the generous support of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the following foundations through the NEF (Network of European Foundations):

King Baudouin Foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo, and the Fundação Luso-Americana.

This report was reprinted in June 2012 thanks to the kind support of:

PICUM Platform for International Cooperation

on Undocumented MigrantsRue du Congrès 37-41/5


Tel: +32/2/210.17.80 Fax: +32/2/210.17.89

[email protected] www.picum.org


By Luca Bicocchi, Program Offi cer,and Michele LeVoy, Director

This project has received funding from the European Community under the PROGRESS FUND. The information is the sole responsibility of the author, and the Commission is not responsible

for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

SIGRID RAUSING TRUST

This report was made possible with the generous support of the NEF (Network of European Foundations) EPIM program (European Programme for Integration and Migration).

PIC 001-07 cover_reprint june2012_corrected.indd 3 08/06/12 16:17





Tel: +32/2/210.17.80 Fax: +32/2/210.17.89













Tel: +32/2/210.17.80 Fax: +32/2/210.17.89









ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1






Tel: +32/2/274.14.39Fax: +32/2/274.14.48

[email protected]

www.picum.org






This report was reprinted in December 2012 thanks to the kind support of:


for any usethat may be made of the information contained therein.


on Undocumented MigrantsRue du Congrès/Congresstraat 37-41, PB5

1000 Brussels, Belgiumtel. +32/2/210.17.80fax +32/2/210.17.89




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2 P I C U M

3T e n W a y s t o P r o t e c t U n d o c u m e n t e d W o r k e r s

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

PICUM and Promoting Fair Working Conditions for All Workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Why Invest In the Labor Rights of Undocumented Workers?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Aim of This Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

About the Structure of This Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1. Engaging Public Support Through Events and Consumer Campaigns . . . 14

2. Collecting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3. Informing Undocumented Workers About Their Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4. Building Capacities Through Empowerment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5. Unionizing Undocumented Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

6. Working with Employers to Prevent Exploitation and Advocating

for Laws to Hold Them Accountable to Fair Labor Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

7. Challenging Exploitation and Abuse Through Mediation

and Collective Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

8. Asserting Undocumented Workers’ Rights in the Legal System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

9. Working with Governmental Agencies to Promote Undocumented

Workers’ Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

10.Advocating for Legal Status of Undocumented Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

The Way Forward: Ten Policy Recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Index of Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PICUM would like to thank the following members of the Steering Committeefor sharing their knowledge, insight and experiences throughout the project:Bridget Anderson (Kalayaan/COMPAS, University of Oxford), Nicholas Bell(European Civic Forum), Josh Bernstein (NILC), Marijke Bijl (OKIA), ReyesCastillo (Asociación Comisión Catolica Española de Migración), Norbert Cyrus(Polish Social Council), Anna Gallagher (University of Deusto), Antoine Math(GISTI), Catelene Passchier (ETUC), Yongmi Schibel (Migration Policy Group),Paul Schoukens (European Institute for Social Security, KU Leuven), DidierVanderslycke (OR.C.A.), and Johan Wets (HIVA, KU Leuven).

PICUM is very grateful to all of those who contributed to the final editingprocess of this report: María Helena Bedoya (CITE-CCOO), Gustavo Behr(Casa do Brasil de Lisboa), Gary Brisley (T&G Union), Henry Cardona (CTSSL),Sabine Craenen (OR.C.A.), Alejandra Domenzain (Sweatshop Watch), PaulineDoyle (T&G Union), Lisa Gagni (CESTIM), Marielena Hincapié (NILC), LottaHolmberg (SAC), Anabela Magalhães (CGTP-IN), Stefan Malomgré (FederalPublic Service of Employment, Belgium), Rachel Micah-Jones (CDM), JoséMiguel Morales (Andalucía Acoge), Victor Narro (UCLA Labor Center), JuliaPerkins (CIW), Ai-jen Poo (DWU), Elsa Ramos (Samahan), Laura Santa-Maria(Unite for Dignity), Cinzia Sechi (ETUC), Rebecca Smith (NELP) and YasmineArango Torres (USL/CGTP-IN). We would especially like to thank DirkKloosterboer (Dunya Advies) and Nanna Sofie Gram for their extensive assis-tance in making final revisions to the report.

PICUM thanks Charles Buchanan, Piero Gastaldo, Raymond Georis, MarioGioannini, Corinna Horst, Hywel Ceri Jones, Alexandre Kirchberger,Françoise Pissart, Thierry Timmermans and Andrea Witt from all of the foun-dations that sponsored the project. We are also grateful to the Network ofEuropean Foundations for providing facilities for the Steering Committee toconvene in Brussels.

We would like to thank the many individuals who transcribed the interviewsthat were an important basis for this report: Ilke Adam, Gabriela Barrera,Bart Bauwens, Tom van Brussel, Vanessa Cappalonga, Alessandra Fontana,Bram Goris, Michael Laird, Thomas Lau, Jeronimo Lemos de Freitas Filho,Inge Parys, Brita Pohl, Fernando Scheller, Cristina Serverius, DanielSorrosal, Gudrun van Bell and Juan Velasco. Special thanks also to Brita Pohl,Antoon Stessels and Angela Gegg for providing administrative supportthroughout the project.

Finally, we would like to thank all of the undocumented workers and the rep-resentatives from NGOs, trade unions, governmental institutions and otherentities that shared their time and insights to help in the creation of this report.

Michele LeVoy, PICUM Researcher/NetworkerNele Verbruggen, PICUM Coordinator

4 P I C U M

PICUM and Promoting Fair Working Conditions forAll Workers

Ahmad comes from Algeria*, and has been living and working in Brusselsas an undocumented worker for eight years. Three years ago, he started towork in a pub in the center of the city. Ahmad was paid less than minimumwage, had to work sixteen hours a day, and had accommodation in a smallroom above the bar.

One night while working, he fell through a glass door and injured his hand,and had to go to the emergency room in the local hospital. His employermade him understand in very clear language that he’d better not mentionhis employment situation in the hospital, which Ahmad didn’t.

When he came back to work the next day, he found out that his job had beengiven to someone else, and his room was taken by the new employee.

*not his real name and country of origin

PICUM, the Platform for International Cooperation on UndocumentedMigrants, is a network of organizations providing assistance to undocument-ed migrants residing in Europe. PICUM’s main aim is to promote respect forthe human rights of undocumented migrants.

In recent years, PICUM’s members have increasingly indicated the impor-tance of working on the issue of the protection of undocumented workers.Stories such as the one described above are very familiar to almost all organ-izations providing support to undocumented migrants in the European Union.

Several actors have indicated the urgent need to find a solution to this distort-ed situation, in which undocumented migrants are criminalized and chasedon the one hand, and desired and exploited on the other hand. PICUM hasmade this report for three main reasons: we are committed to upholding thehuman rights of undocumented migrants; the protection of undocumentedworkers is important for society at large; and because in the end, this issueaffects all workers.

We hope that this report will bring support and inspiration to all of those whosupport undocumented workers, to policy makers concerned about findingsolutions that are beneficial for all, and to all the Ahmads living and workingin the EU, because nothing works without them.

PICUM, October 2005


Executive Summary

This report aims to contribute to the development of a just and pragmatic policytowards undocumented migrant workers. There is an urgent need to find a solu-tion to the ongoing exploitation and abuse of these workers. PICUM has made thisreport because it is committed to upholding the human rights of undocumentedmigrants and the labor conditions of all workers, including native workers.PICUM also recognizes that in order to safeguard social cohesion, this criticalissue must be addressed.

This report presents a wide range of examples of the numerous ways in whichNGOs, trade unions and other actors uphold the rights of undocumented workersin Europe and in the United States. PICUM aims for this report to bring supportand inspiration to all of those who advocate for undocumented workers. The tenways to protect undocumented migrant workers are briefly introduced below. Forpolicy makers concerned about finding adequate solutions that are beneficial forall, PICUM has concluded this report with ten recommendations, which are sum-marized in the right column below.

Engaging public support through events and consumer campaigns

Undocumented workers are too often thought of as taking advantage of publicbenefits and causing native workers to become unemployed. Changing the unfa-vorable image of undocumented workers and gaining public support is para-mount in protecting their rights.

Without public support, undocumented workers stand little chance of fightingexploitation and abuse, a reality that many endure on a daily basis. Numerousorganizations engage in awareness-raising initiatives to dispel the negativeimages of undocumented workers by highlighting that these workers are humanbeings and that they contribute considerably to our economies.

Collecting data

Policies in the fields of migration, employment, and social inclusion are oftendeveloped in the absence of concrete data about undocumented workers. As aresult, many of these policies lose their effectiveness. Collecting both qualitativeand quantitative data on undocumented workers is thus of utmost importance.

NGOs play a crucial role in setting a relevant research agenda and in overcomingthe many difficulties of gathering essential information about undocumentedworkers, who tend to live in the shadows.

Informing undocumented workers about their rights

Undocumented workers do have rights, but many are unaware of this. As a con-sequence, countless undocumented workers do not challenge their employers ifthe latter exploit or abuse them. Informing undocumented workers about theirrights is at the core of this report, since it is the first step towards ending thesilent suffering of hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers.

6 P I C U M

Acknowledge thesocial andeconomic presenceof undocumentedmigrants

Prioritize datacollection

Involve (local) NGOsin conductingresearch andmaking policies

Ratify the MigrantWorkers Convention

Building capacities through empowerment

In order to prevent and stop exploitation and abuse, undocumented workers mustbe able to effectively exercise their rights. Empowering and developing undocu-mented workers’ leadership capacities counteracts a system of dependency.Instead, workers are able to defend themselves and even engage in and influencethe decision-making affecting their lives. These capacities are essential if work-ers are to become agents of their own rights.

Unionizing undocumented workers

For an undocumented worker acting alone, asserting one’s rights remains amajor challenge. Unionizing undocumented workers is therefore very important,since it puts a worker in a much stronger position.

There are, however, several obstacles preventing undocumented workers fromjoining unions, and not all traditional union structures and working methods aredirectly applicable to undocumented workers. Many trade unions in Europe andthe United States have managed to overcome these difficulties, leading to anenhanced level of protection of undocumented workers.

Working with employers to prevent exploitation

and advocating for laws to hold them accountable

to fair labor standards

One way to prevent violations of undocumented workers’ workplace rights is towork with employers. There are several successful examples of organizationsthat invite – and sometimes pressure – employers to respect well-defined mini-mum standards of employment.

But there is also a need for legal measures holding employers accountable if theyexploit or abuse their undocumented employees. Such measures are indispensa-ble to attain effective protection of undocumented workers’ rights.

Challenging exploitation and abuse through mediation

and collective actions

Other ways of asserting undocumented workers’ rights are by engaging in medi-ation and collective actions.

“Nobody wants a bunch of angry workers on their doorstep or circling theircar, making it hard for them to do their work. … (After repeatedly putting pres-sure on abusive employers as a group), now essentially all it takes is a callfrom our organization to the employer, telling him that so-and-so worked forhim for x number of days, that he owes him x amount, and when can he get acheck over to our office?” said Julia Perkins of the Coalition of ImmokaleeWorkers.

As an alternative to filing an official complaint through a governmental entity, col-lective actions and mediation have often proven to be very useful ways of uphold-ing undocumented workers’ rights.


Safeguard the rightto organize

Invest in workplaceinspection

Open up the debateon the future of thelow wage sector

Asserting undocumented workers’ rights in the legal system

When other means of protecting undocumented workers’ rights turn out to beunsuccessful in resolving labor disputes, undocumented workers can resortto filing an official claim through legal channels. This can be a difficult andchallenging task, as there are numerous obstacles involved in making aclaim: the fear of being deported, high legal fees, and the need to prove theemployment relation. Such barriers deter many undocumented workers fromusing the legal system.

However, the law offers protection, and there have been numerous legal rul-ings in Europe and in the United States in favor of undocumented workers.

Working with governmental agencies to promote undocumented

workers’ rights

Undocumented workers tend to be reluctant to approach governmental agen-cies. Nevertheless, many governmental agencies, including the entity responsi-ble for labor inspection, do not let a worker’s irregular legal status impede theirmain task, namely to uphold fair working conditions and to sanction exploitativeand abusive employers.

Liaising with governmental agencies can therefore be helpful in improving theprotection of undocumented workers, since these agencies can and will inter-vene in many instances to protect these workers.

Advocating for legal status of undocumented workers

A final way of preventing abuse and exploitation is to legalize the status ofundocumented workers.

There are many arguments for regularizing undocumented workers.Reguarlization leads to increased visibility of this particular social group, andthus to increased protection. It is a proven fact that not only undocumentedworkers, but society at large benefit from legalization procedures.Regularizing undocumented workers is a way to combat the informal econo-my and to stop the deterioration of general working conditions, which in theend affects all workers.

8 P I C U M

Regularizeundocumentedmigrants

Safeguard the rightto equality beforethe law

Mainstreamundocumentedmigrants inintegration policiesand in the SocialInclusion Strategy

A Commitment to Human Rights

The first study ever done on the deaths of Mexicanworkers in the United States - an Associated Pressinvestigation released in March 2004 - revealed thatMexicans are 80% more likely than native-bornworkers to die due to workplace accidents. Moreoverthe study indicated that the deaths are almost alwayspreventable.1

There is no evidence that this is any different inEurope, rather the contrary. Undocumented workersare exploited in all of the countries that make up theEuropean Union. This exploitation and abuse cantake harsh forms: undocumented workers often toilin dangerous and/or unhygienic conditions; many donot receive their wages or receive less than agreedupon and are fired without being given due notice; ifan industrial accident occurs, the lack of officialproof of employment renders it complicated andoften impossible to have any health care refunded; ifan undocumented worker is apprehended for beingengaged in illegal work, s/he will most of the time bedeported without being able to claim his/her wages.

For many people, this situation is hard to believe, asit reminds us of times long before a labor movementexisted. The term “slavery” is often used to describethis situation. As an organization rooted in civil soci-ety, PICUM is committed to upholding the humanrights of all people living in Europe. The necessity todenounce this large-scale violation of human rightsis the principal reason for writing this report. We arecommitted to engaging in actions to bring aboutchange concerning this situation.

An Essential Element of Social

Cohesion

Irregular migration constitutes a large share of allmigration into Europe. Due to the difficulties in legal-ly entering the European Union, many migrantseither enter illegally, or enter legally and becomeundocumented after their visa/residence permit


Why Invest In the Labor Rights of Undocumented Workers?

Yes! Just like all human beings, undocumentedmigrants have rights. The following section high-lights some of these rights and the internationalconventions wherein these rights are mentioned.An exhaustive overview of international humanrights legislation in relation to undocumentedmigrants can be found at: www.picum.org.

• The right to health care

International Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights, Article 12.1: “The States Partiesto the present Covenant recognize the right ofeveryone to the enjoyment of the highest attain-able standard of physical and mental health.”

• The right to organize

International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, Article 22.1: “Everyone shall have theright to freedom of association with others,including the right to form and join trade unionsfor the protection of his interests.”

• The right to fair labor conditions

International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights, Article 7: “The States Parties to thepresent Covenant recognize the right of every-one to the enjoyment of just and favorableconditions of work which ensure in particular:remuneration which provides all workers, as aminimum, with: (1) fair wages and equalremuneration for work of equal value withoutdistinction of any kind, in particular womenbeing guaranteed conditions of work not infe-rior to those enjoyed by men, with equal payfor equal work. (b) safe and healthy workingconditions; (..) (d) rest, leisure and reasonablelimitation of working hours and periodic holi-days with pay as well as remuneration forpublic holidays.”

DO UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS

HAVE RIGHTS?

1 See Justin Pritchard, The Associated Press, “Mexican Worker Deaths Rise Sharply Even as Overall U.S. Job Safety Improves,”March 14, 2004, available online at: http://fmmac2.mm.ap.org/polk_awards_dying_to_work_html/DyingtoWork.html, accessedon September 1, 2005.

expires. Even though systems for legal (labor) migra-tion are being developed, it is improbable that thenumber of undocumented migrants residing inEurope will decrease in the near future. This has alsobeen indicated in a recent study made by theEuropean Commission on the links between legaland illegal migration (COM(2004) 412 final).

Regardless of whether migration should be seen assomething positive and desirable or as a negative,perverse effect of globalization, migrants - both doc-umented and undocumented - are part of our soci-eties. Hence all efforts to enhance social cohesionshould take into account the situation of both docu-mented and undocumented migrants.

So far the debates on integration in the EU have beencentered on legal migrants. Nonetheless, supportivepolicies are urgently needed for undocumentedmigrants as well. Regardless of whether one is for oragainst open borders or undocumented migration, itis essential to recognize that there are many undoc-umented migrants living in the EU. Undocumentedmigrants, like all other people living in Europe, havecertain needs, and not responding to these needsdamages social cohesion.

But the threat to social cohesion also comes fromanother angle. Health care staff, teachers, lawyers,social workers, local administrations and activistsincreasingly state that they are being left to resolvethe problems related to undocumented migrantsthemselves. ”What can be done?” is increasinglybeing asked by citizens, legal migrants, professionalgroups, and trade unions. Professional groups expe-rience clashes between what their professionalethics tell them to do and the incriminatory dis-course regarding undocumented migrants. They mayhave to break the law, which could result in the lossof their job, or face serious ethical dilemmas. Thereis therefore a need for clarity and openness.

The Importance for All Workers

It is relatively easy for an undocumented migrant work-er to find employment in almost any EU Member State.This is not at all a new phenomenon. In one of PICUM’sprevious publications, which presents an overview ofthe situation of undocumented migrant workers inEurope, it is underlined that the main reasons for the

10 P I C U M

• The right to education and training

Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article28.1: “States Parties recognize the right of thechild to education, and with a view to achievingthis right progressively and on the basis of equalopportunity, they shall in particular: MakePrimary education compulsory and available freeto all; Encourage the development of differentforms of secondary education, including generaland vocational education, make them availableand accessible to every child, and take appropri-ate measures such as the introduction of freeeducation and offering financial assistance incase of need.”

• The right to shelter

International Covenant on Economic, Socialand Cultural Rights, Article 11.1: “The StatesParties to the present Covenant recognize theright of everyone to an adequate standard ofliving for himself and his family, includingadequate food, clothing and housing, and tothe continuous improvement of living condi-tions.”

• The right to family life

European Convention on Human Rights, Article8.1: “Everyone has the right to respect for hisprivate and family life, his home and his corre-spondence.”

• The right to moral and physical

integrity

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 3.1:“Everyone has the right to respect for his or herphysical and mental integrity.”

European Convention on Human Rights, Article4.1 and 4.2: “No one shall be held in slavery orservitude” and “No one shall be required to per-form forced or compulsory labor.”

• The right to equality before the law

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 20:“Everyone is equal before the law.”

DO UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS

HAVE RIGHTS?


2 See Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen and Johan Wets, eds., Undocumented Migrant Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA,2004).

3 Ibid.

attractiveness of these workers is due to their flexibili-ty, availability, and because they are cheap to employ.2

By denying fair working conditions to undocumentedworkers, employers are able to respond to con-sumers’ growing demands to have inexpensive goodsand services accessible at any given time. To ensurea good profit margin, companies often resort to cut-ting costs by lowering the standards of working c-onditions. Native workers are often unwilling toaccept work at such low wages and bad conditions.These jobs are often filled by undocumented work-ers, who are forced to accept substandard workingconditions.

There is a serious risk inherent in tolerating a situa-tion in which a certain group of workers is deniedtheir rights. Legal and undocumented migrant work-ers have often been the experimental ground for theprofound restructuring of the economic fabric andwork models in Europe. In our previous report,3 itwas stated that the new orientation of capital-workrelations can be described in two words: flexibilityand externalization. All of the present trends of tem-porary work, precarious contracts, subcontracting,mobile schedules, dependency of employees andundeclared employees have all been tried out first onforeign workers. “Have work but not the worker” willbe the core of the whole future labor policy, if it is notstopped in its present stage.

12 P I C U M

Undocumented Workers

This report aims to make the problems faced byundocumented workers visible. PICUM aims to pre-vent and stop undocumented workers from beingseverely exploited and/or abused and unable todefend themselves.

This report encompasses a broad variety of methodsbeing used in Europe and the United States toimprove the situation of undocumented migrantworkers. Its descriptive nature leads it to be more ofa guide, rather than a concrete tool to be used byindividual undocumented workers who want toenforce their human rights.

NGOs, Unions and Activists

In recent years, civil society has reacted to theincreasing presence of undocumented migrants inEurope and in the United States by offering support indifferent ways. New organizations have been formed,and established organizations have included the fightfor undocumented migrants’ rights in their work.

The issue is rather new for Europe, though, and theclimate in which many of these activists operate is attimes quite repressive and discouraging. The organ-izations in PICUM’s network have clearly indicated aneed for support and clear suggestions. This reportis a response to that demand.

Labor unions are a crucial player among theseactivists. This report elaborates on their role in pro-tecting undocumented workers. For now, suffice it tosay, unions have heard the call for support and inspi-ration. As stated by Catelene Passchier, ConfederalSecretary of the European Trade Union Confe-deration: “It’s easy to agree on nice principles, butit’s difficult to find concrete ways of acting.”

Policy Makers

We aim to provide relevant information for policymakers. Undocumented migrants are currently thefocus of diverse policies, many of which are framed

in the fight against illegal migration, the main aimbeing to discourage migrants from illegally comingto Europe.

Through this report, we would like to demonstratethat there are more issues at stake. We highlightthe human rights dimension, and the risk for socialcohesion if the presence of undocumentedmigrants is not dealt with in an appropriate andrealistic way.

The last chapter presents suggestions for a way for-ward, in the form of recommendations for policymakers. It should be noted that our use of the term“policy makers” does not refer exclusively to nation-al or European lawmakers. Many more institutionsand bodies contribute to the development of policiesin the field of migration, and more explicitly in thearea of undocumented migration. In a broad sense,policy makers include unions and schools, as well aslocal authorities. All of these actors formulate andimplement policies that affect PICUM’s target groupand the public at large.

Aim of This Report

This report is primarily targeted at actors in theEuropean Union. It should be noted, however,that we did not strictly stick to EU borders for thecollection of good practices.

Many good practices have been identified in theEuropean Union, but we also examined initiativesin Switzerland. And most of all, we extensivelydrew from expertise in the United States.Undocumented workers in the United Stateshave been in the spotlight for many years, andcivil society has developed interesting andinspiring ways to deal with the issue. Therefore,many of the examples included in this report arefrom the United States.

In doing research in the United States, wenoticed that many organizations, unions andactivists found inspiration in the examples fromEurope. This report hopes to foster the processof transatlantic learning in this field.

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE OF THIS REPORT


Focusing on Actions

This report contains examples of methods used byNGOs, unions, and activists in Europe and in theUnited States to strengthen the position of undocu-mented workers. We have grouped all of the differentmethods we have come across during our researchinto ten major actions. We are aware that these tenactions do not do justice to the richness of method-ologies being developed on this important issue, butwe hope to have captured the bulk and to have pre-sented them in a user-friendly way.

There are many ways to group the information gath-ered. One way could be by the different problemsexperienced by undocumented workers, such aswage concerns, working hours, accidents/safety atwork, harassment, etc. Another way of arranging thematerial could be according to the different actorsinvolved in this issue, such the undocumented work-ers themselves, community organizations, unions,employers, labor courts, governmental agencies, etc.

We have chosen to group the information by present-ing ten types of actions that can be taken to protectundocumented workers. We felt that this was themost appropriate way to capture all of the differentfacets of the problem, to represent the variety ofactors involved and the interactions between them,and to make this publication accessible to both spe-cialists and to a wider audience.

From General to Specific

The different types of actions are presented rangingfrom those of a more general nature to those of amore specific nature. We start off by describing tech-niques such as raising awareness amongst the vari-ous actors involved, and move on to more specificactions such as empowering and unionizing workers,carrying out negotiations with employers, and fight-ing legal cases.

The last chapter contains suggestions for a way tomove forward. These recommendations are based onthe conclusions of the individual chapters, and aremeant to provide some key ideas for policy makers tomove forward towards a genuine protection ofundocumented migrant workers.

Index of Organizations

To facilitate the reading of this report, we haveincluded an index of organizations at the end of thereport. When an organization is mentioned in thereport, general information about its scope of actionsis not always included. The reader can refer to theindex of organizations to get more explanation aboutthe mission of the organization and a translation ofits name, as well as its geographical location andcontact information.

About the Structure of This Report

14 P I C U M

1. Engaging Public Support Through Events and Consumer

The average citizen most likely comes into contactwith undocumented workers in a variety ofplaces in daily life, but wouldn’t necessarily think

of these workers as being “undocumented.” Part of thestrategy used by NGOs and trade unions in protectingundocumented workers involves raising awarenessamongst the public at large about these workers’ con-tributions to our societies and the common intereststhey share with native workers. Many of the laborissues that impact undocumented workers, such asinsecure employment and the increased tendency towork in a flexible economy, also have implications for

documented and native workers. Awareness raisinginitiatives mainly aim to dispel the tendency to blameundocumented workers for many of societies’ ills.

This chapter focuses on several key methods forengaging public support for undocumented workers.One way is to hold large events that build momentumand give a face to undocumented workers. Anotherway is to bring attention to the precarious living con-ditions of these workers to increase compassion andpublic action against injustices. A further, more spe-cific approach is to inform consumers in Europe and

“The government has always waged a populist campaign against undocumentedmigrants, as if we were the cause of unemployment, delinquency andcriminalization. In fact, it’s important to make native workers aware that they’llnever earn a decent salary as long as we undocumented workers work for less inthese conditions.”

• Henry Cardona, President of the Collectif des travailleurs et des travailleuses sans statut légal - Génève (CTSSL)

Nothing works without us.

• Title of a Swiss campaign highlighting the many different ways that immigrant workers contribute to the economy

In considering examples of initiatives that raiseconsciousness and build public support forundocumented workers, it is important to high-light a contradictory effect of such actions. Whileawareness-raising initiatives are meant to bebeneficial in reinforcing a positive image ofundocumented workers in society at large, theycan also have a perverse effect of attracting moreattention from groups that are strictly anti-immi-grant.

Nadia Marin-Molina, Executive Director of theWorkplace Project, a U.S. organization, said thatthis has been the case in regard to the good public-ity that her organization has received for its work:

“When our organization started, you could say thatLatino immigrant workers were invisible to somedegree. I think it’s really hard to say that now. Butat the same time, there have been anti-immigrantgroups that have started to pressure legislatorsand government officials, so at the same time thatthere is more visibility, there is also more of anattack in some ways.”

Even though awareness-raising initiatives maymake organizations more susceptible to attack,there is an overriding concern to inform the publicabout the existence and the problems faced byundocumented workers, and this concern is theforce that drives their public consciousness work.

NEGATIVE EFFECT OF AWARENESS-RAISING INITIATIVES:

INCREASED ATTENTION FROM ANTI-IMMIGRANT GROUPS


in the United States that undocumented workers areindispensable to maintain our general standard ofliving. Specific examples of consumer campaignsdenouncing the substandard labor conditions ofundocumented workers in the agricultural sectorand the garment industry are highlighted.

Organizing Public Events

To challenge general opinions about immigrants andpromote a positive image by emphasizing diversity andrespect for differences, several NGOs and unions holdpublic events. Such events mainly aim to create amomentum by increasing solidarity with migrants.They are an opportunity to demonstrate to migrantsthat they are not alone in their struggles and that alarge part of society supports them.

Following the racially motivated killing of aCape Verdean youth in 1994 near the officesof the União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL) inthe Bairro Alto neighborhood of Lisbon,Portugal, the USL decided to hold an event toraise public awareness and take a standagainst discrimination based on race, sex,color, nationality, etc. Since 1994, the Run forTolerance – Run Against Racism has becomean annual event organized by the USL throughthe Inter-Jovem Lisboa (the youth division ofthe trade union) and endorsed by thePresident of Portugal, local municipalities, theHigh Commissioner for Immigration andEthnic Minorities (ACIME), and public figuresin culture and sports.

An equally important aspect of public events is theirability to give a face to undocumented workers whooften remain unseen but are a real presence in oursocieties. Participating in public events allowsundocumented workers to come into the spotlightand express issues of importance to them.

Undocumented workers in the Collectif des tra-vailleurs et des travailleuses sans statut légal -Génève (CTSSL) seize whatever occasion they can toparticipate in public events and draw attention to theirconcerns. “Even if only one of us can attend an event

and hold up our organization’s banner, we still partic-ipate. In the beginning when people were talking aboutundocumented workers, people were very negativeand didn’t want to know anything about us. But nowpeople are starting to have another view of the prob-lems,” explained Henry Cardona of the CTSSL.

An interesting example of how a public event succeed-ed in raising awareness amongst many different actorsis the Freedom Ride, a nationwide event held in theUnited States in 2003. The Freedom Ride was very suc-cessful in bringing immigrant workers into favorablelight, and served as an opportunity for the labor move-ment to work with new allies in the immigrants’ rightscommunity. The Freedom Ride was the culmination of along process of change within the American Federationof Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) towards a pro-immigrant policy (see Chapter Five).

Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride

From 20 September – 4 October 2003, nearly1,000 documented and undocumented work-ers and their supporters traveled across theUnited States to spotlight the need for immi-gration reform. Workers of dozens of national-ities boarded buses in ten different locationsand traveled on different routes, covering atotal of 103 cities along the way. The eventwas sponsored by the American Federation ofLabor – Congress of Industrial Organizations(AFL-CIO) and led by the Hotel Employees &Restaurant Employees (HERE). The ImmigrantWorkers Freedom Ride was modeled after the1961 Freedom Rides of the U.S. civil rightsmovement, in which student activists fromacross the U.S. rode buses to challenge racialsegregation in the South.

The new Freedom Ride was a good way todialogue with the labor movement, theAfrican American community, and immigrantsrights’ groups and get them involved in localevents along the way where the busesstopped. The Freedom Riders converged inWashington, D.C. and New York to meet law-makers to push for changes in laws to allowimmigrant workers to reunite with their fami-

16 P I C U M

lies and protect immigrants’ civil rights, liber-ties and workplace rights.

The organizers took extreme care to elaboratea plan to protect the immigrants, becausemany were undocumented and there were noguarantees that by exposing themselves inpublic they wouldn’t be deported. A solidarityplan was devised to protect everyone, whichmeant that if anybody was stopped, theywould all act in unison so the government offi-cials couldn’t single anyone out.

The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride generated anenormous amount of media coverage, with more than800 printed articles in English and more than 600 sto-ries on television and radio, all extremely positive.

After the Freedom Ride took place, several of theorganizers wanted to build on its success and devel-oped the “New American Freedom Summer”4 foryoung people. In the summer of 2004, approximately100 young people from a variety of universities andFreedom Ride coalitions went to Arizona and Floridato register immigrant voters for the November 2004presidential elections and to become more active inpolitical debates that directly affect immigrants’rights. The Freedom Summer provided transformingexperiences for young leaders to return to their owncommunities with renewed energy and commitmentto immigrant rights.

In addition to raising public consciousness aboutparticular issues faced by immigrants, public eventsare also beneficial in strengthening groups of undoc-umented workers themselves.

In the city of Los Angeles, California, the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network(MIWON) started a May 1st march in 2000 to supportworkers who had been in a month-long struggleagainst an abusive employer. Nearly 5,000 peopleparticipated, including many undocumented work-ers who for the first time marched through the citystreets to demand respect for their rights. In recentyears the march changed to a “Caravan for Justice”,where vans transported workers and supporters to

governmental offices in Los Angeles and in front of abusiness where workers were engaged in a laborstruggle.

Publicly Denouncing Harmful Living

Conditions

In addition to enduring exploitative conditions in theworkplace, undocumented workers are confrontedwith additional problems due to the precarious hous-ing they live in. Two organizations that work withundocumented workers in agriculture have sought toraise public consciousness and build societal sup-port by denouncing the extremely degrading housingconditions these workers are forced to live in.

Mass Exploitation in the Greenhouse Region

in Spain

The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) isextremely concerned about the appalling workingand living conditions of the immigrant workers in thebiggest concentration of greenhouses in the worldnear Almeria, Spain. The SOC holds conferences andseminars, participates in demonstrations and tries toget media coverage to inform the public about themass exploitation of the immigrant workers. Thescale of the problem is enormous, with an estimatedworkforce of nearly 80,000 immigrants mainly fromNorth and sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America andEastern Europe, half of which are undocumented,according to the European Civic Forum. Workers areforced to live in unbelievably bad housing, in hutsmade out of bits of wood and plastic, and in buildingsthat are nearly falling down.

The situation is particularly serious in the agricultur-al town of El Ejido, which was the scene of racist riotsin February 2000. After three days of violent riotsagainst the mainly sub-Saharan African andMoroccan workers, many of the workers’ dwellingswere destroyed. A week later, the immigrant work-ers, the employers’ associations and the unionssigned an agreement listing eleven points to improvethe situation, one being a program to construct prop-er housing. Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the SOC saidthat “housing remains a very serious problem andthere haven’t been any efforts made by any of the lev-

4 See http://www.cirnow.org/content/en/special_projects_nafs.htm, accessed on September 2, 2005.


els of government to even begin thinking about find-ing a solution. It’s very difficult because there issilence; no one wants to talk about immigration inAlmeria and especially not about undocumentedworkers. It takes an incredible amount of effort toraise awareness amongst the population here.”

Illegal Practices of Employers of Seasonal

Workers in France

The Collectif de défense des travailleurs étrangersdans l’agriculture provençale (CODETRAS) continu-ously tries to raise public consciousness about theillegal practices that are used by some employers ofseasonal migrant farmworkers in the Bouches duRhône region in the south of France.

Many of these workers are employed under short-term work contracts (commonly referred to as “OMIcontracts”) issued by the French InternationalMigration Office. Although they have legal work con-tracts, their employers exploit them in the same waythey exploit undocumented workers, hence it is“legal” exploitation, explained Denis Natanelic ofCODETRAS. The workers are usually too afraid tocomplain about conditions due to their desperationto have work, and also because by having a properwork contract, they can enter France legally and donot have to risk their lives by making the treacherouscrossing from North Africa to Europe on a patera(small boat). They also fear that their employer won’thire them again in the next season.

In the beginning of 2004, CODETRAS became awareof the situation of approximately 60 agriculturalworkers who were living in housing similar to whatworkers in Almeria, Spain, live in, with no infrastruc-ture or running water. CODETRAS brought somewell-known humanitarian organizations in France toprovide humanitarian assistance and also todenounce the situation. The farmers reacted by call-ing the police and threatening to destroy the slumarea. The network of CODETRAS is quite unique inthat it includes a broad alliance of NGOs and tradeunions, which intervened quickly by bringing twonational and several local TV stations to do coverage and

denounce the fact that not only were the workersforced to live in squalid conditions, but they would be

forced out of the only place they had to live in, and inthe meantime the employers’ actions were not eveninvestigated. CODETRAS managed to prevent theshacks from being torn down, and negotiated withthe local government to try to find solutions to housethe workers.

Undocumented Workers and Our

Standard of Living

The labor performed by undocumented workers inseveral economic sectors in Europe and in the UnitedStates has gradually become an integral characteris-tic of these sectors. Undocumented workers arepresent in many areas of daily life, including takingcare of children and the elderly, cleaning houses,maintaining gardens, preparing and serving food inrestaurants, cleaning hotels, and constructing hous-es and buildings, just to name a few. Their work mayoften go unseen, especially if it entails part of theproduction of a good, for example making sure thatfruit, vegetables and other foods arrive in our super-markets and shops, or producing clothing.

Undocumented workers make up a substantial part ofthe workforce which increasingly relies on immigrants,and if all of these foreign workers were one day to stopworking, the economy might even come to a halt.

This point is emphasized by nearly 75 organizations inSwitzerland that started a campaign in 2003 entitled“Sans nous rien ne va plus” (“Nothing works withoutus”).5 The campaign highlights the many differentways that immigrant workers contribute to the econ-omy. The organizations have called for a migrants’strike to make it clear to the Swiss population whatwould happen if the migrants just stopped beingthere: the trams would never run, the restaurantswould close down, the roads would no longer be built,the farms and vineyards wouldn’t function, etc.

The same theme was also the focus of the 2004 film“A Day Without a Mexican,”6 in which Californianswake up one day to find that one third of the popula-tion of their state has disappeared, garbage is piledup in the streets and their economy is collapsing dueto the lack of the largely immigrant workforce.

5 See www.sansnous.ch, accessed on May 10, 2005. 6 See http://www.adaywithoutamexican.com, accessed on May 10, 2005.

18 P I C U M

“Organic Products Produced by

Slaves”

Several organizations that work very closely withundocumented farmworkers target consumers byinforming them about the fruits and vegetables thatthey eat and the conditions in which this food is pro-duced.

Very little is known about this sector of the economywhich operates in the countryside far from the eyesof the vast majority of the population, far from city-based immigrant communities, human rights andanti-discrimination organizations. But this issue hasto be seen within the context of the development of ahighly intensified, industrial and ferociously compet-itive form of agriculture producing poor quality foodfor consumers seeking the lowest prices andunaware of the social and environmental conditionsin which the production takes place.7

From 2000-2003, the European Civic Forum(ECF) carried out an extensive study on theexploitation of migrants in European agricul-ture.

When racial riots erupted in 2000 in El Ejido, asmall town in the greenhouse area nearAlmeria, Spain, the ECF organized an interna-tional mission to monitor the human rightsconditions of the migrant workers there. Thedelegation’s visit was an eye-opener to thescope of the problem of severe exploitation ofundocumented workers, and the ECF wrote areport entitled The Bitter Taste of Our Fruitsand Vegetables: The Exploitation of Migrantsin Intensive Agriculture in Europe. The bookwas written in French, German and Spanish,and widely distributed, especially inSwitzerland, where the ECF launched a bigcampaign targeted at two big supermarketchains, Migros and Coop. The supermarketsreceived about 5,000 letters each demandingthe chains to look into the social working con-ditions of the fruits and vegetables they wereselling.

“Everyone talks about the health side, e.g. theuse of pesticides, but nobody talks about theworking conditions. You can have organicproducts which are produced by slaves. Thereis nothing in the organic label which says thatit shouldn’t be exploiting people,” saidNicholas Bell of the ECF. The ECF organized asecond delegation to El Ejido in December2003, and received a lot of mainstream mediacoverage in Switzerland.

The organic label is indeed not a guarantee of fairworking conditions, said Bridget Anderson of theCenter on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS),University of Oxford. “It is important to be aware ofthe danger of ‘corporate accountability’ in regard toundocumented workers. Large corporations can takepride in being ethical companies, because theyallegedly don’t employ sub-contractors that hireundocumented workers. These companies can hidebehind the idea of corporate responsibility by sayingthat they only hire sub-contractors that hire docu-mented or native workers. The problem with thenotion of corporate responsibility is linked to the con-ditions that the documented or native workers areforced to work in. The sub-contractors hire legalworkers but offer bad working conditions that are nodifferent from those experienced by undocumentedworkers,” she said.

Putting the emphasis on the degradation of workingconditions rather than on illegality facilitates thelinks between undocumented workers and nativeand documented workers. An important element oforganizations’ awareness raising work is to demon-strate how substandard working conditions affect allworkers: undocumented, documented, and nativeworkers.

Consumer Campaigns Targeting

Powerful Corporations

Not only do organizations challenge supermarkets’practices of selling fruits and vegetables that areproduced in unfair working conditions, but also the

7 See Nicholas Bell, “The Exploitation of Migrants in European Agriculture,” in Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and Johan Wets,eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA, 2004).


whole supermarket model and the enormous profitsthat are made while exploitation occurs in the fieldswhere produce is picked.

Supermarkets are able to make enormous profitsthrough a multi-level system: they purchase theirproduce from middlemen, who purchase from grow-ers, who hire crew leaders, who hire the workers. Bycontrolling the industry, supermarkets are able todictate the prices to those on the distribution chainbelow them. If producers start to be paid less fortheir products, then they respond by reducing costsin the only area they still have control over: the work-force, which is increasingly made up of undocument-ed workers.

Challenging Large Corporations in the

Agricultural Sector

Over the past twenty years in the United States, largegrocery chains and the fast food industry have grownexuberantly. There has been a higher demand for toma-toes and other agricultural products, while at the sametime a decline of the family farmer.

In the State of Florida, the growers are now big cor-porations who own large tracks of land and the wholeconcept of agro-business is the predominant modelof production. There has been a consolidation of theagricultural industry, with the replacement of smallfarmers by one or two large companies who are ableto make substantial profits because they have amonopoly over the sector. Whereas tomato growersused to get a 41% profit for the sale of their produce,now they get only about 20% of that, with the rest ofit going to multi-national grocery chains and the fast-food industry, said Julia Perkins of the Coalition ofImmokalee Workers (CIW).

A community-based organization in SouthwestFlorida, in the heart of the state’s agricultural pro-duction, is targeting consumers and involving thepublic at large to challenge growers and large corpo-rations in the agricultural sector to uphold fair work-ing conditions and to pay workers decently. TheCoalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) encouragedconsumers to boycott a fast-food chain that purchas-es tomatoes picked by workers who toil in exploita-tive conditions.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) ismade up of more than 2,500 immigrant work-ers from Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti. It wasformed in 1996 to promote reforms in Florida’sfields. Workers originally started to cometogether because they realized that there wereproblems that were common in all of theircommunities: low wages, violence and wagetheft from crew leaders, and bad housing con-ditions. The conditions of the thousands ofmigrant farmworkers in Florida have changedlittle over the past thirty years. Tomato pickersearn less than $8,000 a year, far below pover-ty level, and the piece rate they are chargedper bucket is the same as it was in 1978.

After failed attempts to pressure growers toincrease the piece rate, the CIW decided to goall the way to the top and pressure one of thelarge corporations that was purchasing toma-toes picked by the workers. It learned thatTaco Bell, which is part of Yum! Brands (anenormous fast food company that ownsKentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Long JohnSilver’s and A&W Family Restaurants) was amajor purchaser of tomatoes grown in Florida.In 2001, the CIW tried to convince Taco Bell toaccept a deal to improve the lives of farm-workers. The CIW reasoned that if Taco Bellpaid one penny more per pound of tomatoes,the workers would have an increase in wagesand earn a livable wage. Taco Bell refused thedeal, so the CIW started to work with studentgroups, unions, religious organizations andcommunity groups nationwide to “Boot theBell” by boycotting Taco Bell and blocking orremoving its restaurants and products fromuniversity campuses. The campaign grewtremendously, and the CIW received an enor-mous amount of support for the boycott.Workers participated in several hunger strikesand attracted media attention to try to getTaco Bell to improve the wages of farmwork-ers, but all of these efforts were not enough topersuade the fast food company to make thenecessary changes.

20 P I C U M

Then, on March 8th, 2005, after a four-yearstruggle, Taco Bell finally agreed to give tomatopickers an additional penny per pound of toma-toes – an increase that will double their wages.It has also installed measures to ensure that itwill only purchase tomatoes from growers whopay the extra penny per pound and carry outgood labor practices. For Lucas Benitez, CIWCo-Director, Taco Bell’s historical decision waslike “going to the moon,” because the workersnever thought that it would be possible: “It’sthe first time that a corporation has agreed to allof the complaints made by the workers, and itopens doors for all workers to express injusticesthat they’re facing through the supply chain.”Now that the campaign against Taco Bell is offi-cially over, the CIW has begun targeting otherfast food corporations, including McDonald’s,Burger King and Subway, asking them to followTaco Bell’s lead and work towards social respon-sibility and end human rights abuses in the sup-ply chain.

Corporate Accountability in the Garment

Industry

The garment industry is another sector in which thevast majority of workers are undocumented, andwhere NGOs and worker organizations may havesome power in trying to convince consumers thatthey can play a role in thwarting exploitation.

Since 1995, Sweatshop Watch has been active inwaging corporate accountability campaigns by tar-geting large clothing retailers who maintain a power-ful grip in an industry rife with exploitation.

In September 2001, after numerous workers in LosAngeles who made clothes bearing the “Forever 21”label (a trendy women’s clothing retailer) hadclaimed that they were mistreated in the workplace,the Garment Worker Center and the workerslaunched a national boycott and campaign againstthe retailer. The garment workers said that they weredenied their lawful wages and exposed to dangerousand filthy working conditions. Sweatshop Watch sup-ported the boycott and did public education cam-paigns to educate high school and college students

and the public in general about sweatshops. Its pub-lic education materials include information aboutsweatshops in the U.S. and around the world, and ananalysis of how retailers are able to wield so muchpower in the industry.

The workers who were sewing clothing for Forever 21also decided to file a lawsuit against the retailer, withthe support of the Garment Worker Center,Sweatshop Watch and the Asian American LegalCenter, whose attorneys represented the workers. InDecember 2004, the three-year campaign was endedwhen all parties reached an agreement to resolve alllitigation and to take steps to promote greater work-er protection in the local garment industry.

Almudena Carracedo, a documentary filmmaker, iscurrently working with the Garment Worker Centerand Sweatshop Watch on “Made in L.A.,”8 an upcom-ing film that tells the story of three Latina immi-grants working in garment sweatshops in LosAngeles. The film portrays their campaign and law-suit against Forever 21 and shows the impact of thisstruggle on their personal lives. “Made in L.A.”traces the history of the garment industry from abus-es during the industrial revolution until today’strends of globalization.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• This chapter stresses the need to generateincreased societal support and understanding ofthe issues faced by undocumented workers andhighlights several key methods as to how this canbe achieved.

• Holding large events gives a face to undocumentedworkers and increases the momentum by engag-ing the public at large.

• Informing the public about precarious living condi-tions of undocumented workers increases com-passion and contributes to changing negative per-ceptions that these workers are somehow takingadvantage of public benefits in our societies.

• Targeting consumers is also a very effective way ofraising awareness and generating solidarity. Allconsumers are affected by the presence of undoc-umented workers in economic sectors, even

8 See www.madeinla.com, accessed on May 10, 2005.

though the labor of undocumented workers oftengoes unseen. Raising awareness about the needfor undocumented workers illustrates the demandfor inexpensive goods and services and steers thedebate away from notions that these workers areasking for charity.

• Consumers are not only informed that the foodthey eat and other items they buy are produced byundocumented workers, but that these workersoften work in slave-like conditions.

• Finally, engaging consumers is also a way todirectly impact exploitative employers, as theirbusiness is hurt through boycotts and other formsof consumer dissatisfaction.


22 P I C U M

Policy makers are confronted with a lack of dataconcerning undocumented workers. Whilesuch information is essential to develop poli-

cies, the reality is such that policies are often elabo-rated in the absence of concrete data about thisimportant social group. At the same time, undocu-mented workers are easy scapegoats for many ills insociety and the focus of increasingly restrictive poli-cies. There is an urgent need to reveal the realitiesfaced by these workers, since restrictive policies donot seem to lead anywhere, but rather tend toincrease tensions in society.

Many organizations indicate the need for more dataon undocumented migrant workers. Such data con-tributes to the general interest of having genuine andeffective policies. Organizations’ efforts to raise con-sciousness about undocumented workers also havean increased impact when they refer to statistics andresearch findings. Collecting and analyzing dataabout undocumented workers can be useful in influ-encing public opinion and policy makers about thenon-negligible role played by undocumented work-ers in our economies. The need for research is par-ticularly acute in Europe, where there are very fewstudies on the different sectors that rely on undocu-mented labor, the percentage of undocumentedworkers in the workforce in different industries, howmany undocumented workers have faced abuse orinjury on the job, their living conditions, etc.

This chapter highlights a number of studies that havebeen carried out or are presently being conducted byNGOs and research institutes on undocumentedworkers. These studies include research on undocu-mented workers in the restaurant industry in NewYork City, in various sectors of the economy inCalifornia, and in the agricultural sector in The Hague,

Netherlands. The data collected sheds light on impor-tant issues facing workers in these industries.

Undocumented Workers in the

Restaurant Industry

A recent study on restaurant workers in New YorkCity is a good example of a joint effort made by anNGO representing undocumented workers and abroad coalition of actors.

“The development of policies on irregular migration is currently taking place in anevidence-free zone.”

• Steven Vertovec, Director of The Center on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford

2. Collecting Data

To collect information on undocumented work-ers, it is important to have a relation based ontrust, as many undocumented workers are gen-erally reluctant to speak about their situation.NGOs and other advocates that have gained theirtrust can play an important role by facilitatingaccess to the target group. They also usuallyhave good knowledge of the daily realities facedby undocumented workers.

NGOs often work with researchers and/or aca-demic institutions to capitalize on the effects of astudy on undocumented workers. Such collabo-ration can lead to fruitful results. Researcherscan provide a framework for analysis to betterunderstand the many different factors at stakeconcerning the reality of undocumented workersin a particular sector and/or geographical area,while NGOs ensure communication with andaccess to the workers. Collaboration betweenthese actors is therefore essential in order toattain the highest standard of data covering asmany facets of the issues at stake as possible.

FRUITFUL RESULTS THROUGH COLLABORATION

OF NGOS AND RESEARCHERS


The study was made by the Restaurant OpportunitiesCenter of New York (ROC-NY), an organization thatwas formed immediately after the terrorist attacks onthe World Trade Center in New York City onSeptember 11th, 2001. One of the places destroyed inthe World Trade Center was the Windows on the Worldrestaurant, which boasted a large international staff,including many undocumented workers. “There werea lot of undocumented workers impacted bySeptember 11th, and they couldn’t get federal help andalso couldn’t get unemployment benefits. So ROC-NYwas started to provide information about all the differ-ent non-profit organizations that were helping every-body, including undocumented workers,” said SekouSiby, ROC-NY Outreach Coordinator. The organiza-tion’s immediate efforts were to help the co-workerswho were impacted by September 11th attacks.

Early in 2002, ROC-NY shifted its focus to organizingrestaurant workers throughout New York City, toempower them to fight for better working conditionsin an industry where bad working conditionsappeared to be commonplace.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of NewYork (ROC-NY) released a study9 in January2005 that was conceived and designed by theNew York City Restaurant Industry Coalition,which brings together academics, communityeconomic development organizations, policyanalysts and policy makers, immigrant advo-cates, worker organizers, unions, and restau-rant industry employers.

The study found that at least 36% of restau-rant workers in New York City are undocu-mented and that 59% of workers surveyedreported overtime violations. The study was based on surveys of 530 restaurant workersand in-depth interviews with 35 restaurantexecutives and 45 workers.

Immigrant Workers’ Role in the

Californian Economy

UCLA Labor Center Reports

The UCLA Labor Center has a unique role in that it ispart of the University of California system, and canlink academic researchers and graduate studentresearchers with unions, community groups andother groups that work on specific areas.

The role played by immigrant workers in the econo-my is especially important in California. Theresearchers at the Labor Center make available thebest current research on both the contributions andcosts of immigrant labor, as well as on the impor-tant role immigrant workers have had in transform-ing labor unions in the region. The objectiveresearch prepared by the Labor Center and otheruniversity researchers is a valuable source forunions and others in developing strategies and poli-cy positions.

In addition, Labor Center reports have drawn atten-tion to important public issues, particularly theexploitation of low-income immigrant workers (manyof whom are undocumented). Labor Center reportshave made a major impact on public officials bypointing out weaknesses in the labor system thatcontribute to the exploitation of workers. Their workhas sometimes drawn opposition from someemployer groups, who have pressured the state toeliminate funding for this kind of research, saidVictor Narro of the UCLA Labor Center.

The UCLA Labor Center is collaborating with otherresearch institutions on a forthcoming study on thedifferent workers’ centers that have emergedthroughout the United States in the last decade, whichrepresents a new phenomenon in labor organizing.10

9 See Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) and the New York City Restaurant Industry Coalition, “Beyond theKitchen Door: Pervasive Inequality in New York City’s Thriving Restaurant Industry,” January 25, 2005, available online at:http://www.rocny.org/documents/RocNY_final_compiled.pdf, accessed on March 10, 2005.

10 The concept of workers’ centers as an alternative way of organizing workers is elaborated on in detail in Chapter Four. For moreinformation about the above-mentioned study on workers’ centers, see Janice Fine, National Immigrant Workers Center Study,to be published in Fall 2005 by Cornell University Press and the Economic Policy Institute, [email protected].

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Door-to-Door Surveys of Immigrant Worker

Communities

Sweatshop Watch is collaborating with a researchorganization and a number of community groups11 toconduct a statistically sound study involving 1,200door-to-door surveys of Los Angeles immigrantworker communities in different areas of the metro-politan area.

The aim of the research is to bridge the gap betweenimmigrant communities and local policymakers inorder to identify and address the range of health,employment, and other socio-economic needs oflow-wage immigrants in the “invisible” workforce.The surveys will be done in Korean, Chinese, Tagalogand Spanish to cover the different immigrant groups.

This ground breaking project – which has currentlynot begun, as the organizers are trying to mobilizefunding - will serve as a catalyst for Chinese garmentworkers, Korean restaurant workers, Filipino healthcare workers, Latino construction workers, andother low-wage immigrant workers to define andadvance a collective, multi-racial agenda that isfocused on their health, employment and economicneeds. Armed with the survey tool and research find-ings, low-wage immigrant workers will be able todefine the priorities for their community, cultivateleadership within their community, and educate policymakers about their community – from theground up.

Undocumented Workers in Dutch

Agriculture

The OndersteuningsKomitee Illegale Arbeiders(OKIA) has a long history of working with undocu-mented migrant workers in The Hague, Netherlands.

OKIA developed expertise by working with and devel-oping privileged relationships with these workers.This proved to be a good basis for conductingresearch on their working and living conditions.

OKIA was formed in 1992 at the request of undocu-mented Moroccan and Turkish Kurdish workers who were organized in committees. The workerswanted help from natives and legal residents inbringing their cases out in the open and organizingsocietal support for better living and working conditions and legal status. The majority of theseworkers were employed in greenhouses and wantedto have access to lawyers to inquire about possibili-ties for legal status, and to doctors due to health concerns. Although these workers were undocu-mented, they could obtain a social security number(SOFI number), which they used for employment andto pay taxes. If they paid premiums for a certain number of years, they could apply for regularizationby “building up” their rights. This system was abolished with the Linking Act (Koppelingswet) in1998.12

From the beginning, OKIA developed a network ofprofessionals to provide social support to the work-ers and inform the public and policy makers abouttheir living and working conditions. OKIA backed theworkers when they went on hunger strike in 1998 todemand legal status. When the governmentannounced a regularization campaign in 1999, OKIAwas active in helping the workers to apply for legalstatus.

After more than ten years of providing direct supportto the workers, OKIA wanted to stimulate debate onmigrant labor. It focused on agriculture, a sector withmany undocumented workers in The Hague, anddecided to collect data on undocumented workers’contributions to the sector.

11 The organizations involved in the study are: Sweatshop Watch, Garment Worker Center, Pilipino Workers’ Center (PWC), East LACommunity Corporation, Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, Korean Immigrant Workers Advocate (KIWA), Institute of PopularEducation of Southern California (IDEPSCA), Metropolitan Alliance and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The researchinstitute is the Economic Roundtable.

12 “Before 1998, social security was available to irregular migrants on the grounds that denying such access would only lead to anincrease in migrants’ exploitation by their employers. After 1998, however, the social security system was used to controlimmigration to make the country less attractive for migrants (although irregular migrant workers are also excluded from thepayment of taxes and social security contributions).” See Ryszard Cholewinski, “Report, Ad-Hoc Working Group on IrregularMigrants,” Council of Europe, MG-AD (2003), 3, 12/3/2004.


In 2004, the OndersteuningsKomitee IllegaleArbeiders (OKIA) published a book13 on thesocial and working conditions of undocument-ed workers employed in greenhouses in TheHague during the time periods from 1990-1991 and 2001-2002. The core of theresearch is interviews with approximately 100undocumented workers who had worked inone of the two time periods.

Two key developments in the 1990s wereincreased pressure on farmers to produce forlower costs, and changes in labor and immi-gration legislation. The Linking Act, which waspassed in 1998, stopped undocumentedworkers’ access to formal working relations.Until then, employers paid taxes and premi-ums for undocumented workers (see above).The passing of the law meant that althoughthese workers were still employed, they wereno longer registered and ceased to have for-mal working relations, since their employersno longer paid taxes and premiums.

Also as of 1998, temporary employmentagencies were no longer required to have alicense, making it possible for anyone to startone. Thousands of temp agencies wereopened, and competition amongst sub-con-tractors offering the cheapest and fastestworkers led to an increase in work tempo anda pressure on wages. The weakened positionof undocumented workers made them evenmore attractive for fitting into such a system.

Whereas workers in the early ‘90s were main-ly hired directly by the farmers, nowadays theywork for temp agencies, said Marijke Bijl ofOKIA, one of the authors of the report. Aworker used to be hired by a farmer andwould work anywhere from a year to a num-ber of years with him/her. But farmerspresently hire sub-contractors, who only hireworkers who are readily available and quick,

and can easily be fired because there is always someone else to take their place. The worktempo has also increased, leading workers tobe more likely to suffer from health complica-tions due to the increased physical efforts.

Related to this general downgrade of workingconditions is a change in workers’ willingnessto defend themselves against exploitation. Theresearch illustrates that in the early ‘90s,although they were undocumented, workerswere inclined to go to labor courts and weresometimes able to organize informal protestsin the workplace. This is no longer the case.This development can be partly explained bythe fact that undocumented workers nolonger have social security numbers, whichmakes it very difficult to have proof ofemployment, and also because they can bemore easily replaced. This can be perceived asa perverse effect of the policy changes, whichwere aimed at combating informal work buthave mainly increased the precariousness ofundocumented workers and forced them intomore marginalization by taking away theirmeans for protection.

In conducting this study, OKIA emphasized from thebeginning that the workers should have a centralfocus. It was argued that information obtained fromthe workers themselves would be the most repre-sentative.

To obtain this kind of information, OKIA interviewedover one hundred undocumented workers. AlthoughOKIA had built a solid reputation in working with andadvocating for undocumented workers, it was verydifficult to find a sufficient number of respondentsmeeting the necessary criteria of having worked inthe agricultural sector during the above mentionedtime periods.

13 See Ahmed Benseddik and Marijke Bijl, Onzichtbaar achter glas: Onderzoek naar de bijdrage van illegalen in de glastuinbouwvan het Westland (Den Haag: Stek – voor stad en kerk and OKIA, 2004). For more information about the publication, please seewww.steknet.nl.

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OKIA was finally able to gather 103 respondentsthrough its own network as well as through contactswith other social workers, migrants’ organizations,community centers, the Salvation Army and healthcare staff. One of the researchers was formerly anundocumented worker in the agricultural sector, andboth researchers paid regular visits to Turkish andMoroccan associations and coffee houses to get intouch with respondents in these communities.

But gaining access to a representative group ofundocumented workers was not always easy.Cooperation with e.g. undocumented Bulgarianworkers - who were numerous in The Hague - washard to obtain. There had been big police raidsagainst these workers and many thought that thepublicity generated by a previous study on undocu-mented Bulgarian workers (see Chapter Four) hadplayed a role in this. These difficulties illustratesome of the challenges faced by organizations inworking with undocumented respondents within theframework of a qualitative research project.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• This chapter highlights some of the recent studiesthat have been conducted on workplace problemsfaced by undocumented workers and exemplifieshow data has been collected in these instances.Furthermore, this chapter highlights the impor-tance of collecting new data.

• In order to develop genuine policy strategies in thefields of migration and employment, it is necessaryto have an understanding of the labor conditions ofundocumented workers. More research shouldtherefore be conducted, especially in Europe,where there is a real lack of data on undocument-ed workers.

• New information about undocumented workers isalso needed because it draws attention to impor-tant social issues such as the exploitation andabuse of this particular group of workers.Collecting and analyzing new data about undocu-mented workers can therefore be useful in influ-

encing public opinion and policy makers about thenon-negligible role played by undocumented work-ers in our economies.

• To collect information on undocumented workers,it is important to have a relation based on trust, asmany undocumented workers are reluctant tospeak about their situation. NGOs and other organ-izations who have gained their trust can thereforefacilitate access to the target group whileresearchers can provide a framework of analysis.

• Collaboration between these actors is essential inorder to attain the highest standard of data coveringas many facets of the issues at stake as possible.


“Labor laws are self-enforcing. You don’t need a thousand inspectors to enforcethem; all it takes is workers who refuse to work for less than is agreed upon inthese laws.”

• Philip Martin, Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis

3. Informing Undocumented Workers About Their Rights

The above-mentioned observation about theenforcement of labor laws is at the core of thisreport. One of the central elements of a strate-

gy to protect undocumented workers entails devel-oping their capacities to know what rights they haveand how to exercise them.

Advocates for undocumented workers use a varietyof ways to communicate essential information aboutthese workers’ rights and the different possibilitiesthey have for dealing with exploitation and abuse.This chapter provides an overview of some of themost commonly used methods.

A valuable way of informing undocumented workersabout their rights is to develop printed material thatthey can refer to. Reference is made to resourcessuch as leaflets and booklets, articles in ethnicmedia, information on an organization’s website, andcomic books.

Some organizations provide essential information toworkers about their workplace rights through helpdesks. Through one-on-one contact, workers learnfirsthand about their rights and gain assistance inaddressing a particular workplace problem.Examples are provided of some of the different typesof help desks run by organizations.

An additional method is to provide information toworkers in a group setting. Meetings, informationsessions, workshops and other communal settings

can be beneficial in promoting a sense of awarenessamongst undocumented workers that the exploita-tion and abuse they endure is often shared by manyothers. Increased consciousness is beneficial in pre-venting other situations of abuse from occurring. Therole of popular education as a tool in communicatingwith a diverse group of workers is also discussed.

Printed Materials

Leaflets and Booklets

The Paris-based organization Groupe d’informationet de soutien des immigrés (GISTI) publishes a vari-ety of resources on different aspects of foreigners’law in France.14 Some of its publications focusspecifically on the rights of undocumented workers.A practical guide on the rights of undocumentedmigrants in France provides detailed information onundocumented workers’ rights to accident insurancein the case of a workplace accident or injury andother rights involving wages (e.g. the right to be paidfor work done and the right to be paid for overtime).15

This publication includes summaries of the laws andhow they apply to undocumented migrants, how topractically go about exercising these rights, andobstacles undocumented migrants might encounterin doing so. Contact information of relevant organiza-tions and trade unions in the Paris metropolitan areais included. This particular publication is part of a

14 GISTI’s publications include: Guides, which explain some of the main themes of foreigners’ law for those with no legal training;the quarterly journal Plein Droit, that is geared towards a wide public and offers a multidisciplinary analysis of the situation ofimmigrants in France and in Europe; and resources that are targeted primarily at lawyers, such as the Notes d’actualité(recently released legal texts such as laws, decrees, circulars, jurisprudence, etc.) and the Cahiers juridiques (a grouping of allrelevant texts on a particular aspect of foreigners’ law).

15 See GISTI, Sans-papiers mais pas sans droits, 3ème edition (Paris: GISTI, 2004), available online at: http://www.gisti.org/doc/publications/2004/sans-papiers/sommaire.html.

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collection of GISTI’s Notes Pratiques, easy-to-useresources that are written for immigrants and theiradvocates.

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) hasdeveloped extensive resources for undocumentedworkers and organizers in the United States. Formore than thirty years, NELP has provided legalservices to campaigners, workers’ centers, unionsand organizations that work with low-income work-ers. Its focus has always been on upholding workers’rights, such as making sure workers receive theminimum wage, that they are safe and healthy on thejob, that they have access to workers’ compensation,etc. Although NELP had been working on theseissues for many years, it wasn’t until around 1999that it officially designated an immigrant worker pro-gram within the organization to focus on ending theabusive and discriminatory treatment of low-wageimmigrant workers.

The Immigrant Worker Advocacy Project atthe National Employment Law Project (NELP)has four components: workplace rights, initia-tives in special industries, access to govern-ment services and legislative and policyreforms. In each component, NELP has devel-oped resources that can be used by organizersas well as undocumented workers themselves.One such resource is fact sheets for workers,which are available in English and Spanish anduse language that is easy to understand. Thefirst line of a fact sheet discussing immigrationstatus and workers’ rights goes straight to thepoint: “If I am undocumented, do I have anyrights? Yes!” and lists five workplace rightsthat are applicable to all workers, regardless ofstatus.16

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision inHoffman Plastic Compounds v. NLRB (seeChapter Eight), NELP had an upsurge in phone

calls from groups across the country, whowere identifying specific problems faced byundocumented workers and were asking forassistance. Many of these situations involvedemployers who had received information fromthe government questioning a worker’s socialsecurity number or immigration status. Theseemployers took immediate action by firing orretaliating against the worker in some otherway, but in many of these cases, the employ-er’s actions were wrong. NELP responded bydeveloping resources to educate workers andorganizers about employer work authorizationverification and relevant social securityissues.17

NELP works primarily with groups or organiz-ers, unions, and community organizations, andit thus has different levels of communicationfor these different target groups, said CathyRuckelshaus, NELP Litigation Director. Manyof NELP’s publications are targeted at thegroups who will disseminate information tothe undocumented workers they work with.NELP also produces policy updates for policymakers or organizations that are trying tochange policies, as well as more detailed mate-rials that lawyers can use in defending undoc-umented workers.

Websites

Many organizations use their websites as one of sev-eral means of informing workers about their rights.A website can provide information in an easy-to-readformat and is a place to store resources such asbooklets, leaflets or other materials that can bedownloaded by workers and their advocates.

The NGO Andolan Organizing South Asian Workersprimarily works with South Asian domestic serviceworkers and restaurant and retail store workers in

16 See NELP, “Immigration Status and Your Rights as a Worker,” available online at: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/pub146%2Epdf. For other fact sheets for immigrant workers see: http://www.nelp.org/workers/benefits/index.cfm, accessed onJune 10, 2005.

17 See Chapter Nine for an overview of how the “no-match” letters sent out by the Social Security Administration are impacting relationsbetween employers and undocumented workers. For resources to educate workers and organizers about these issues, see NELP,“Social Security No-Match Letters: Questions and Answers for Workers,” July 2002, available online at: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/pub155%2Epdf; NELP, “Employer Work Authorization Verification and Reverification,” July 2005, available online at:http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/employment%20authorization%20verification%20and%20reverification%2Epdf.


the New York City area, and uses its homepage to listseveral rights that all workers have in New York.These rights are applicable to all workers regardlessof immigration status, and include: the right to bepaid minimum wage and overtime, the right to bepaid in U.S. dollars every two weeks, the right towork free of abusive behavior, the right to adequatemealtime breaks, the right to one full day off eachweek, paid holidays, vacation every year, personaland sick days, and the right to organize for betterwork conditions. Andolan also emphasizes thatworkers cannot be denied emergency medical serv-ices at a public hospital.

Articles in Ethnic Media

The ethnic media essentially comprises newspaperarticles and radio and television stations that areaddressed at a particular immigrant group. It is a fastgrowing presence in the United States, where in sev-eral cities immigrants can find ethnic media in everylanguage imaginable. Some organizations, like theMulti-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network(MIWON) in Los Angeles, use the ethnic media to getthe message across to undocumented workers thatthey have rights. “A lot of workers read and watchand listen to the ethnic press. That’s the main focusof our media work. We’re happy if we can get cover-age from local media stations, but we mainly try tobuild relationships with the ethnic media, which inLos Angeles is huge,” said Liz Sunwoo, MIWONCoordinator.

The ethnic media is slowly getting a foothold in citiesin Europe where there are large concentrations ofimmigrants from a certain country or geographicalregion. One way of reaching these workers is throughnewspapers that are published by organizationsworking with specific immigrant groups. An exampleis the Sabiá, a monthly newspaper published by theCasa do Brasil de Lisboa and targeted primarily atBrazilians residing in Portugal.

As a pro bono lawyer providing legal assistance toundocumented Brazilian workers in Portugal,Gustavo Behr and his colleagues of the Casa doBrasil de Lisboa have seen that there is a generallack of understanding amongst these workers about

their rights. He has written some articles that havebeen published in the Sabiá as well as in the main-stream press. Using the organization’s newspaperallows for important information to be communicat-ed to the workers in their own language and is anefficient way of promoting their rights. “In those arti-cles, I explained clearly that you can be illegal butthis doesn’t prevent you from going to the laborcourts to prove that you were working,” said GustavoBehr. “Many people think that in order to go to a laborcourt, they have to have a formal work contract withstamps from governmental institutions. The mainthing is to be able to prove the work relationship, andthat’s it.”

Comic Books

Another way to provide information is through theuse of comic books. Some organizations use comicbooks with engaging images and a clear storyline toinform workers about their labor rights and what todo when faced with an exploitative employer. Thesecomic books also include contact information andgeneral information about NGOs, workers’ centersand governmental institutions that can help workerswho wish to make a claim against their employer.

The National Day Laborers Organizing Network(NDLON) uses a step-by-step guide with drawingsand texts in Spanish to illustrate how workers canresolve a situation of unpaid wages and generalexploitation.

In the English and Spanish versions of “LuchasLaborales: Dramatic Tales from the Lives ofImmigrant Workers,” the Workplace Project usesimages and dialogue reminiscent of soap operas thatare common in Latin America to tell the stories ofthree Latino immigrants who confronted problems atwork.

Sweatshop Watch uses a bilingual (English-Spanishand English-Chinese) comic book to show “How AnnaWon Her Wages: How to File a Wage Claim with theLabor Commissioner.” The comic book goes throughthe different steps taken by Anna, an underpaid gar-ment worker, to demand minimum wage and over-time by using the California Labor Commissioner.

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Help Desks

Some organizations inform undocumented workersabout their rights by communicating with them viahelp desks. The direct contact between workers andadvocates is essential not only for addressing a par-ticular workplace problem but also for doing generalawareness raising about their rights.

The main focus of the organization Kalayaan is toadvise migrant domestic workers in the London areaabout their rights in the workplace, for example, howmuch they should be paid and how to negotiate withtheir employers. If necessary, Kalayaan will referthem to trade unions or law centers to take up casesagainst exploitative employers. With a very smallstaff and limited financial resources, it is importantto couple awareness raising work with referrals toentities that can provide concrete assistance in acase of abuse. “We can give initial immigrationadvice about where to go for help, but we don’t havethe capacity to do a very intense level of case work,because we’re seeing well over 1,500 people a year,and we don’t have the people power to do that. Sowhat we do is refer people,” said Fiona Luckhoo ofKalayaan.

The Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) tradeunion federation runs an advice center for migrantswho are not part of the union. A former staff memberof a Polish community organization in Germanypresently works at this center, and is able to bringthe issue of undocumented workers into the advicecenter, said Norbert Cyrus of the Berlin-basedPolish Social Council. Her contacts and experiencewith undocumented workers are helpful in cooperat-ing with staff at the advice center to make themaware of the subject and discuss ways to deal withproblems faced by undocumented workers.

In addition to providing information to workers in itsoffice in the city of Almeria, Spain, the Sindicato deObreros del Campo (SOC) goes to places where theworkers live and work to bring information directly tothem. Outreach is essential to the SOC’s workbecause various obstacles hinder workers fromcoming to its office, including the possibility of losinga day of work due to the time it takes to get to theoffice, as well as a general hardship and inability toafford a simple trip.

To increase its impact and efficiency, the SOC needsto strengthen its presence directly in the greenhousezone. For this reason, it has decided to open threeunion offices or centers in three small towns in thezone. The offices will enable the workers to haveaccess to the services supplied by the union, includ-ing information about their rights and assistancewith the many administrative procedures. The cen-ters will also provide places where the workers canmeet socially, exchange experiences and organizecampaigns to demand better conditions. As it wouldbe nearly impossible for the SOC to rent offices inthese areas (given the high level of intimidation andpressure the landlord/landlady would be subject to),the SOC intends to buy the offices. Thanks to finan-cial support from the European Civic Forum andother organizations, a first center has already beenbought in El Ejido, where workers are most affectedby exclusion and repression (see Chapter One).

An organization that was founded on December 18th,2003 - International Migrants Day - aims to workexclusively on the issue of undocumented workers.Until recently, there was no entity in Belgium focus-ing specifically on workplace problems encounteredby undocumented workers. Of the NGOs and very fewtrade unions that provide assistance to undocument-ed migrants, these organizations address issuessuch as health care, education and legal status.While they may intervene from time to time in aworkplace issue, they generally do not focus on thegrowing problems of exploitation and abuse faced byundocumented workers in Belgium.

One of the aims of the Organisatie voor clan-

destine arbeidsmigranten (OR.C.A.) is todevelop a help desk specialized in defendingthe rights of undocumented workers. OR.C.A.intends to publish a practical guide on the basiclabor rights of undocumented workers inBelgium, with information about where work-ers can go if they have a work-related problem.

OR.C.A. also aims to stimulate cooperationamongst trade unions, labor inspection,employers and NGOs to strengthen supportfor undocumented workers.

Issues of exploitative workplace conditions are a par-ticular concern for the Coalition for HumaneImmigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), whichhas a special project to educate workers about theirrights: a bilingual Spanish/English hotline whereimmigrants can call in to get information on a wholerange of issues.

“In many instances, a worker might think, ‘I’mundocumented, so I’m not protected by the workstandards or labor laws,’” said Angelica Salas,CHIRLA Executive Director. “Both they and manytimes their employers believe that if they’re undocu-mented, they’re somehow exempted from theselabor laws. So they end up getting paid less than theminimum wage or not paid at all. Part of our job is toget information to them that they are protected,regardless of their status as undocumented.”

CHIRLA receives about 14,000 calls a year on thehotline. When an immigrant calls in, the staff personwill find out what the specifics are of the case, andthen either try to take on the situation within CHIRLAitself or refer the caller to a non-profit service withinthe network, based on the person’s zip code in theLos Angeles area. The hotline has had much successand becomes known to workers by word of mouth.

Group Information Sessions

Many organizations address issues of concern toundocumented workers in a group setting, by holdinga meeting or informative workshop or gatheringworkers in a support group.

Sweatshop Watch works closely with the GarmentWorker Center to develop materials that are used inworkshops to educate garment workers about healthand safety and labor laws. These materials includecomic books or other easy-to-read resources thatare published in Spanish and Chinese. The materialsdescribe garment workers’ basic workplace rights,explain how to calculate wages owed and how tokeep necessary records, and provide a calendar torecord information such as hours worked.

The Brussels-based Filipino migrants’ organizationSamahan has held information campaigns for work-ers on different topics throughout the years. Pasttopics of campaigns have included the implications

of the 1992 Schengen agreement on Filipino migrantworkers in Europe, as well as women’s and familyissues.

Support from the Group

A group setting is advantageous not only for inform-ing many workers at the same time but also foroffering an opportunity for workers to provide sup-port to one other.

Undocumented women who are part of the Collectifdes travailleurs et des travailleuses sans statut légal- Génève (CTSSL) come together on a regular basisto discuss problems they face at work. A number ofthe women have suffered from sexual harassment atwork and even rape, said CTSSL member SilviaMarino. The majority of the women in the CTSSL dodomestic work, and fear that by speaking out againsttheir employer they might lose their job. The CTSSLWomen’s Group provides them a space for talkingabout these issues freely. They offer each other sup-port, such as when one woman goes to a job inter-view for domestic work, another accompanies her tomake sure that the employer makes an honest pro-posal in regard to the type of work expected.

The organization Andolan Organizing South AsianWorkers, which brings together low-income South-Asian workers in the New York City area, holds meet-ings every two months for its members. At the meet-ings, workers share their problems and strategizetogether on possible solutions. The range of issuesdiscussed at the meetings includes immigration sta-tus, health problems, low wages, problems withemployers or working conditions, domestic disputesand learning English.

Preventing Future Abuse from Occuring

Educating undocumented workers about their rightsis also a way to prevent further abuse or exploitationfrom taking place.

The Workplace Project in New York primarily usesgroup information sessions to inform undocumentedworkers about their workplace rights. The founder ofthe organization, Jennifer Gordon, is a lawyer whoinitially supported workers by taking their cases tothe small claims court or the Department of Labor.She soon started to realize that as soon as a worker


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would recover unpaid wages from an employer, thesame worker would return a couple of months laterto file a claim for unpaid wages against a differentemployer. There was a feeling of not being able tochange the situation in any way, so the WorkplaceProject started to redirect its efforts to focus less onproviding legal services and more on education.

A workers’ rights course was started, which lasts eightweeks and touches on basic information about mini-mum wage and overtime, what to do if one is injured onthe job and other aspects of employment. There is alsoa compressed version which lasts a day and a half. Inaddition, the Workplace Project offers a workshop thatis open to all workers once a week in the evening whereworkers can receive information about their workplacerights and what they can do to enforce them.

Using Popular Education to Communicate

with Workers

Many of the organizations interviewed have devel-oped expertise on the use of popular education as away of ensuring that their message comes across toa diverse group of undocumented workers. A populareducation approach fosters participation and criticalthinking and can be effective in transcending lan-guage barriers and different educational levelsamongst the target group. The use of discussion anddifferent materials such as drawings and skits canbe beneficial in reaching out to group members.

An important aspect of the work of the Organizaciónen California de Líderes Campesinas is to use popu-lar education when it brings its members togetherlocally at meetings to discuss and plan events andactions. Many of the members are indigenouswomen from Oaxaca, Mexico, who speak a variety ofdifferent languages and have difficulties in commu-nicating in Spanish. To avoid the many languageproblems, members use skits and drama to presentthe information during meetings, said ExecutiveDirector Mily Treviño-Sauceda.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) also facessimilar problems, and uses different techniquesrooted in popular education to transcend the lan-guage differences amongst its members. “InImmokalee, there are many languages that are spo-ken: Spanish, Haitian Creole and a wide variety ofindigenous languages such as Kan’jo’bal, Mam andMixtec. Many people speak Spanish as a second lan-guage and many also don’t know how to read orwrite. So we use popular education because youdon’t have to necessarily speak the same languageand you can cross a lot of borders and boundarieswith that,” said Julia Perkins of the CIW.

The CIW paints murals on the sides of buildingsthroughout the town, makes videos that are pro-duced by the workers themselves, uses theater andalso has community meetings once a week wherepeople can come and reflect on workers’ issues as acommunity. The organization launched a communityradio station in December 2003 with a broadcastingrange covering the entire town. In addition to playingmore political music than would be heard on a com-mercial station, the organizers also talk about work-ers’ rights and ways in which workers can becomeinvolved in the organization.

Popular education is a tool used by an organization thatbrings together a diversity of grassroots groups in theUnited States. The National Network for Immigrant andRefugee Rights (NNIRR) is an organization that wasformed nearly twenty years ago to bring together immi-grant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights andlabor organizations and activists. In 1998 it launched aproject to bring together diverse communities and insti-tutions in local areas to explore how immigrant com-munities related to issues such as racism, race rela-tions, globalization, human rights and other key topics.The result of a process that lasted several years is aneducational tool that can be used to support the rightsof immigrants and refugees.


The National Network for Immigrant andRefugee Rights (NNIRR) has made a toolboxof training materials, tips and resources basedon a popular education framework entitledBRIDGE – Building a Race and ImmigrationDialogue in the Global Economy.18 It includesvaluable discussion and practical ways to pro-vide effective facilitation of meetings or groupevents. The training resource contains differ-ent modules on topics such as the history ofimmigration, globalization and workers’ rights,migrants’ rights and human rights, immigrantwomen leaders and conflict resolution. Eachmodule includes a series of activities, exercises,and discussion questions grouped thematicallyaround the particular subject area.

To further enhance the scope of the guide,NNIRR plans to do a training of trainers in fourof the modules from BRIDGE, as well as train-ings on doing media work in immigrant com-munities, said Catherine Tactaquin, NNIRRDirector.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• A central element in protecting undocumentedworkers is to inform them of the rights that theyhave and how to exercise them. This chapter hasexplored a variety of ways to communicate thisessential information to these workers.

• Printed materials such as leaflets, comic books,websites and articles in ethnic media are usefultools that can easily be distributed among undocu-mented workers. Language difficulties can beovercome through the use of comic books. Theseresources illustrate situations that undocumentedworkers can identify with by providing drawings ofwhat to do in a situation in which a worker is deniedtheir wages.

• Help desks are another way of providing informa-tion and assistance to undocumented workers. Bycreating a means of direct contact between undoc-umented workers and advocates, help desks areessential in raising general awareness aboutworkers’ rights and how to exercise them. Someorganizations go to the places where the workerslive and work. This outreach is valuable in informa-tion distribution since many workers are preventedfrom going to an organization’s office because theymight lose a day’s worth of work or simply becausethey cannot afford the trip.

• Organizing group information sessions is also use-ful and advantageous in several ways. First, byholding meetings or informative workshops, infor-mation can be provided to many migrant workersat the same time. Second, they provide a basis formutual exchange of experience, support and infor-mation between the workers themselves. Finally,popular education is also a way of transcendinglanguage barriers and reaching illiterate workerswho have no other means of receiving informationabout their rights.

18 See http://www.nnirr.org/projects/projects_bridge.html, accessed on May 10, 2005.

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“In my community work, I have met many women who do manual labor on farmsand do not have much formal education, but are very astute and good organizers.When I became executive director of my organization, I decided that this is goingto be an organization of farmworker women, so it will be run by farmworkerwomen.”

• Mily Treviño-Sauceda, Executive Director of the Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas

4. Building Capacities Through Empowerment

This chapter focuses on the empowerment ofundocumented workers as a way of obtainingincreased protection of their rights.

One of the key ways of empowering undocumentedworkers is to organize them so that they can collec-tively examine possibilities for challenging unfairemployers. Many undocumented workers and theiradvocates subscribe to the philosophy of “power innumbers” and recognize the potential that can behad when workers join together to fight exploitationor abuse rather than working alone. Examples areprovided of undocumented workers who are organ-ized in workers’ centers and separate unions.

In addition to organizing workers, it is also importantto build their capacities so that they can becomeinvolved in policy decisions that affect them. A num-ber of organizations strive to build workers’ leader-ship capacities and offer special courses to strength-en workers’ leadership skills. In addition, someadvocates, particularly in the United States, empha-size the different ways that undocumented workerscan be involved in the political decision-makingprocess, even if they do not have a legal residence orworking permit. Some examples of civic awarenessinitiatives are also highlighted.

Organizing Undocumented Workers

Different forms of organizing have emerged to bringtogether undocumented workers based upon sharedexperiences in the workplace. The main emphasis isto empower workers by bringing them together todiscuss issues that are relevant for them, and strate-

gize on how to involve other organizations to supportthem in their goals.

Before presenting some of the advantages of organiz-ing workers and examples of workers’ centers andseparate unions, it should be highlighted that many ofthe initiatives described in this chapter involve work-ers of different ethnicities and nationalities who haveorganized together. While type of organizing is advan-tageous in that workers can build strength by tran-scending such barriers, there is still a tendency inmany places to organize workers based upon countryof origin. This is the case in the United Kingdom,where workers mainly join together if they are fromthe same country, said Bridget Anderson of theCenter on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS),University of Oxford. “More efforts need to be made toorganize across national divides,” she urged.

Benefits of Organizing

One of the benefits of organizing workers is theawareness that an individual situation of exploitationor abuse is often experienced by many other workers.

By working together to address exploitation or abuse inthe workplace, workers can have more force in assert-ing their rights. “We focus mainly on meeting in agroup, so that the worker can see that they are one per-son among many who have the same problem. That’swhy we have to support each other and work togetherto get these things done,” explained Nadia Marin-Molina of the Workplace Project. The decision-makingprocess is done in a group or committee of workers, sothat the workers can appropriate their struggle andmove together towards a common objective.


Another positive aspect of organizing is workers’increased confidence in recognizing that they haverights, and knowing what steps to take if they are insituations of exploitation or abuse.

The members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers(CIW) in Florida emphasize organizing as a means offostering more confidence amongst workers andbuilding strength as a group. Julia Perkins of the CIWsaid that as workers become more organized, theybecome more confident in trying to resolve work-place problems themselves.

“We often get phone calls from members who are work-ing in another state, far away from our offices,” she said.“For instance, a member called recently to say that heand some other workers hadn’t been paid their wages,and were told by their boss that they had a week to leaveand look for another job. He told us that he talked to theother workers and they decided that they would all goand talk to the grower themselves. So this initiative was-n’t led by the staff of the CIW, but by the workers them-selves. We’ve seen that a lot of times, they’ve learnedhow to negotiate things for themselves.”

Organizing is also a means to build strength by work-ing together to fight against abuse and exploitation.

Domestic Workers United (DWU) in New York stress-es organizing as a way to build power within workers’communities and as a way to raise the level ofrespect for domestic workers. Workers who enroll ina four-week intensive program offered by DWU learnimportant skills to build their confidence in the work-place and to the build the power of their communi-ties. More than 300 workers have completed thecourse, said Ai-Jen Poo of DWU.

Organizing domestic workers and day laborers(workers who mainly do temporary work) is also animportant element of the Workers’ Rights project ofthe Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of LosAngeles (CHIRLA). Through this project, CHIRLAseeks to educate domestic workers and day laborersabout their rights and to organize them as a way offighting against the problems in their industries andagainst the abuses they face as immigrant workers.Committees of domestic workers and day laborers

work to advance their rights not only in their indus-tries but also on policy issues. An important policyissue for these workers is the driver’s license bill inthe State of California. This bill would allow undocu-mented migrants in California to apply for a driver’slicense. (It is currently only possible for legal resi-dents to obtain a driver’s license in California). Manypeople need to be able to drive a car in the UnitedStates for work purposes, and domestic workersand day laborers have been active in pushing for-ward this bill in the State of California, said AngelicaSalas, CHIRLA Executive Director.

Setting Up Workers’ Centers

The different obstacles that prevent undocumentedworkers from joining unions (see Chapter Five) haveled many of these workers to seek different ways oforganizing. One way is to set up workers’ centerswhere workers can meet and work together on work-place issues of importance for them.

A Muslim community organization in The Hague,Netherlands, established a workers’ center in recentyears made up entirely of undocumented workers. TheStichting Haags Islamitisch Platform (SHIP) had beenworking for many years with the Muslim community inThe Hague. In 2001, there was an increase in undocu-mented ethnic Turkish Bulgarian undocumented work-ers in The Hague, and SHIP started to learn about a pat-tern of exploitation and abuse amongst these workers.

“There were cases in which workers were fired all ofa sudden or weren’t paid for their work,” said KhalilWedad of SHIP. “We also became aware of the bla-tant exploitation by temporary work agencies. Theseagencies would receive €6 and pay the workers €4,and then say that the undocumented workers could-n’t complain about it because they were illegal. Someworkers who were desperate told us they would evenaccept work for €2 or even €1 an hour,” he said.

It was decided that something had to be done, soSHIP carried out a study in collaboration with a con-sultancy organization to explore the living and work-ing conditions of Bulgarian undocumented workersin The Hague.19 After doing the research, SHIP decid-

19 See Dirk Kloosterboer, Arif Potmis, Khalil Wedad and Mehmet Terlemis, We just want to work and pay taxes: Bulgarian illegalworkers in the Hague (Dunya Advies and the Hague Islamic Platform (SHIP)), available online at:http://www.khamsa.nl/dunya/bulgarian.doc, accessed on April 9, 2004. For the original publication in Dutch, see DirkKloosterboer, Arif Potmis, Khalil Wedad and Mehmet Terlemis, We willen gewoon werken en belasting betalen: Een onderzoekonder Bulgaarse illegalen in Den Haag (Den Haag: VIA, 2002).

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ed that it would be better to organize the workers, toencourage them to meet within a union or anothersetting so that they could become more independent.

The Stichting Haags Islamitisch Platform

(SHIP) created the “Illegal Workers’ Union”(Vakbond van Illegale Arbeiders - VIA) in 2002to inform undocumented workers about theirrights and to draw public attention to theexploitation of the workers.

One of its first tasks was to find out moreabout the actual practices of exploitation andthe companies where the workers wereemployed. VIA offered drop-in sessions forworkers where they could explain their situa-tion and discuss possibilities for solutions. Theconsultations lasted for a couple of months atthe end of 2002 and beginning of 2003 andallowed VIA to become aware of the situationsof 33 people, 19 of which specifically hadwork-related problems. Almost half of all of theworkers had been in the Netherlands a numberof years, had paid taxes, and had children inschool. Most of them were also members ofthe FNV trade union, which provided themwith legal assistance concerning their cases. Forthe other workers who were not union mem-bers, it was difficult to find a solution.

Until that time, the issue of undocumentedworkers had been a sensitive issue within theFNV, but the founding of VIA prompted dis-cussion within the union, said DirkKloosterboer, Researcher at Dunya Advies.Although FNV did provide support, VIA facedextreme pressure from all sides to shut down,and dissolved in 2003. Nonetheless, its short-lived existence raised public awareness aboutthe exploitation of undocumented workers inThe Hague, and was also significant in bring-ing the workers together.

In the United States, local organizations existthroughout the country that organize day laborers,the men and women who solicit employment on adaily or temporary basis and usually wait for work onstreet corners, parking lots, parks, or stand in frontof businesses such as home improvement stores.Although they are predominantly found in California(it is estimated that there are 25,000 day laborerswho congregate on roughly 125 street corners in LosAngeles), they have become a fixed part of citiesthroughout the United States.20 Their presence onstreet corners and in other public places has led tomuch anti-immigrant sentiment from local resi-dents, who attack them because they feel that theirpresence has led to a deterioration of the quality oflife in neighborhoods.

Community-based organizations throughout thecountry have been organizing day laborers for yearsto empower them and protect their rights. In 2001, anorganization was launched on the national level toexchange information and to build the capacities ofday laborer organizations throughout the country.

The National Day Laborer Organizing

Network (NDLON) is composed of 39 memberorganizations. One of the main areas of itswork is to strengthen and create workers’ cen-ters: instead of being on the street, workerscan go to a more humane and safer environ-ment to meet with prospective employers.NDLON has created a model of an effectiveworkers’ center and promotes the model withcity officials, residents, day laborers, etc., indifferent cities throughout the United States.

Education and organizing are important ele-ments of NDLON’s work. NDLON directlyfacilitates leadership development workshopswith day laborers and has trained day laborerorganizers and site coordinators. PabloAlvarado, NDLON National Coordinator, said

20 See Abel Valenzuela Jr., “Day Laborers in Southern California: Preliminary Findings from the Day Labor Survey,” (Center for theStudy of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles, May 30, 1999), available online at: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/csup/pubs/papers/item.php?id=3, accessed on June 20, 2005; Abel Valenzuela Jr., “Dispelling the Myths of Day Labor Work,”(Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, University of California, Los Angeles), available online at: http://www.ndlon.org/research/Dispelling%20the%20Myths%20of%20Day%20Labor%20Work.doc, accessed on June 20, 2005.


leadership training is an important element ofa successful workers’ center: “We have fivestaff for the whole country, so we have tomake sure that when we are called to do atraining course somewhere, that we leavebehind well-trained community actors whounderstand the ins and outs of the day labor-er issues. There is no way that you can createa workers’ center without developing theleadership skills of the people, those who arerunning it, those who administer it, and thosewho use it to improve their lives and their liv-ing and working conditions.”

NDLON holds monthly conference calls for itsmember organizations to coordinate cam-paigns and activities, share resources, and dis-seminate information. An outcome of this pos-itive effort has been an increased sense of soli-darity amongst the participating organizations,as well as being an opportunity for members tobecome better aware of the day laborer reali-ties in every city where NDLON is present.

Forming Separate Unions

Another common way of organizing workers is toform separate unions, which may or may not receivesupport from formal unions.

Many of the undocumented workers that come to theMulti-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network(MIWON) work in low-wage industries where unionsdo not carry out organizing campaigns. The memberorganizations of MIWON mainly represent day labor-ers, domestic workers, ethnic restaurant and super-market workers as well as some artists that areinvolved in production work in Hollywood (e.g. peoplewho fill in or draw cartoons). The industries wherethey work are made up of small companies wherethere is a constant mutation – e.g. in the ethnicrestaurant industry many restaurants close downafter one year, change their name and reopen as anew restaurant. Unions do not have much incentive toorganize in such volatile industries because theywould not get many new members and they would notget contracts that would last for more than one year.

According to Liz Sunwoo, MIWON Coordinator,unions have to have a business perspective and won’torganize in sectors that aren’t profitable. “Some ofthe local unions in Los Angeles like the ServiceEmployees International Union (SEIU) and HotelEmployees & Restaurant Employees (HERE) havecarried out good organizing campaigns, but MIWONworkers don’t fall under their organizing categories.None of the undocumented Korean or Chinese work-ers have ever been approached by a union organizer.Some of them never even thought that a union exist-ed here in LA,” she said. Part of the problem is alsodue to language and cultural barriers – the unionsdon’t have the capacity to have organizers that knowthe culture and can speak the language(s) of theworkers.

In light of this reality, one of MIWON’s memberorganizations, KIWA, has formed a union that isindependent from the American Federation ofLabor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The Immigrant Workers’ Union (IWU) aims toorganize Korean immigrants that work in super-markets in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. The IWU isusing collective bargaining to get one of the 14supermarkets in Koreatown to sign a union con-tract, which will provide a guarantee of fair workingconditions.

Capacity Building

Many organizations, especially in the United States,stress that undocumented workers should beinvolved in the decision-making process concerningissues of importance to them. These advocates pro-mote initiatives that build undocumented workers’skills as leaders within their own communities, andencourage undocumented workers to become activein the political process.

Advocating on Their Own Behalf

One of the reasons why the Multi-Ethnic ImmigrantWorker Organizing Network (MIWON) was formedwas to empower low-wage immigrant workers toadvocate on their own behalf. Liz Sunwoo, MIWONCoordinator, said that “in Los Angeles was a lot ofmovement around legalization, but we didn’t see

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actual undocumented workers at the table makingdecisions. Most of the time they are used as mediaspokespeople but when it came to making strategicdecisions or even to be asked for suggestions, yourarely saw undocumented workers at the table.”MIWON’s goal was to have rigorous gatherings ofimmigrant workers, to prepare them to enter thesekind of meetings and also to push other advocates toinclude many more undocumented workers in thediscussion.

Building the capacities of undocumented workersinvolves developing their skills as leaders who standup for their rights. The organization AndolanOrganizing South Asian Workers, which fightsagainst the exploitation and abuse of low-wageworkers in New York, prioritizes the central leader-ship of its members and strives to break a system ofdependency so as to foster worker empowerment,said Andolan Executive Director Nahar Alam. Sheadded that Andolan finds it important that low-wageworkers always clearly guide the leadership of theorganization, and thus has a strict policy concerningmembership: to ensure that workers retain the cen-tral role in the organization, membership mustalways achieve a balance of 75% workers and 25%volunteers.

The Organización en California de Líderes Campe-sinas organizes female farmworkers throughout theState of California. The women come together inlocal groups to exchange information and to be asupport network for one other. It was started in 1992by Executive Director Mily Treviño-Sauceda, whoknew all about the difficulties faced by female farm-workers (many of whom are undocumented),because she was a farmworker herself before doingcommunity work. “In my community work, I metmany women who were either working on farms ordid not have much formal education, but were veryastute and good organizers. When I becameExecutive Director, I decided that this is going to bean organization of farmworker women, so it will berun by farmworker women,” she said. The approachis very grassroots oriented, as the organizers live inthe same communities as the workers.

A similar rationale was behind the creation ofSamahan, an organization that was founded in 1983to serve the interests and promote the rights of

Filipino workers and their families in Belgium.Throughout its more than 20-year history, Samahanhas empowered Filipino migrant workers in a varietyof different ways.

Samahan uses social and political education,skills training, community building and infor-mation campaigns to build the capacities ofFilipino migrant workers.

“Samahan is different from other Filipinoorganizations in Belgium that focus on sports,culture or other types of activities, since fromthe beginning it has focused on migrant work-ers and social issues relevant to them,” saidJoyce Del Rosario of Samahan.

Leadership training courses and theater work-shops have given workers the opportunity toassess their personal experiences as migrantsand reflect on ways in which the organizationcould go forward and continue to meet theneeds of Filipino workers in Belgium. The struc-ture of the organization lends itself to strength-ening workers’ capacities. Workers take turnsleading the meetings and are involved in differ-ent committees. A participatory decision-mak-ing process promotes empowerment becausedecisions have to be made based upon consen-sus in the committees.

Leadership Development

A number of organizations offer opportunities forworkers to build their leadership skills through spe-cial training sessions and courses. These coursesare often based on techniques based in popular edu-cation. The courses can be useful for workers whoreturn to their respective organizations or laborunions and try to implement what they have learned.

Active members of the Coalition of ImmokaleeWorkers (CIW) participate in leadership developmentretreat weekends, where they can discuss andstrategize on different issues and activities. The ideafor a boycott against Taco Bell came out of one ofthose weekends, said Julia Perkins of the CIW. Thatparticular campaign – which achieved success when


Taco Bell made a historical decision early in 2005that it would meet all of the workers’ demands (seeChapter One) – was developed through the exchangeof methodology with leaders from workers’ centersin Haiti and Chiapas, Mexico. The CIW also looked tothe Brazilian landless workers’ movement – MST –for guidance in the development of the campaign,said Lucas Benitez, CIW Co-Director.

The Organización en California de LíderesCampesinas holds bi-annual conferences in whichnearly 300 female farmworkers from the State ofCalifornia participate. The key element of the confer-ences is workshops, where workers discuss a rangeof issues, including health and safety issues, sexualharassment on the job, field sanitation and salaries.For each issue, workers discuss how female farm-workers are particularly affected. The organization’sstrategy is not just to give the women informationabout these issues or train staff, but train membersso that they can be agents to make changes. “Thewomen are not only asked to share information abouthow it’s affecting them, but they have to make rec-ommendations, and see how our different organiza-tions can respond to these issues,” said Mily TreviñoSauceda, Executive Director.

Training sessions are an important element of thework of the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant WorkerOrganizing Network (MIWON), a coalition of fiveorganizations that work with low-wage immigrantworkers in Los Angeles. These organizations wereaware that a root cause of the exploitation in theworkplace is documentation status, so they formedMIWON to unite workers from different ethnic groupsin different industries and to empower workers. “Wesaw that the discussion around immigrant rights orlegalization is always focused on Latino communi-ties, and that’s why we’re making an effort to makethis a more multiethnic movement,” said LizSunwoo, MIWON Coordinator.

It is important that the workers involved in MIWONbuild their capacities as leaders, since the organiza-tion’s board of directors is made up of a committee oforganizers and workers.

The Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organi-zing Network (MIWON) is currently develop-ing an immigrant leadership school for low-wage immigrant workers. The school will offeradvanced leadership training courses formembers of MIWON’s partner organizationswho have already exhibited leadership skills intheir respective organizations. The leadershipschool will have four components: politicaleducation, skills-based training, health andwell-being and cultural exchange. The courseswill be offered twice a month (once in theevening and once on the weekend) to beaccessible to workers in different industries.After completing the whole program, whichmay take a couple of years, workers will beissued with a certificate.

The leadership school fits into MIWON’s mis-sion to build another level of leadership ofimmigrant workers. “The unions are a bigforce right now fighting for different immi-grants’ rights issues, and the churches andsome big NGOs are involved, but our wholephilosophy is that the people at the center ofthe oppression need to be guiding this fight.We’re not at that point right now in the move-ment in Los Angeles or nationally, and there’ssomething in our minds that feels that that’swrong when that’s missing,” said Liz Sunwoo,MIWON Coordinator.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) pro-vides educational services for community organiza-tions and unions to offer leadership schools for dif-ferent communities in Los Angeles. Two coursesfocus on immigrant workers and organizers: aSpanish-language course for the Latin Americancommunity, and a course for the Asian-Pacific com-munity. Topics covered in the courses include global-ization and a history of labor movements and immi-grants’ rights movements, with a focus on the work-ers’ movement in Los Angeles. There is also a skillsdevelopment component (e.g. how to facilitate ameeting and how to work in a group), as well as rela-tionship building so that the different groups repre-sented can learn from each other’s experiences.

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The workers are referred to the UCLA program throughunions or workers’ centers. Many work in the garmentindustry or as day laborers, where a high percentage ofworkers are undocumented. To facilitate the participa-tion of low-income workers, the course organizers usu-ally look for stipends from the unions or workers’ cen-ters, so the workers can be covered for the days theydon’t work. The courses usually last three to four daysand bring together approximately 35 participants, withan emphasis on quality more than quantity.

“We usually keep it to a maximum number of partic-ipants so that each participant can have an intensiveexperience. The payoff is when we later see thatmany of our participants go on to provide real lead-ership in their communities and organizations,” saidVictor Narro, Project Director.

Civic Participation

There is a growing awareness in the United Statesamongst NGOs and unions about the importance ofcivic participation of immigrants as a way to influ-ence changes in legislation and workplace regula-tions. The emphasis on participatory democracy isrooted in a general understanding that building thepolitical power of immigrants is a key way to bringabout change.

While immigrants have to have U.S. citizenship to votein elections, this does not mean that undocumentedmigrants cannot be involved in the political process.

“Democracy as it’s set up in this country still allowsyou to participate in demonstrations, to leaflet, tomake phone calls to talk to voters, etc. It’s importantfor undocumented workers to understand that every-one has a role to play and if we want to accomplishanything, we’ve got to organize ourselves,” said CucVu, Immigration Campaign Manager of the ServiceEmployees International Union (SEIU).

Participation in the political process is one of threeelements of SEIU’s strategy to build power within thelabor movement. “We need to effectively advocate,organize to have more power and mobilize for civicparticipation in order for that power to be seen andshown. Those three are the formula, and if we only doone of the three, it won’t work,” said Ben Monterroso,Western Regional Director of the Service EmployeesInternational Union (SEIU).

Civic engagement and electoral power are two ele-ments of an internship program run by Unite forDignity, an immigrant workers’ rights organization inMiami, Florida. The organization is dedicated tobuilding new leaders to fight for improved conditionsin workplaces and in immigrant communities andviews participation in the political system as a keypart of the process.

The Unite for Dignity internship program aimsto create a strong front of immigrants to doadvocacy work on crucial issues affecting theircommunities. The six-week program uses apopular education model and combines week-ly leadership development workshops withpractical assignments in local communities.Participants are mainly immigrants from Haitiand Latin America. In the component on civicparticipation, workers learn about how theU.S. government functions on the federal,state and local levels and the role played byelected officials. They discuss power relationsin local communities and how decisions aremade that affect immigrant communities.

One of the ways workers get hands-on expe-rience in the political process is by challenginglocal elected officials to engage in policies thathave positive effects on immigrant communi-ties. Winie Cantave of Unite for Dignity gavean example of workers who called a localelected official for a meeting to make himaware of some key problems faced by his con-stituency: “These workers were mainly docu-mented and undocumented immigrantwomen from Haiti with little formal education.They sat in front of this elected official, a well-educated lawyer who was also from Haiti, andwere not afraid to tell him about the problemsthey were experiencing in their communities.”In another situation, an elected official hadmade strong anti-immigrant remarks in anewspaper article. At a town hall meeting,workers reminded him that the communityhad elected him to office, and would also beresponsible for not re-electing him. And in theelection that soon followed, he was not re-elected.


By having a say in the political system, immigrantscan influence the decision-making process concern-ing policies that affect their communities.

The allocation of resources for education, housingand health care has an effect on the daily lives of allpeople, including immigrants. In the United States,these resources are usually decided upon at the statelevel, where immigrants in some cases represent asubstantial percentage of the total population in thestate. In some counties in California, immigrantsrepresent more than 40% of the population inschools, said Catherine Tactaquin, Director of theNational Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights(NNIRR). There have been campaigns in California,New York and Washington, D.C. for undocumentedmigrants to participate in school board elections andparent-teacher organizations, and in some casesthey have been a prominent voice in arguing forsmaller class sizes for bilingual education.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• Empowering undocumented workers is an impor-tant step in strengthening the protection of theirrights. It counteracts a system of dependency andenables workers to become involved in the deci-sion-making that affects their lives.

• Many undocumented workers and their advocatessubscribe to the “power in numbers” approach andthereby recognize the strength of working togetherrather than standing alone. Organizing undocu-mented workers also allows them to strategize onhow to obtain their goals and increases workers’confidence in realizing that they are not alone.

• There are several ways to organize undocumentedworkers. One is through the use of workers’ cen-ters, which gives workers an opportunity to cometogether and work on issues that are relevant tothem. Another way is by forming separate unions,which aim to defend and protect the rights of work-ers who are otherwise not approached by tradition-al unions.

• Furthermore, civic participation is an importantway to influence changes in legislation. By devel-oping their leadership skills, workers can beinvolved in the decision-making process for issuesthat are relevant to them rather than depending onother people to promote their rights.

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“Our main strategy in building solidarity amongst workers is to focus on the factthat we’re dealing with human beings who are workers and who ultimately at theend of the day have the same needs, desires, wants, dreams… You know, we’re allpeople and we’re workers.”

• Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel and Director of the Immigrant Worker Program at the American

Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

“What we’ve always just said is that ‘a worker is a worker is a worker; there’s nosuch thing as an illegal worker.’”

• Pauline Doyle, Head of Campaigns at the Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G)

5. Unionizing Undocumented Workers

This chapter discusses the much-debated issueof trade union membership of undocumentedmigrants. A number of arguments that trade

unions use to either incorporate or exclude undocu-mented workers from their membership base arepresented, as well as some strategies used by unionsin Europe and in the United States to unionize undoc-umented workers. For the convenience of the reader,however, the numerous examples of the other waysin which unions protect undocumented workers –which are included throughout the report – are citedat the end of the chapter.

Before delving into the issue of unionizing undocu-mented workers, this chapter begins with a briefoverview of some of the basic differences amongstunions in the United States and in Europe, as a back-drop for understanding how a union’s structure mayimpact the way it deals with the issue of undocu-mented workers.

Some of the benefits that undocumented workerscan obtain by joining a union are presented, as wellas various barriers that make it difficult for them tobecome members. Different obstacles encounteredby unions in organizing undocumented workers arepresented. Much attention is devoted to the numer-ous arguments and strategies used by unions toorganize undocumented workers.

The last part of the chapter lists different trade unioninitiatives to protect undocumented workers that arecited throughout the report. This list also includesthe different strategies to unionize undocumentedworkers described in the present chapter.

Differences in Union Structures

The role played by unions in mobilizing workers andin promoting labor standards differs in the UnitedStates and in Europe, as well as amongst differentcountries within Europe itself. These differences inunion structures are important to bear in mind tobetter comprehend unions’ responses to new chal-lenges, notably the increasing presence of undocu-mented workers in the workforce.

Unions as an Accepted Social Partner

“The USA is the world’s number one in many areasbut Europe is the trade union superpower,” claimedJohn Monks, General Secretary of the EuropeanTrade Union Confederation (ETUC) when addressinga gathering of trade union leaders from the UnitedStates and Europe. While his comment referred tothe fact that Europe’s trade unions make up 70% ofthose who pay to support the InternationalConfederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), it also


underscores the successes achieved by unions inEurope in promoting labor laws.21

Trade unions in Europe operate within a social modelthat values welfare states, public services and socialdialogue. The concept of social dialogue infers thattrade unions and collective bargaining are central tosociety, since economies and labor markets need tobe run in consultation with trade unions. In manycountries in Europe, governmental regulations affectthe outcome of wage bargaining.

In the United States, the government traditionallyintervenes much less in determining an issue suchas workers’ wages and benefits. While it does deter-mine some minimum standards, it leaves it up mar-ket forces and to collective bargaining to determinemost workers’ wages and benefits.22 “In Europe,especially in Northern Europe, there is sometimesnot much of a presence of the union at the commu-nity level because unions are sitting down at themacroeconomic level, cutting the mega deals. In theUnited States, unions are not an accepted socialpartner and are much weaker. They are under threatand direct struggle with their employers for theirvery existence,” explained Bruce Herman, ExecutiveDirector of the U.S. organization, the National Em-ployment Law Project (NELP).

Collective Bargaining and Other Factors

But perhaps it is not very accurate to focus on atransatlantic dichotomy of trade unions. It could beargued that the real differences are between unionsin Anglo-Saxon countries and continental Europeancountries. Even though the trade union movement inBritain has a stronger position than in the U.S., thereare a lot of similarities between the two countries,argued Dirk Kloosterboer, Researcher at DunyaAdvies. He highlighted some factors that differenti-ate Anglo-Saxon and continental European unions,such as collective bargaining. It is essential to con-sider if collective bargaining agreements cover entiresectors or just one company.

Decentralized bargaining structures give unions anincentive to pursue focused organizing campaigns inorder to secure deals at individual workplaces,whereas centralized bargaining presents less of anincentive to organize.

Collective bargaining is dependent on a number offactors, such as:

• governmental regulations - is there an extensionof collective bargaining agreements to all employ-ers in a sector?

• employers’ organizations – if they are present, theycan negotiate on behalf of their members

• trade union strategies - even in the absence ofsupportive regulations, U.S. unions such as SEIUand UNITE-HERE try to coordinate bargaining in anentire sector.

Besides collective bargaining, other factors mayoffer unions alternative sources of strength and thusweaken the incentive to organize:

• regulations on work councils

• trade union involvement in national tripartite socialpacts

• government subsidies for trade unions (the latterespecially in Southern European countries).

Continental European countries tend to have morecentralized bargaining structures, stronger workcouncil legislation and stronger trade union involve-ment in national government policy making. There istherefore generally less of an incentive to organizethan in Anglo-Saxon countries. “This does not meanthat all Anglo-Saxon unions are focused on organizingand vice versa. In fact, some American and Britishunions have embraced the organizing approach andsome of them are highly successful at it, but many stillare focused on servicing the existing membership,”said Dirk Kloosterboer, Researcher at Dunya Advies.

21 See speech given by John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, at the Service EmployeesInternational Union (SEIU) Executive Committee meeting, available online at: http://www.etuc.org/a/1093, accessed on August22, 2005.

22 See listing on “Trade Union” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union, accessed on August 22, 2005.

44 P I C U M

Joining a Union: Benefits and

Barriers

Before examining the different issues at stake inunionizing undocumented workers, it is useful toconsider the benefits that union membership canbring to undocumented workers themselves, as wellas the obstacles that prevent them from becomingmembers of a union.

Why Join a Union?

The benefits of joining a union for undocumentedworkers are the same for all workers who wish to bepart of an organized association that protects andfurthers their rights and interests. Unions promotefair working conditions, defend workers’ rights andgather strength by organizing workers. An additionalbenefit of union membership for undocumentedworkers is the ability to receive a union membershipcard.

A union membership card is by no means a residencepermit, but it is proof of residence in the host coun-try. “It is an official document and it can give anundocumented worker a sense of identity,” said ElsaRamos of the Filipino migrants’ organizationSamahan. Bridget Anderson of COMPAS, Universityof Oxford, said that through her work with the organ-ization Kalayaan in London as well as in other areas,it has become evident that even though a unionmembership card is not a residence permit, undocu-mented workers feel that it gives them some level ofprotection. “The provision of membership cards issomething concrete that unions can do for undocu-mented workers, and is a real benefit of member-ship,” she said.

Another incentive to join a union for undocumentedworkers in the United States is to be able to benefitfrom negotiations for collective bargaining agree-ments.

Union members in the United States negotiate tohave contracts, which are one of the best sources ofprotection of the labor rights of undocumentedworkers. Legal advocates in the United Statesbelieve that a contract that is obtained through col-lective bargaining is actually the only legal protectionthat undocumented workers have in the U.S. nowa-days.

Community organizations in the United States thatwork directly with undocumented workers recognizethe importance of union contracts, and will often pro-mote union membership as a way to have increasedprotection. “As part of our workers’ rights course, wemake it very clear that being a union member is oneof the only ways that you have protections. Youremployer always has the right to fire you, for any rea-son or for no reason at all. But with a union contract,you can actually have a process, where he has to givewarnings,” said Nadia Marin-Molina of theWorkplace Project.

Barriers to Joining Unions

To want to join a union, a worker first has to under-stand exactly what a union is and how it can be rele-vant for him/her.

Khalil Wedad said that his community organization,the Stichting Haags Islamitisch Platform (SHIP),clearly explains the purpose of a union to each work-er individually, but it is not uncommon for workers tohave misunderstandings and false hopes about whatunion membership can bring them: “Most of theundocumented workers we come into contact withare illiterate and have little formal education, andthey don’t know what membership in a union means,what objectives the union has and which targetgroups it works with. They think that ‘If I become amember of the FNV trade union, then I’ll obtain legalstatus in the Netherlands,’ but it doesn’t work likethat.”

The cost of the monthly or yearly membership fees isan important consideration for low-wage workers.Though most unions will offer a reduced rate, thefees may still be a hindrance.

Some workers also do not properly understand thatalthough a union is an official entity, it does nottransmit undocumented workers’ personal data togovernmental officials.

The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) is try-ing to organize office cleaners in Canary Wharf, thenew financial district of London, but is facing difficul-ties in convincing the less regular workers to join theunion. “We are now attempting to organize migrantworkers but there are barriers in persuading undocu-mented workers to join a union. Perhaps it is because,


on very low wages, the union fees just seem like anoth-er expense to meet. Perhaps it is a fear that to identifyyourself on paper is to somehow bring yourself withinreach of authorities who do not consider you a legalworker. Our organizing strategy is designed to tellthese workers that this union is here to support them,”said Pauline Doyle, Head of Campaigns at the T&G.

A worker who is in a situation of abuse or exploitationmay not immediately think of joining a union due to apreoccupation with trying to find a solution to theirimmediate concerns.

“Often when domestic workers come to us, they’vehad their passports withheld, they’ve got no ID, andtheir main priority is finding a job, which is often find-ing somewhere to live as well, because they are live-in workers. They are also concerned about havingsome money so that they can send it back home. Wereally encourage people to join unions, but they don’talways see the relevance of it, because their main pri-ority is getting a job,” said Fiona Luckhoo of Kalayaan.

A further obstacle to becoming a member of a unionis the very real and serious situation of being threat-ened by the employer. Many employers threatenworkers with reporting them to the Immigrationauthorities if they wish to join a union. This issue isdiscussed more in the following section.

Challenges of Unionizing


To better understand the role of unions in protectingundocumented workers, it is helpful to point out anumber of obstacles that prevent this importantactor from providing support to undocumentedworkers. The following is a presentation of some ofthe main challenges faced by unions in organizingundocumented workers.

Employers Threaten Organizing Efforts

Employers use different tactics against workers toprevent them from unionizing, including prohibitingunion leaders from gaining access to the workplace.

“We’ve had a lot of problems with larger companiesbecause they don’t respect us. We have tried to meetthe workers during their 20-minute breaks to passon information and explain the purpose of our union.But the employers don’t consider our union to be avery representative union, so they close the door inour faces and immediately call the police, saying thatit’s private property and we don’t have access. Sowe’re forced to leave,” said Gabriel M’Binki Ataya ofthe Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC).

As opposed to the situation in Europe, where unionsgenerally enjoy a good degree of power, unions in theUnited States are generally much weaker (see“Differences in Union Structures” at beginning ofchapter). To prevent workers from unionizing in theUnited States, employers will hire lawyers who willuse whatever legal arguments they can come up withagainst the workers. This phenomenon not onlyaffects undocumented workers, but documented andnative workers as well.

“There is no legal right for workers to join a union inthe United States today,” said Dave Glaser of the HotelEmployees & Restaurant Employees (HERE). “Onpaper there is, but in practice there is no ability to joina union. Lawyers can now use the law to permanentlythwart people’s desire to join a union, and that’s truefor citizens as well as undocumented and document-ed workers. It’s an extremely difficult process and soeven if 100,000 undocumented workers wanted to joina union in a particular industry, they have no moreability to achieve that goal than citizens do.”

Though the right to organize for all workers is beingthreatened in the United States, undocumentedworkers face even more obstacles due of the addi-tional threat of being reported to the Immigrationauthorities. Employers harass and threaten undocu-mented workers with reporting their irregular statusto prevent them from joining unions. This fear hashad negative consequences in terms of union winrates at workplaces, said Dirk Kloosterboer,Researcher at Dunya Advies, referring to a study thatmade statistical analyses of campaigns to unionizeworkplaces in the United States.23

23 See Kate Bronfenbrenner and Robert Hickey, “The State of Organizing in California: Challenges and Possibilities,” The State ofCalifornia Labor, vol. 3 (2003), available online at: http://www.iir.ucla.edu/scl/pdf03/scl2003ch2.pdf, accessed on August 25,2005. The authors discuss the significantly high union win rate at workplaces with a high proportion of immigrant workers (thesame applies to women). However, the picture changes when undocumented immigrants are involved. In fifty per cent of thesecases employers threaten to report workers to the immigration authorities. Union win rates in such cases are considerably low.

46 P I C U M

Unions’ Reluctance to Engage in “Illegal”

Actions

In several countries in Europe, particularly in theNordic countries, trade unions are generally reluc-tant to organize undocumented workers becausethey prefer to work within what the state defines aslegal. In Finland, for example, union representativeshave been involved in surprise raids on constructionsites, along with labor and tax inspectors.24

The question of organizing undocumented workers inthe Nordic unions is almost unheard of. These unionsare known for supporting the deportation of a work-er who is caught working illegally rather than tryingto protect their rights. There is also a lack of analysisamongst unions about the contribution of undocu-mented workers to the workforce.

One explanation for a union’s desire to strictly followwhat a state defines as legal instead of supporting allworkers stems from the tendency to view undocu-mented workers as a threat rather an ally. These

unions feel that undocumented workers undercutwages and accept inferior working conditions. Thisargument is seriously being debated within the tradeunion movement. Most unions recognize that theonly way to solve the problem of undercutting wagesand working standards is to stop undocumentedmigrants from being unprotected.

“Unions know that migrant workers are used toundercut the achievements of the trade unions andreplace organized and protected workers. This leadsmany unions to agree to tight immigration policies.However, unions are also aware that it is these highbarriers that serve to increase the levels of exploita-tion and unfair competition with national workers.”25

Organizing in Untraditional Sectors of

Employment

Unions face a challenge of organizing in sectors thathave traditionally not had a strong union presenceand that are increasingly being filled by undocument-ed workers. These sectors are characterized by dif-

In 2003, the Executive Committee of the European

Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted anAction Plan for all ETUC affiliates to encourageaction at the national level on migration and inte-gration and to combat discrimination, racism andxenophobia.26 In the Action Plan, the ETUC indi-cates that it will demand common criteria for theregularization of undocumented workers and thedevelopment of measures to prevent and combatthe underground economy and the exploitation ofundocumented workers. It also states in the ActionPlan that it intends to work with its affiliates toorganize undocumented workers in unions.

Now that the Action Plan has been adopted, the keyissue remains the development of measures toimplement it. This is not a straightforward processgiven the diametrical opposite union views and

practices concerning undocumented workersthroughout Europe. In Southern European coun-tries such as Spain, Italy, and Portugal, for exam-ple, unions take pride in organizing workersregardless of nationality or legal status, whereas inthe Nordic countries, trade unions do not engage inunlawful activities by supporting individuals whoillegally reside in their countries. There are alsothe unions in other countries that may acceptundocumented workers within their unions but donot actively advocate on their behalf amongstnative workers and the general public. “The ETUCstill has to win the argument that unions should bepresent to all workers, including undocumentedworkers. The ETUC can stimulate debate andexchange of good practice, but the real power is inthe 87 affiliated member organizations,” said ETUCConfederal Secretary Catelene Passchier.

ETUC DECISION ON PREVENTING AND COMBATING THE EXPLOITATION

OF UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN EUROPE

24 See FNV, From Marginal Work to Core Business: European Trade Unions Organizing in the Informal Economy (FNV: Amsterdam,2003).

25 Ibid. 26 See ETUC, “Action Plan for an ETUC policy on migration, integration, and combating discrimination, racism and xenophobia,”

adopted by the ETUC Executive Committee in their meeting held in Brussels on 16-17 October 2003, available online at:http://etuco.etuc.org/en/eu_information/library/20-Res-Migration-ActionPlan-gb.pdf, accessed on November 10, 2004.


ferent realities that complicate unions’ efforts toorganize workers.

One problem is that workers are hard to reachbecause they are working in isolated places. It is notalways a straightforward process to locate theemployer, which makes it hard for the union to inter-vene and press for fair working conditions.

Domestic work is a case in point. While unions insome parts of the world organize household work-ers, this has not been the case overall in Europe orthe United States. The nature of domestic work,which isolates workers in individual homes, posesdifficulties for unions, who have to do outreach toeffectively reach these workers. Many unions simplydo not prioritize the organization of workers who areemployed in places that are difficult to access.

Ai-Jen Poo of Domestic Workers United (DWU) com-mented that unions generally do not want to makespecial efforts to organize the more than 200,000women who work as nannies, companions andhousekeepers in the greater New York metropolitanarea. “To be fair, I don’t think that unions are againstus, they are simply not interested in supporting inde-pendent organizing efforts or organizing domesticworkers themselves,” she said. Elsa Ramos ofSamahan said that unions in Belgium “never reallyclosed their doors to undocumented workers, butthey didn’t know at first how to properly integrateFilipino migrant workers. These workers were main-ly doing domestic work, where there wasn’t muchmobilization of unions. If the Filipinos had been inconstruction work, for example, then it would havebeen logical for them to go to a union that organizesworkers in that sector.”

Transformations within a country’s economic struc-ture also impact unions’ efforts to organize undocu-mented workers.

The Portuguese economy is increasingly being com-posed of small and medium sized businesses, wherethere is a large market for immigrants. Portugueseunions have traditionally used collective bargainingin workplaces with many workers, but the new trendtowards smaller businesses has resulted in

increased difficulties for unions who find it harder toorganize workers.

“Take the example of an undocumented Brazilian whoworks side by side with his boss in a café from 8:00a.m. until 8:00 p.m.,” said Manuel Correia of theUnião dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL). “It’s really hardfor a union to intervene in a situation like this. It’s notthe same as in a workplace where workers are awareof the laws, are represented by workers’ committeeswith union leaders, and where there is continuousunion activity. Also, by law, a union is required to haveaccess to a room in the workplace where it can repre-sent workers. But in a case like this, it would be real-ly difficult for an employee to make a complaint to hisboss who has the same working conditions and evendoes the same work. This is a problem.” To respondto this growing phenomenon, the USL has attemptedto sign a protocol with the Confederation of Micro,Small and Medium Sized Businesses in Portugal toreach these types of businesses which traditionallyhave been hard for unions to access.

Unions should “think outside of the box” and build astrategy for organizing to bring informal economyworkers into the union movement, suggests PatHorn, coordinator of Streetnet, an international net-work for street vendors. “If you only accept as ‘work-ers’ those who are so defined legally, why are youaccepting the government’s definition? In SouthAfrica before 1979, black workers were not definedas ‘employees’ under law. So we organized blackworkers and got the law changed. We do not needsomeone else’s permission.”27

Organizing Workers Is Generally Not a Priority

A union’s lack of efforts to organize undocumentedworkers may be linked to its policies on organizingworkers in general. This is an element in the tradi-tional trade union mindset that should be reconsid-ered, particularly amongst European unions. Inmany countries in Europe, unions don’t see the needto strengthen their membership base by organizingworkers because they are strong and are an accept-ed social partner (see “Differences in UnionStructures” at beginning of chapter).

27 See FNV, From Marginal Work to Core Business: European Trade Unions Organizing in the Informal Economy (FNV: Amsterdam, 2003).

48 P I C U M

According to Dirk Kloosterboer, Researcher at DunyaAdvies, the emphasis on social dialogue amongstunions, employers and the government is beneficialfor working conditions in Europe, but has conse-quences for the labor movement itself. Organizing ingeneral has a low priority amongst Dutch tradeunions in comparison with Anglo-Saxon countries.

“The trade union movement in the Netherlands isused to working through the Polder model - which isbased on tri-partite consultation involving the gov-ernment, unions and employers’ representatives -

but they’re not really into rank-and-file mobilizationof people. I think that in theory more could beachieved if you actually mobilize both legal andundocumented workers, and explain to them that it’snot in their best interests to work against each other,but with one another. But that’s not what tradeunions in the Netherlands are used to,” said DirkKloosterboer.

Unions may also not prioritize organizing becausethey benefit from special schemes that result in highmembership rates of native workers. Denmark,

Throughout their histories, the manufacturing andcrafts unions28 in the United States have had differ-ent approaches to negotiating contracts andorganizing workers. Understanding the differencesin these approaches can shed some light on thereasons why these unions have generally valued ordisregarded the organizing of undocumentedworkers. Ana Avendaño, Associate GeneralCounsel and Director of the Immigrant WorkerProgram at the American Federation of Labor –Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO),gave a brief overview of how these unions have hadto evolve to face new workplace realities involvingundocumented workers:

“Workers in the manufacturing unions have tra-ditionally bargained collectively through theirunion directly through the employer, whereasworkers in the crafts unions are hired by unioncontractors in ‘hiring halls.’

The difference in how union contracts work islinked to the fundamental concept of organizingworkers. In manufacturing, you want to increaseyour membership base as much as possible,because you want many members being coveredby a contract. In the crafts, you want to havefewer people sitting on the bench waiting forwork in the hiring hall, because then those peo-ple are going to work more and will be able tocommand higher wages. So the concept of organ-

izing in the sense of bringing more people undercontract is something that is at odds with the fun-damental structure of the crafts unions, whereasthe manufacturing unions were already of themindset that it was necessary to organize andbring more people into the movement.

But now that’s all changed and the crafts unionsare rethinking their whole organizing strategy,because now they have to compete with non-unioncontractors who are employing undocumentedworkers. When non-union contractors make a bidto get a job in the building trades, their bid will rep-resent fewer costs. Unlike union contractors, whoprovide good wages and benefits, non-union con-tractors pay less than the minimum wage, nohealth benefits and not even workers’ compensa-tion insurance. They hire undocumented workerswho work for essentially pennies, with no overtimepay, no health care and no other benefits. Non-union contractors are unfair competition for unioncontractors, who are responsible to their workers.

So how do we deal with this problem of unfaircompetition amongst union and non-union work-ers? The answer is that you have to focus onworker solidarity. You have to convince workersthat it is in their interest to belong to a union, andthat unions don’t have to call the ImmigrationServices for every construction project that theysuspect has undocumented workers.”

HOW TWO UNIONS’ HISTORIES OF ORGANIZING NATIVE WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES RELATE TO

THEIR CURRENT POLICIES ON ORGANIZING UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS

28 Manufacturing unions represent workers in healthcare, hacking and poultry, janitorial services, garment workers and anyone whodoes manufacturing work. Crafts unions include brick layers, boiler makers, plumbers, laborers, operating engineers and anyoneworking in the building and construction trades.


Sweden, Finland and to some degree Belgium havethe so-called Ghent system of unemploymentschemes managed by trade unions, which results inhigh rates of union membership, said DirkKloosterboer. “These countries tend to have highmembership rates among immigrant workers aswell, but it is not clear how this system affects theunionization of undocumented workers. One mightexpect that the system takes away the incentive fortrade unions to make an active effort to organize newgroups of workers.”

Discouragement if Unable to Obtain Legal

Victories for Undocumented Workers

It is worth highlighting a further reason why unionsdo not actively promote the membership of undocu-mented workers, as it characterizes the sentiment ofsome unions that may otherwise be genuinely inter-ested in mobilizing these workers. Despite theadvances that are being made in Europe and in theUnited States concerning the legal assertiveness ofundocumented workers (see Chapter Eight), thereare still many difficulties in obtaining legal results infavor of undocumented workers who have beenexploited or abused. Such difficulties representobstacles for trade unions who determine that it issimply too difficult to advocate for undocumentedworkers within their unions.

A case in point is the way that the major trade unionsin the Netherlands have responded to these dilem-mas. “It has always been possible in the Netherlandsfor undocumented workers to become a member ofone of the two largest unions (FNV and CNV). By join-ing the union, undocumented workers could get legalsupport to put a claim against their employer,” saidMarijke Bijl of the OndersteuningsKomitee IllegaleArbeiders (OKIA). Indeed, Dutch law holds that if anundocumented worker was not paid and has beenworking for at least one and a half years in theNetherlands, they benefit from the right to file aclaim for up to six months of wages.

The problem lies in the fact that the legislation is ill-suited to the reality of work carried out by undocu-mented workers, explained Dirk Kloosterboer,Researcher at Dunya Advies. He said that the legaldepartment of the FNV trade union feels that there isa gap between the legislation and the reality,because undocumented workers tend to work only

for limited periods for the same employer and areafraid of retaliation if they file a case. “The tradeunion cannot file a case on behalf of anonymousworkers,” he said, so the FNV has decided not to pur-sue the legal option of claiming unpaid wages forundocumented workers.

Why Should Unions Organize

Undocumented Workers?

Although the above-mentioned barriers preventmany unions from supporting undocumented work-ers, there are numerous examples of unions thathave overcome these obstacles and have incorporat-ed undocumented workers in their membership. Thefollowing sections highlight some of the argumentsused by unions to maintain inclusive policies towardsundocumented migrant workers.

A Worker Is a Worker!

Many unions that include undocumented workersin their membership base do so because their mis-sion is to reach out to all workers. These unions tryto build solidarity amongst workers by raisingawareness about the reasons why unions shouldreach out to native, documented and undocument-ed workers.

Part of an awareness raising strategy is to empha-size that all workers aspire to earn a decent livingand have normal working conditions, regardless oflegal status. “Our main strategy in building workersolidarity is to focus on the fact that we’re dealingwith human beings who are workers and who ulti-mately at the end of the day have the same needs,desires, wants, dreams… you know, we’re all peopleand we’re workers,” said Ana Avendaño, AssociateGeneral Counsel and Director of the ImmigrantWorker Program at the American Federation ofLabor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

A supportive union policy towards undocumentedworkers seeks to steer away from status-related dis-cussions, since this creates a natural divisionamongst workers. “What we’ve always just said isthat ‘a worker is a worker is a worker; there’s nosuch thing as an illegal worker,’” said Pauline Doyle,Head of Campaigns at the T&G.

50 P I C U M

Unions also highlight the contributions that immi-grant workers make to the economy, and that theyhave inherent rights as workers. “We try to informItalian workers about this so that there is solidarityamongst workers,” said Lamine Sow of theConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL).

“All workers, regardless of their legal status, shouldbe treated with dignity and respect. And if we canmake their lives a lot easier, then we should. Andthat is what unionizing should be all about, not aboutrace or language or classification of work,” said BenMonterroso, Western Regional Director of theService Employees International Union (SEIU).

The Confederação Geral dos TrabalhadoresPortugueses - Intersindical Nacional (CGTP-IN) hashad a pro-immigrant worker policy since its concep-tion in 1970. Carlos Trindade, who is in charge ofmigrant worker issues within the confederation, saidthat “we don’t need to do much convincing ofPortuguese workers of the importance of workingwith undocumented workers, because we’ve had thispolicy from the beginning.”

When undocumented workers join a union in Portugal,their status is not questioned because it simply is notan issue for the union. “In our opinion, immigrants arefirst of all citizens, so they can be members of ourunion whether they’re documented or not. In fact, wedon’t even know what their status is because our data-base system makes no distinction between legal orundocumented workers. We want people to have trustin the system that it’s safe,” said Manuel Correia of theUnião dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL).

Spanish unions are also staunch supporters ofundocumented workers, to the extent that theyimmediately denounced a law when it was decreed inrecent years that that excludes undocumented work-ers from five internationally recognized labor rights,including the right to organize. These unions contin-ue to allow undocumented workers to become mem-bers of their unions, as they adhere to the generalphilosophy that unions should promote the rights ofall workers.

The Ley de Extranjería (Foreigners’ Law) ofAugust 2000 forbids undocumented migrantsfrom the right to assemble, demonstrate, asso-ciate, join a union and go on strike. In January2001, three major trade unions in Spain – theUnion General de Trabajadores (UGT),Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and theConfederación General de Trabajo (CGT) –made a public announcement stating that thelaw is unconstitutional, that they would notfollow it, and that they would allow undocu-mented migrants to be members of theirtrade unions.29

Another Spanish union, the Sindicato deObreros del Campo (SOC), also goes againstthis law by making undocumented workersunion members. “We don’t even consider thearticle in foreigners’ law that prohibits theserights for undocumented workers, because wefeel that a worker is above all a worker,regardless of the color of their skin, their race,their sex, their religion or anything else. Itdoesn’t make any difference to us if a workerhas legal status or not. That’s why we makeeveryone members,” said Abdelkader Chachaof the SOC.

An Unprotected Worker Is a Threat for All

Workers

Undocumented workers in Europe and in the UnitedStates are used as an experimental ground for therestructuring of the labor market. These workers areattractive because they are dependent on employersand thus easily exploitable; they are invisible and nota burden on society; and available to fulfill employ-ers’ needs.30 There is a link between the growth ofemployment of undocumented workers and theincreasing flexibility of the labor market. Such a real-ity should prompt trade unions to recognize that thepresence of undocumented workers in the workforceconcerns all workers.

29 See PICUM, Book of Solidarity: Providing Assistance to Undocumented Migrants in France, Spain and Italy, Volume II (Brussels:PICUM, 2003).

30 See Alain Morice, “Migratory Policies and the Evolution of Work in the European Union: Where Undocumented Migrants Fit Intothis System,” in Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and Johan Wets, eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM andHIVA, 2004).


To increase support for undocumented workerswithin unions, native workers have to be aware of thebenefits in upholding fair working conditions for allworkers. They must be convinced that the only way tofight the tendency of worsening conditions and wagedecreases is by working together and buildingstrength as a workers’ movement.

The general philosophy of unions that have inclusivepolicies towards undocumented workers is that if

these workers encounter problems with their wagesor working conditions, the union will deal with theissue collectively to be able to have more power. Thiswas the rationale behind the Justice for Janitorscampaign spearheaded by the Service EmployeesInternational Union (SEIU) in the United States,described later in this chapter.

Ben Monterroso, SEIU Western Regional Director,said that workers joined together during the

Until 2000, the general philosophy in the labormovement in the United States was that immigrantworkers would undercut the union standards thatexisted. The American Federation of Labor -

Congress of Industrial Relations - AFL-CIO, whichrepresents more than nine million workers in theUnited States,31 had supported the “employersanctions” provision of the 1986 ImmigrationReform and Control Act (IRCA), which for the firsttime made it illegal for an employer to hire anundocumented worker.

There came a change in the late 1990s, when someunions, such as the service employees in somecities, farmworkers, hotel workers and textileworkers, amongst others, started to take a moreprogressive position, said Dave Glaser, NationalDirector of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Rideand a Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees(HERE) organizer. These unions acknowledged thatthe labor movement had historically been a move-ment of immigrants, whether they were Irish,Italian, Jewish, Hungarians, Poles, or involuntaryimmigrants (the African American community).They all represented the labor movement when itwas most successful and powerful in the 1930sand 1940s. These unions made the link betweentheir own history, which was strongly immigrant-

led, and the current situation in which immigrantswere continuing to come to the United States, bothdocumented and undocumented. They felt that thelabor movement had to change its positionbecause it was futile to try to attract new memberswhile at the same time maintaining a criminalizingand repressive attitude towards them.

In 2000, the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIOmade a historical reverse of its long-standing anti-immigrant worker policy by adopting a resolutionthat called for a new amnesty for undocumentedworkers, union representation of undocumentedmigrants and the repeal of all employer sanctionsfor hiring illegal workers.32

The AFL-CIO has since made immigrant workersone of its key program areas, based on an underly-ing philosophy that improving the conditions forimmigrant workers serves to improve conditionsfor all workers. A plan is currently being discussedwithin the confederation to develop the infrastruc-ture within the labor movement to effectively mobi-lize, organize and represent immigrant workersand all workers who are organizing and mobilizingwith them, said Ana Avendaño, Associate GeneralCounsel and Director of the Immigrant WorkerProgram at the AFL-CIO.

AFL-CIO RESOLUTION CALLING FOR PRO-IMMIGRANT MEASURES

IN UNIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

31 In July 2005, three of the AFL-CIO’s largest members (the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters, and theUnited Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)) split from the federation, thereby decreasing AFL-CIO membership from 13million to 9 million members. Nonetheless, the AFL-CIO remains deeply committed to working to improve the lives of immigrantworkers, and adopted two resolutions to that effect at its August 2005 Convention in Chicago (available at:http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/convention/2005/resolutions.cfm, accessed on September 2, 2005).

32 See AFL-CIO, Executive Council Action on Immigration, February 16, 2000, New Orleans, LA, available online at:http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/ecouncil/ec0216200b.cfm, accessed on September 2, 2005. For a historicaloverview of the AFL-CIO’s positions on immigrants (especially from the 1980s until the present), see John Tuason, “Friend ofImmigrants? The AFL-CIO: Past and Present,” Labor Watch (December 2003), available online at:http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3797848638.pdf, accessed on November 30, 2004. See also David Bacon, “LaborFights for Immigrants,” The Nation, May 3, 2001, available online at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010521/bacon, accessedon July 12, 2005.

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Justice for Janitors campaign because “if we weren’tgoing to fight, then nothing was going to change. Wealso knew that if we didn’t do the work, then nobodywas going to do it for us. And we knew that if we didnot do it then, nobody was going to do it later. So itwas now or never.” The Justice for Janitors campaignwas very successful in mobilizing workers and bring-ing about industry-wide change that positively affect-ed the conditions of all workers in the industry.

Illegal Activities of Employers, not Workers

Another way of fostering common aims among work-ers is to turn the tables on arguments against undoc-umented workers that label them as criminalsbecause they engage in illegal employment.

“What we do is to emphasize that the employer is theone who is doing something wrong, not the undocu-mented worker,” said Carlos Trindade of theConfederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses- Intersindical Nacional (CGTP-IN). “Because if anemployer has hired undocumented workers, then hemost likely has a whole parallel accounting system tobe able to pay them illegally, so the whole schema isillegal. We use this argument to steer away fromemployers’ tendencies to pit native workers againstundocumented workers.”

Strategies for Unionizing


Outreach Efforts

Many union affiliates are leading the way in support-ing undocumented workers by carrying out specialoutreach efforts to make them union members.

Unions in Southern Europe generally maintain inclu-sive policies towards immigrant workers, includingundocumented workers.

María Helena Bedoya of the Spanish trade unionComisiones Obreras (CCOO) emphasized that part ofa pro-immigrant policy includes making immigrants– both documented and undocumented – part ofunions and promoting their representation as unionleaders.

“A trade union struggles and wins back rights, that’swhy it’s a union. It’s important for us to have immigrantleaders and representatives in the CCOO so that theycan help other immigrants to demand their rights. Wetrain immigrants so that they can stand for election asunion leaders in their workplaces,” she said.

Within the restrictive context in which unions operatein Nordic countries, a small socialist union inSweden has taken a step forward by making undocu-mented workers union members.

The Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC)has approximately 10,000 members and is small incomparison with other unions in Sweden. A dedicat-ed group of SAC members in Stockholm has beensupporting undocumented workers for a number ofyears. Some of the group members have written arti-cles in the union’s magazine about undocumentedworkers in Sweden to sensitize other members.

For SAC’s purposes, undocumented workers alsoinclude asylum seekers. “This is because it is verydifficult for people to receive asylum in Sweden, andmost asylum seekers become undocumented in anycase,” said Lotta Holmberg of the SAC. “It is differentin Sweden in relation to Spain, for example, wherethere are large groups of undocumented workersand the unions there can do collective bargaining andtry to improve the lot of many workers. In Sweden,undocumented workers do not work together inlarge groups. For example, some may clean in anoffice, or a few may work in a construction site or ina restaurant, but it’s not common to find large groupsof undocumented workers,” she said.

The Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation

(SAC) does outreach to undocumented work-ers by distributing informational leaflets in sev-eral languages and making information avail-able on its website.

In April 2004, the SAC held a weekend coursefor undocumented and Swedish workers incollaboration with its sister organization inSpain, the Confederación General de Trabajo(CGT). A representative from the CGT came to


Sweden to discuss the union’s experiences inorganizing undocumented workers in Spain. The information exchange was also helpful inraising awareness about the existence andneeds of undocumented workers in the threemajor cities in Sweden (Stockholm,Gothenberg and Malmo) as well as in othersmaller towns.

In the United States, a notable example of a unionwith a pro-immigrant policy is the Service EmployeesInternational Union (SEIU). Many years ago, the SEIUrecognized that in order to keep its unions strong, itneeded to adapt its strategies to a rapidly changingworkforce.

In the janitor industry in Los Angeles, the workforcewas primarily African American until the 1980s,when it started to become predominantly LatinAmerican and included many undocumented work-ers. The unions were not ready to adapt their organ-izing strategy to this new workforce, and started tolose power in the industry. Ben Monterroso, SEIUWestern Regional Director, started off as a janitor in1979 but lost his job due to the industry changes. Hedescribed how the conditions generally degraded:“When I was working as a janitor I was making $6.02an hour and benefits. When I left the industry in 1980,I was making $7.32 an hour - which was a greatsalary because minimum wage back then was $3.35an hour – plus benefits from vacations, sick days,holidays, and health insurance for my family and I.But then the industry started changing and thesalaries got reduced to $5.50 in order just to keep themembership up and just to keep the jobs. The unionwas losing power, because the employer could hirepeople for minimum wage or lower, and there wasvery little resistance from the union.”

As a way to rebuild the janitor industry and increasemembership, the SEIU launched a campaign in 1985in Los Angeles, which has since become knowninternationally for its success in revitalizing theunion’s membership base and for bringing aboutindustry-wide change that has benefited low-wageworkers.

Union organizers involved in the Justice for

Janitors campaign realized that in order tofight for better salaries, they shouldn’t concen-trate their efforts on trying to persuade the com-panies that hired them, but rather go to the toplevel. Organizers used the image of a pyramid toexplain to workers that the owners of the build-ing were at the top of the pyramid and had themost money. Below them were the administra-tors of the building, who hired the companiesthat hired the janitors to clean the building. “Weexplained to the janitors that we could hit thosecompanies as hard as we want, but they wouldnot be able to pay us more money if they could-n’t get more money from the building adminis-trators, and if the latter couldn’t get moremoney from the owners, then there would beno change,” said Ben Monterroso, WesternRegional Director of the Service Employees

International Union (SEIU).

Campaigners used collective actions to try topressure the building owners to concede andincrease workers’ wages, coupled with drivesto organize the workers and build power inthe industry. The union hired organizers thatspoke the language and knew the culture ofthe new workforce from Latin America, andemphasized that if they didn’t stick togetherand fight, nobody would do it for them. “Theworst thing that could happen to workerswas that they would lose their job, but theywere going to lose it anyway, so they mightas well fight for something to not only keeptheir job but to make it better,” said BenMonterroso.

The union strategy focused going after theowners of the buildings and above all build-ing power in the industry. The Justice forJanitors campaign has been a success for jan-itors in Los Angeles. Presently about 80% ofthe building services (which janitors are a partof) is unionized. One of the positive out-comes of increased power in the industry is aprovision in collective bargaining agreementsprotecting undocumented workers. The SEIUsecured a contract that stated that employers

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must inform the trade union when theImmigration Authorities plan an investiga-tion. The same contract stipulated thatemployers cannot provide any information tothe Immigration Authorities beyond theinformation that they are legally obliged toprovide.

The Justice for Janitors campaign has beenused as model for similar actions in other citiesin the United States, and was also the inspira-tion for the 2001 film Bread and Roses bydirector Ken Loach.

While the policies of unions that affiliate undocu-mented workers are praised for their inclusiveapproach, it is useful to point out a drawback toorganizing workers without focus on national origin.

Like their counterparts in Spain and Portugal, Italianunions do not distinguish between native and undoc-umented workers when it comes to union member-ship. “In our offices, we don’t ask if a person isundocumented or not, because we always try to avoidrepeating the same scenario that undocumentedmigrants face when they’re questioned by the police.We see that so many foreigners go through this typeof questioning about status,” said Lamine Sow of theConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL).

A drawback to this inclusive policy is that immigrantworkers are usually not able to organize amongstthemselves in unions. The CGIL has five millionmembers, of which approximately 150,000 are immi-grant workers, but these workers are not well organ-ized. “The union structure doesn’t allow this,because you join as a worker, not as an immigrant,and you’re organized in one of the different localunions. But local unions don’t deal very much withimmigration issues. The confederation works moreon these issues,” said Lamine Sow.

Building Strength Through Coalitions with

Immigrant Advocacy Groups

To build power and credibility on immigration issues,most unions recognize the importance of working incollaboration with like-minded organizations on thesocial and human rights of workers. The mutual ben-

efits that can be gained by working through coali-tions are significant.

Union collaboration with community-based organi-zations can be helpful in reaching workers who areoften left behind in union organizing efforts.

The Brussels-based Filipino migrants’ organizationSamahan works closely with trade unions and in2000 held a membership drive with two Belgianunions (the Socialist FGTB and the Social ChristianCSC). A positive result has been the steady increasein trade union membership amongst both document-ed and undocumented Filipino domestic workerssince 2000.

The London-based organization Kalayaan works withthe T&G trade union on learning and training devel-opment programs for migrant domestic workers.However, in order for them to actually access theseprograms they need to join the trade union, saidFiona Luckhoo of Kalayaan.

In April 2005, the European Trade UnionConfederation (ETUC) held a conference in collabo-ration with the Platform for InternationalCooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)and the International Restructuring EducationNetwork Europe (IRENE), to examine organizing andpolicy initiatives in the area of domestic work. Nearlyone hundred participants came together from tradeunions across Europe, as well as migrant workers’support groups, associations concerned with domes-tic workers and on labor issues, and women’s organ-izations. Participants discussed how to organizedomestic workers and how to develop methods andstrategies to provide them with basic protection.

An inherent benefit in working in coalitions is thestrength that is gained from working together.

“I think that there is not one group in the UnitedStates that can make these changes by themselves,”said Ben Monterroso, Western Regional Director ofthe Service Employees International Union (SEIU).“Some of us have potentially more power than others,but that doesn’t matter if we don’t work together.”

It has taken some time for unions in the UnitedStates to gain the trust of immigrants’ rights’ groupsand to build a working relationship, mostly becauseunions had been absent from the immigrants’ rights


debate for many years. An important element of thestrategy of the American Federation of Labor –Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) togain the trust of the immigrant community is toobtain commitment from the labor movement bydeveloping partnerships or coalitions with key com-munity and immigrant advocacy groups. One suchexisting partnership brings together unions, immi-grants’ rights advocates, community organizers andother organizations to improve the lives and workingconditions of low-wage immigrant workers.

The Low Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition(LWIW) is a network of lawyers and commu-nity/labor organizers and activists throughoutthe United States that share practices abouthow to protect the rights of undocumentedworkers. The idea for the coalition came in1998, when legal advocates throughout thecountry wanted to establish a forum wherethey could discuss, share resources and devel-op strategies on issues that affect low-wageimmigrant workers. A number of NGOs hadbeen doing this type of work, but there was nonational organization or infrastructure on low-wage immigrant worker issues. There was alsono mechanism within the labor movementwhere organizers in different unions could calleach other - or call NGOs - to get tips on howto intervene in situations in which immigrantworkers’ rights are violated but their irregularlegal status was an obstacle to knowing howto effectively deal with the situation.

The LWIW was founded to bridge this gap,and is co-convened by the AmericanFederation of Labor – Congress of IndustrialOrganizations (AFL-CIO) and two leadingimmigrant advocacy organizations: theNational Council of La Raza (NCLR) and theNational Immigration Law Center (NILC).Participants in the LWIW used to meet on aregular basis in person to share information

but switched to national conference calls thatfacilitate the participation of a broader rangeof advocates. The LWIW schedules 1 1/2 hourlong conference calls every six weeks foradvocates from across the country to call in toshare ideas and strategize.

An important element of the LWIW’s work isto monitor legal cases that involve undocu-mented workers, and to try to talk to thelawyers involved and the workers to insist thatthey keep immigration status out of the pro-ceeding. Once immigration status is broughtup as an element of the case, it gives theemployer the possibility of arguing that theworker is not entitled to a remedy. The LWIWhas been able to get the courts to issue protec-tive orders in cases involving undocumentedworkers, to forbid an employer from asking aworker about his/her immigration status dur-ing court proceedings.33

Working in coalitions is an important means ofexchanging resources and expertise.

Unions in Italy are part of networks of voluntaryorganizations that work with immigrants and undoc-umented migrants. Francesco Ciafaloni of theAssociazione IRES Lucia Morosini said that theConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL)has a permanent relationship with the AssociazioneStudi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione (ASGI), an associa-tion of lawyers and judges that work on immigrationissues. The CGIL collaborates with ASGI to holdtraining seminars for union members on immigra-tion issues.

The Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the anti-racismorganization SOS Racismo lead a platform thatbrings together more than 100 organizations inBarcelona, Spain, under the theme of living togetherin harmony. CCOO continuously feeds information toplatform members and also provides them with legalassistance. The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo

33 To get a protective order, a lawyer must apply to the court to keep immigration status out of the court proceedings. The lawyerwould argue that the Supreme Court has never said that workers are not entitled to the protection of the law, and that if employersare allowed to ask workers questions about their immigration status, then the workers will usually be too scared to come forwardto even try to enforce their rights, explained Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel and Director of the Immigrant WorkerProgram at the AFL-CIO.

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(SOC) in the Spanish province of Almeria works withmany different groups that bring together workersfrom several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Offering Services Tailored to Immigrants

In Portugal, Spain and Italy, immigrants with legalstatus and undocumented migrants can freely obtaininformation and services in specially designated cen-ters within trade union structures. All immigrantscan use these service centers, regardless if they areunion members or not.

The service centers are a visible sign of unions’ com-mitment to immigrants. They are also a means of pro-viding an opportunity for immigrants to become famil-iar with the work carried out by the particular union.Becoming more aware of what a union does mayencourage some immigrants to actually join the union.

A noteworthy example of a service center for immi-grants is the Foreign Workers’ Information Centers(CITE) of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade unionin Spain. CITE provides numerous types of services toimmigrants in Spain, including free advice concern-ing the legal and administrative situation of foreign-ers (residence permit, work permit, family reunifica-tion, nationality, etc.). CITE also offers a specialoccupational training program, which includesCatalan language classes for workers based inCatalonia, Spain.34 There are more than 200 CITEoffices throughout Spain, of which there are 38 in theregion of Catalonia alone.

Examples of Union Initiatives to

Protect Undocumented Workers

The following list is a brief mention of the varioustrade union initiatives to protect undocumentedworkers that are cited throughout this report. Theseinitiatives are listed chronologically by chapter.

Engaging public support through events and con-sumer campaigns:

• The União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL) holds anannual “Run for Tolerance – Run Against Racism”

in Lisbon, Portugal, to raise public awareness andtake a stand against discrimination based on race,sex, color, nationality, etc. (p. 15)

• The American Federation of Labor – Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the HotelEmployees and Restaurant Employees (HERE)sponsored the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ridein 2003, in which nearly 1,000 documented andundocumented workers and their supporters trav-eled across the United States to spotlight the needfor immigration reform. (pp. 15-16)

• The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) holdsconferences and seminars, participates in demon-strations and tries to get media coverage to informthe public about the mass exploitation of immi-grant workers in the greenhouse region inAlmeria, Spain. (p. 16)

Informing undocumented workers about their rights:

• The Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) tradeunion federation runs an advice center formigrants who are not part of the union. A formerstaff member of a Polish community organizationin Germany presently works at this center and isable to bring the issue of undocumented workersinto the advice center. (p. 30)

• In addition to providing information to workers in itsoffice in the city of Almeria, Spain, the Sindicato deObreros del Campo (SOC) goes to places where theworkers live and work to bring information directlyto them about their workplace rights. (p. 30)

Building undocumented workers’ capacities throughempowerment:

• The Dutch trade union FNV provided support forthe “Illegal Workers’ Union,” launched by themigrants’ organization Stichting Haags IslamitischPlatform (SHIP) in The Hague in 2002. (p. 36)

• Participation of immigrants in the political processin the United States is one of three elements of thestrategy of the Service Employees InternationalUnion (SEIU) to build power within the labor move-ment. In addition to mobilizing workers for civic

34 See Ghassan Saliba, “What a Union Can Do For Undocumented Workers,” in Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and Johan Wets,eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA, 2004).


participation, the SEIU also emphasizes advocacywork and organizing. (p. 40)

Unionizing undocumented workers:

• The Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC)does outreach to undocumented workers inSweden by distributing informational leaflets inseveral languages and making information avail-able on its website. In April 2004, the SAC held aweekend course for undocumented and Swedishworkers in collaboration with its sister organiza-tion in Spain, the Confederación General deTrabajo (CGT). (pp. 52-53)

• The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)launched the Justice for Janitors campaign in1985 in Los Angeles, United States, which hassince become known internationally for its suc-cess in revitalizing the union’s membership baseand for bringing about industry-wide change thathas benefited low-wage workers. (p. 53)

• The Filipino migrants’ organization Samahanworks closely with Belgian trade unions and in2000 held a membership drive with the SocialistFGTB and the Social Christian CSC trade unions.This resulted in the steady increase in trade unionmembership amongst both documented andundocumented Filipino domestic workers. (p. 54)

• The London-based organization Kalayaan workswith the T&G trade union on learning and trainingdevelopment programs for migrant domesticworkers. (p. 54)

• The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)held a conference in April 2005 in collaborationwith the Platform for International Cooperation onUndocumented Migrants (PICUM) and theInternational Restructuring Education NetworkEurope (IRENE) to examine organizing and policyinitiatives in the area of domestic work. (p. 54)

• The American Federation of Labor – Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a co-conven-er of the Low Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition(LWIW), a network of lawyers andcommunity/labor organizers and activiststhroughout the United States that share practicesabout how to protect the rights of undocumentedworkers. (p. 55)

• The Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro(CGIL) has a permanent relationship with theAssociazione Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione(ASGI), an association of lawyers and judges thatwork on immigration issues. CGIL collaborateswith ASGI to hold training seminars for unionmembers on immigration issues. (p. 55)

• The Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) and the anti-racism organization SOS Racismo lead a platformthat brings together more than 100 organizationsin Barcelona, Spain, under the theme of livingtogether in harmony. CCOO continuously feedsinformation to platform members and also pro-vides them with legal assistance. (p. 55)

• The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) in theSpanish province of Almeria works with many differ-ent groups that bring together workers from sever-al countries in sub-Saharan Africa. (pp. 55-56)

• The Foreign Workers’ Information Centers (CITE)of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union inSpain provides numerous types of services toimmigrants in Spain, including free advice con-cerning the legal and administrative situation offoreigners (residence permit, work permit, familyreunification, nationality, etc.), as well as a specialoccupational training program, which includesCatalan language classes for workers based inCatalonia, Spain. (p. 56)

Working with employers to prevent exploitation andadvocating for laws to hold them accountable to fairlabor standards:

• The Spanish union Sindicato de Obreros delCampo (SOC) dialogues with employers as part ofits awareness raising work about the situation ofimmigrant workers in the agricultural sector inthe region of Andalusia. (pp. 60-61)

• The União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL) cam-paigned to get a law passed that would establishaccountability of employers in industries that relyheavily on the use of sub-contractors. Through itsefforts, the “social responsibility” law was passedin 1998. (pp. 63-64)

58 P I C U M

• The Transport and General Workers Union (T&G)spearheaded a campaign calling for a system ofregistration and licensing of gangmasters. TheGovernment passed the Gangmasters Licensing Acton July 8th, 2004, which makes it an offence to oper-ate as a gangmaster without a license. (pp. 65-66)

Challenging exploitation and abuse through media-tion and collective actions:

• In an attempt to solve a problem of abuse orexploitation of undocumented workers in the work-place, the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC)engages in mediation with employers. (p. 70)

Asserting undocumented workers’ rights in the legalsystem:

• The Portuguese trade unions União dos Sindicatosde Lisboa (USL) and the Sindicato dosTrabalhadores da Construção, Mármores eMadeiras e Materiais de Construção do Sul havebrought forth numerous cases to the SocialSecurity Administration of undocumented workerswho have suffered injuries and accidents on the job.These unions also represent undocumented work-ers in industrial tribunals, and numerous casesbrought forth by these unions have been ruled infavor of undocumented workers. (pp. 76-77)

• The Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union hasbeen able to win indemnities for immediate familymembers of undocumented workers who havebeen killed while working in Spain. In recent years,the CCOO has defended and won a number ofcases in industrial tribunals involving undocu-mented workers who have filed complaintsagainst their employers. (pp. 77-78)

Working with governmental agencies to promoteundocumented workers’ rights:

• The Foreign Workers’ Information Center (CITE) ofthe Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union in theSpanish province of Catalonia has developed aworking relationship over the years with all of thegovernmental agencies in Catalonia that deal withimmigration, including the industrial tribunals, theAttorney General’s Office and the police. It workswith the Foreigners’ Police to help it clarify who thevictims are and why they’re victims. (pp. 94-95)

Advocating for legal status of undocumented workers:

• The União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL) wasinfluential in obtaining changes in the law inPortugal, which have resulted in several regular-ization campaigns since 1993. (p. 99)

• The Syndicat interprofessionnel de travailleuses ettravailleurs (SIT) launched a proxy program in 2001to register undocumented workers in the union. Toregister the workers, the SIT worked closely withthe Collectif des travailleurs et des travailleusessans statut legal - Génève (CTSSL), an organizationof approximately 300 undocumented workers inthe Geneva area. (pp. 100-101)

• The U.S. Service Employees International Union(SEIU) spearheaded a campaign in which it col-lected one million postcards and delivered them toPresident Bush to encourage the administration totackle the issue of a legalization program forundocumented migrants. Following the campaign,SEIU gave its full support to the Hotel Employees& Restaurant Employees (HERE), the union thattook the lead in organizing the Immigrant WorkersFreedom Ride. (p. 101)

• The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) dedi-cates much of its time to helping workers legalizetheir status, informing them about ways that theycan be regularized and accompanying them to theForeign Office to file a demand for regularization.(p. 101)

• During the 2003 regularization campaign inPortugal, the União dos Sindicatos de Santarémhelped undocumented workers make applicationsfor regularization. It also helped workers whoseemployers hadn’t made social security deductionsto make them, so that they could submit an appli-cation for legalization. (p. 102)

• The Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro(CGIL) has provided assistance to undocumentedworkers in the five regularization campaigns thathave taken place in Italy since 1986. It also informsthese workers’ bosses about possibilities of regu-larizing the workers. (p. 102)


GENERAL FINDINGS

• Organizing undocumented workers in unions is acrucial step in preventing abuse and protectingthese workers’ rights. This chapter has focused ona range of benefits of union membership but alsoon the difficulties and obstacles that many unionsface when trying to organize workers in unions. Italso includes arguments why unions shouldinclude undocumented workers and strategies forunionization.

• Joining a union can be beneficial to undocumentedworkers in that they receive a membership card,which gives proof of residence in the host countryand thereby a sense of belonging and a feeling ofconfidence. Furthermore, union membershipenables workers to benefit from negotiations forcollective bargaining agreements and strengthenstheir negotiation position.

• However, there are several obstacles related toorganizing undocumented workers. It might not beclear to all workers how unions can be beneficial tothem, and often they are afraid that unions mighttransmit their personal data to government offi-cials who in turn might deport them from the coun-try. Furthermore, many undocumented workerswork in places where it is difficult to locate them(e.g. domestic workers), and high membershipfees exclude them since they are often paid belowminimum wage. Employers also create obstaclesby threatening to turn workers in or preventingunions from gaining access to workers.

• Some unions have a tendency to view undocument-ed workers as a threat rather than an ally. Thereare, however, several reasons why unions shouldinclude undocumented workers: the only way ofsolving the problems of undercutting wages andworking standards is by including undocumentedmigrants and thereby building strength as a work-ers’ movement; undocumented workers are work-ers, regardless of their legal status; and they con-tribute to the economy of the host country andtherefore also have inherent rights as workers.

• There are many strategies for unionizing undocu-mented workers such as outreach efforts andtraining and promoting them as union leaders. It isalso important for unions to collaborate with like-minded organizations on the social and humanrights of workers. Working in coalitions is a way ofexchanging resources and expertise that in the endis beneficial for all workers.

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While protecting undocumented workersincludes seeking an adequate response in asituation of abuse or exploitation, it is also

essential to take measures to prevent such situa-tions from even occurring. In addition to empoweringworkers and informing them about their rights,another important preventative measure is to buildrelationships with employers that are based onrespect for the worker and their rights.

“Value and sustain good relationships (with employ-ers),” stressed European Trade Union Confederation(ETUC) General Secretary John Monks. “That is oneof the ways of building a strong labor movement.Many employers are unscrupulous but some differ-entiation is important.” Though this advice is gearedprimarily at trade union leaders, it also has relevancefor the many NGOs and other advocates whose workin protecting undocumented workers leads them toengage in contact with employers.

There is indeed a potential for protecting undocu-mented workers by fostering relationships withemployers. But it is also paramount to have legalmeasures in place that sanction employers who donot uphold fair labor standards. A number of organi-zations thus undertake advocacy efforts to promotelegislative measures that ensure that employers areheld accountable if they exploit or abuse workers.

The information in this chapter is organized in twomain themes. The first part of the chapter focuses onefforts made by organizations and unions to workwith employers, by enhancing the communicationbetween employers and workers and by stressing toemployers that they should respect minimum stan-dards of employment.

The second part of the chapter focuses on legislativemeasures that hold employers accountable to fairstandards of labor. Several laws that have beenenacted to sanction exploitative and abusive employ-ers are presented.

Enhancing Communication Between

Workers and Employers

On a general level, some organizations undertakeinitiatives to foster a positive image of undocument-ed workers towards their employers, as a means ofenhancing communication between both parties.

The Spanish union Sindicato de Obreros del Campo(SOC) targets employers as part of its awarenessraising work about the situation of immigrant work-ers in the agricultural sector in the region ofAndalusia. The SOC dialogues with employers tomake them aware of the conditions in the countries

6. Working with Employers to Prevent Exploitation and Advocating forLaws to Hold Them Accountable to Fair Labor Standards

“A lot of the employers that we’ve been in contact with listen to us about theseissues (the reasons why immigrant workers are present in their industries). We dothis to avoid shocks and confrontations.”

• Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC)

Legislation, not exploitation.

• Title of a campaign spearheaded by the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) calling for the registration and

licensing of gangmasters – now a law in the UK.


of origin of the workers and to break commonly heldstereotypes, especially of the Moroccan workers whomake up a large majority of the undocumented work-ers in the region.

“A lot of the employers that we’ve been in contactwith listen to us about these issues. They’re alsoopen to our suggestions about running a business.Many employers think that if there are just two peo-ple working, that it doesn’t constitute a formal rela-tion of employment. So we emphasize that theyshould have an organized way of working with theirown employees, have weekly meetings and meetcertain conditions in order for the business to runwell. We do this to avoid shocks and confrontations,”said Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the SOC.

In some cases, the worker and the employer mayspeak the same language but are separated by cul-tural differences. Awareness-raising initiatives thataddress cultural differences that come into play inthe work environment can contribute to improvedcontact and communication between the employerand the worker.

The organization Andalucía Acoge offers courses inseveral cities in the region of Andalusia to facilitatedomestic workers’ adaptation to new cultural realitiesthey may experience by working in Spain. Many of theworkers come from Spanish-speaking countries inLatin America, thus language is not necessarily a bar-rier in communicating with the employer. However,these workers may run into problems with theiremployers if they are unfamiliar with the way of keep-ing house in Spain. “In domestic work the employer is

looking for someone who can do the cooking andcleaning according to the Spanish way of doing things,not based upon the immigrant’s customs. So weexplain to the worker how to do all of these things in aSpanish household, and we work with the employer, toexplain that it might be a bit of a cultural shock for theworker at first, but that they should be patient so thatboth can adapt to the new work situation,” explainedFrancisco Ramos Cabaleiro of Andalucía Acoge.

Promoting Minimum Standards of

Employment

As a means of protecting workers who may havemore of a tendency to be exploited due to the lessformal nature of their particular workplace, someorganizations define minimum standards of employ-ment that can be used by the employer.

Day Laborers

Undocumented workers employed as day laborers inthe private construction industry often suffer fromexploitation in the workplace. At the various workers’centers throughout the United States that are part ofthe National Day Laborer Organizing Network(NDLON), day laborers benefit from increased pro-tection in the hiring process due to the contact thatthese centers maintain with potential employers.

“Our coordinators in the workers’ centers make surethat the deal is very clear for any employee, meaninghow much they are going to get paid, what kind of work

Many organizations that develop minimum stan-dards of employment do so because they are con-tacted by employers who may have difficulties infinding workers and wish to hire immigrant work-ers. If the proposed job meets the criteria laiddown by the organization, the employer’s contactinformation is made available to the worker. It is upto the worker to choose to contact the employer topursue the job listing.

The organization’s role is not to negotiate a salaryor contract on behalf of a worker, as this would

have serious legal implications. The emphasis ison facilitating contact between the worker andemployer within a framework that promotes mini-mum standards, in order to prevent abuse andexploitation from taking place.

The organizations that are featured in this reportthat establish minimum standards of employmentemphasize that they do not promote illegal work.Their main aim is to make sure that if undocu-mented workers are working, then they should beemployed in a decent and dignified way.

IF UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS ARE WORKING, THEN THEY SHOULD BE EMPLOYEDIN A DECENT AND DIGINIFED WAY

62 P I C U M

it is, if safety protection equipment will be provided, howlong the lunch breaks will be, etc. We have minimumstandards and we won’t let people be abused,” saidPablo Alvarado, NDLON National Coordinator.

Domestic Workers

Some organizations that provide services to domes-tic workers also set certain conditions that must bemet before an employer can provide the organizationwith information about a job vacancy.

One of the main criteria established by the organiza-tion Kalayaan is that the employer must fulfill theminimum wage in London. Kalayaan stipulates that alive-in worker must receive a minimum of £200(approximately €300) per week plus tax for a full-time worker. In addition, the worker can work a max-imum of 48 hours a week, and receive a minimum ofone and a half days off. “These are the kind of thingsthat we set out. But in reality, we don’t have thecapacity or anything to follow up on employers to findout what’s really happening, unless a worker comesback to us and complains about what’s happening,”said Fiona Luckhoo of Kalayaan.

Domestic Workers United (DWU) has developed a guideto assist employers in determining fair and reasonableworking conditions for domestic employees in thegreater New York City area. The guidelines cover hoursand wages, vacation, personal days and sick days,notice of termination and severance and health bene-fits. There is also a special section on immigration sta-tus, which states that “Undocumented workers can paytaxes and carry the same job responsibilities as docu-mented workers and therefore should be consideredand compensated equally for work.”

An organization in Spain that works with domestic work-ers has also developed certain criteria and tries to do afollow-up once a worker becomes employed. AndalucíaAcoge is a federation that was established in 1991 by thefounding members Sevilla Acoge, Almería Acoge,Granada Acoge and Málaga Acoge. These organizationswished to join forces to give a more efficient and globalanswer to the recent immigration phenomenon in Spain.Most of the immigrants that come to Andalucía Acogeseek assistance because they are undocumented andcannot easily access certain services such as employ-ment offices or even health and educational servicesthat are run for immigrants with legal status.

Andalucía Acoge aims at improving the laborsituation of immigrants and runs an employ-ment office to facilitate contact betweenimmigrant workers and potential employers.

To prevent abuse of undocumented workers,Andalucía Acoge establishes minimum criteria.“Otherwise you run into situations where anemployer will try to get away with anything.We’ve had people call in and say that they’relooking for someone to help out at home. Forexample, a lady wanted someone to take careof her father who was in a wheelchair, and ifshe provided food and a bed to sleep in, couldAndalucía Acoge find someone to take care ofhim? This woman didn’t even consider payinga salary. Or sometimes a potential employerwill say that they’ll pay the worker, but thenthey propose a pittance of €240 a month,”said José Miguel Morales, Executive Directorof Andalucía Acoge.

The criteria that have to be met by employersinclude: paying the minimum wage in accor-dance with the economic level of the differentcities and provinces in Andalusia; respecting amaximum number of hours that a worker canwork per week (with an absolute minimum of1 1/2 free days per week for a live-in domesticworker); and not discriminating in the hiringprocess based upon the worker’s country oforigin. Andalucia Acoge tries to make poten-tial employers understand that workers haveduties that must be fulfilled in a work relation,but they also have rights, and thus rejectsoffers from employers that don’t meet theminimum criteria.

The organization tries to carry out a follow-upwith the worker by inquiring if they ended upgetting the job, if the employer fulfilled theminimum conditions set out by AndaluciaAcoge or if there was a change, and if theworker is doing fine with the working condi-tions or if they are facing difficulties. If thereare problems, Andalucia Acoge intervenes bymediating between the worker and theemployer.


Advocating for Laws to Hold

Employers Accountable to Fair

Labor Standards

The following sections highlight some of the lawsthat have been enacted in several countries toensure that employers comply with adequate labornorms in different industries.

Legislative measures that affect employers in theconstruction industry in Portugal, the garmentindustry in the United States, the entire food chain inthe United Kingdom, and domestic services in NewYork City are presented. In addition, a bill that wouldsanction restaurant employers who violate the healthand labor code in New York City is highlighted.

“Social Responsibility” Law in Portugal

In recent years in Portugal, the União dos Sindicatosde Lisboa (USL) waged a campaign to pass a law toprotect the rights of immigrant workers, who wereincreasingly being employed in industries where thesub-contracting system made it difficult to put theblame on employers who exploited or abused them.The union wanted to find a gradual system in whichsomeone along the supply chain would be sanctionedif they did not uphold fair working conditions forworkers.

Manuel Correia of the USL said that the union foughthard during the campaign and ran into major resist-ance from the government. “The government tried todo everything to prevent such a law from gettingpassed, because in many cases, the governmentitself is the main employer. The majority of construc-tion projects in Portugal are commissioned andfinanced by the government. So with a law of ‘socialresponsibility,’ the government would have beendirectly responsible. During our campaign, we car-ried out demonstrations and had to really convinceand confront Portuguese civil society about the lackof a culture of responsibility in our country in order toget things to change,” he said.

The USL had pushed for a different version of the law,which would have made the main employer at the top ofthe supply chain responsible in such cases, said ManuelCorreia. Due to difficulties in getting the law passed atall, it had to accept the version that was finally enacted,which allows for a system of gradual responsibility.

In many of the industries where undocumentedworkers suffer from exploitation and abuse, theuse of a sub-contracting system makes it diffi-cult for workers to hold their employers account-able. The workers are usually separated fromthe main employer by several degrees due to thedifferent sub-contractors who are hired alongthe supply chain. Many times a worker is hiredand knows a sub-contractor only through contactby mobile phone. But if the worker is exploited orabused, simply having a phone number is notenough information to file a complaint. Such asystem allows employers to transfer the blamefor alleged exploitation or abuse of workers tosub-contractors. Employers can claim that theydidn’t hire the workers; the sub-contractorshired them.

The Wal-Mart case in the United States is aprime example of the transfer of blame. InOctober 2003, federal authorities arrested 352undocumented workers contracted as janitors in60 Wal-Mart stores across the country. A federalinvestigation was launched to determine if Wal-Mart knowingly hired undocumented workers. Inthe United States, the 1986 Immigration Reformand Control Act (IRCA) established that employ-ers can only hire workers with proper proof ofidentification and proper work authorization. TheEmployer Sanction System in IRCA further stipu-lates that an employer cannot knowingly hire orcontinue to hire an undocumented worker.

In this case, Wal-Mart said that it was unawarethat its contractors and store managers hadhired undocumented workers. In March 2005,Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle thecase and end the federal investigation.Nonetheless, it is still facing a class-action law-suit on behalf of undocumented workers whoclaim that they were underpaid while working forthe chain.

USE OF SUB-CONTRACTORS FACILITATESEMPLOYERS’ ABILITIES TO TRANSFER BLAME

Garment Industry: California Assembly

Bill 633

In the early 1990s, a campaign was started by a coali-tion of organizations to hold manufacturers andretailers accountable in the garment industry inCalifornia, which is the largest in the United Stateswith as many as 5,000 sewing shops employing over70,000 workers. The workforce in the California gar-ment industry is dominated by immigrant women,many of whom are undocumented. The industry isalso rife with violations of labor laws. According to a2000 survey by the U.S. Department of Labor, 70% ofLos Angeles garment factories violate minimumwage and overtime laws.

In 1995, the coalition that had launched the cam-paign officially founded Sweatshop Watch, an organ-ization which includes over thirty labor, community,civil rights, immigrant rights, women’s, religious andstudent organizations, as well as individuals.Sweatshop Watch aims to eliminate the exploitationthat occurs in sweatshops and serves low-wageworkers nationally and globally, with a focus on gar-ment workers in California.

After nearly ten years of advocacy for corpo-rate accountability in the garment industry,Sweatshop Watch succeeded in getting a lawpassed for corporate accountability in the gar-ment industry. The California Assembly Bill

633 (AB 633) was enacted in 2000 and is thestrongest garment worker legislation in theUnited States.

AB 633 addresses the reality that garmentmanufacturers can play a central role in ensur-ing that the factories they contract with toproduce their clothing fulfil basic labor law.Under AB 633, garment manufacturers, notjust employers, are legally responsible forworkers’ minimum wages and overtime com-pensation. Garment workers may claim thesewages through an expedited administrativeprocess before the state Labor Commissioner.

Karin Mak of Sweatshop Watch said that the lawis a big step forward for workers, because “if theyare not paid the legal minimum wage, the firststep is still to hold their employers responsible.However, since employers often squeeze workersbecause they cannot demand a fair contract frommanufacturers and still compete in this highlyglobalized industry, this law requires that themanufacturers also take responsibility for ensur-ing that the workers sewing their clothing receiveminimum wage and overtime. A worker whohasn’t been paid can thus ask for back wagesfrom the employer, but if the employer does notresolve the claim, then the manufacturersinvolved may also be held liable. This law starts toaddress the role of people at the top of the chain– the labels of the major clothing companies. Thisis really powerful for the garment industry.”

Sweatshop Watch has played a lead role in edu-cating garment workers in California about theirrights with multi-lingual materials and work-shops (see Chapter Three). It was a lead organ-ization in the drafting and passing of AB 633, aswell as coordinating public comments on theproposed regulations for implementing the law.

Sweatshop Watch is currently involved in athorough review of AB 633, which will resultin a report analyzing the law’s strengths andweaknesses, to be released in September2005. “We’ve been involved in interviews with deputies and investigators at the LaborCommissioner’s office to understand the challenges to implementing the law. We have alsoincorporated the experiences of workers goingthrough the process. In addition, we reviewedthe Labor Commissioner’s records for a ran-

64 P I C U M

Through the efforts of the União dos Sindicatosde Lisboa (USL), the “social responsibility” lawwas passed in 1998.

This law holds that if a worker files a case againstan employer for alleged exploitation or abuse, theblame is put on the person who contracted theworker. If this person can’t be located, then theblame is put on the person who contracted thatsub-contractor, and so forth, until the blame isput on the main employer if necessary.

NO MORE PASSING THE BUCK IN PORTUGAL


dom sample of over 200 cases. In the report,we will make recommendations for how toimprove the implementation of the law. AB633 has been a groundbreaking tool for work-ers, but still is a long way from meeting itspotential,” Alejandra Domenzain, AssociateDirector of Sweatshop Watch.

Gangmasters Licensing Act in the United

Kingdom

Striving for accountability in the supply chain was thefocus of a recent campaign in the United Kingdomwhich aimed at ending the exploitation of workers byunscrupulous gangmasters. These employers werenotorious for paying pittances to workers (many ofwhom are undocumented), who toil in difficult andeven dangerous conditions.

The tragedy that occurred in February 2004, whentwenty-three Chinese migrant workers died afterbeing caught by a tide while picking cockles in thebay, brought some of these illegal practices to light.The workers were most likely all undocumented, andreceived wages of a couple of Euros for an entireday’s work.

“We’re all very dependent in the UK on massiveretailers for food. There aren’t many alternative foodoutlets that aren’t owned by them,” commentedPauline Doyle, Head of Campaigns at the Transportand General Workers Union (T&G). The way the con-tract culture works in the UK is akin to the links in achain: workers are hired by a gangmaster, who ishired by a sub-contractor, who in turn is hired byanother sub-contractor, and so forth. At the top ofthe chain are the major supermarkets – four of whichcontrol nearly 85% of Britain’s food buying and con-sumption between them.

“This is an abusive situation,” said Pauline Doyle.“The big supermarkets now even own many of thecorner stores as well, and we don’t have that many

markets. It’s a hugely profitable industry. But there’salso the casualization within that sector and the con-tract culture which involves many links of the chain.At the end of the chain, where you actually pay for theuse of workers, there can be real abuse. A contractormay be paying a sub-contractor minimum wage forthe workers, but the sub-contractor pockets that andgives his workers far less,” she said.

In the beginning of 2004, the Transport and

General Workers Union (T&G) spearheaded acampaign entitled “Legislation, not exploita-tion,” calling for a system of registration andlicensing of gangmasters. The campaign attract-ed a broad base of support, including tradeunions, refugee, migrant and religious organiza-tions, Members of Parliament from all parties,employers’ unions and major supermarkets in theUnited Kingdom. The Government backed thebill, and passed the Gangmasters Licensing Act

on July 8th, 2004, which makes it an offence tooperate as a gangmaster without a license.

Any worker who is working in the areas thatare covered by the act, regardless of whetherthey are documented or undocumented,migrant or native, would be protected by theact, said Gary Brisley, Head of Policy andResearch at the T&G. It extends the full pro-tection of the law, including minimum wageand health and safety legislation, to any indi-vidual worker undertaking work to which theprovisions apply.

As drafted, the Gangmasters Licensing Actcovers the entire UK food chain, including agri-cultural and horticultural work, shellfish gath-ering, and the processing or packaging of anyproducts derived from these industries.However, the UK government is to introducesecondary legislation that will set out thoseactivities that, for legitimate reasons, may needto be excluded from the scope of the Act.35

35 Gary Brisley, Head of Policy and Research at the T&G, elaborated on how the union views the potential exclusions: “The T&Grecognize that such exclusions, if too wide reaching, have the potential to open up rat-runs through which rogue gangmasterscould pore, thereby leaving workers vulnerable to continued exploitation. We are therefore campaigning and lobbying hard toensure that the secondary legislation does not bring into force blanket exclusions from the Act. We regard this act as a uniqueopportunity to tackle and to end both the abuse of workers and the criminal activities of rogue gangmasters. It is an opportunitywe cannot afford to squander. In short, the UK government has to get any proposed exclusions regulations right – and that meansthat any exclusions must be limited in scope and specific in nature.”

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The Act will make it illegal to use unlicensed,unregistered gangmasters. “This means that ifa buyer contracts the services of a gangmaster,they will actually need to verify through a gov-ernment register if the gangmaster is licensedand registered,” said Pauline Doyle, Head ofCampaigns at the T&G.

The Act creates a new regulatory body taskedwith enforcing the law. A key issue for theT&G is to look for the human and financialresources to ensure that the regulatory bodycan practically investigate complaints and sus-pected abuses and breach of license condi-tions. “We find it important to work with thedifferent governmental agencies to ensurethat there is a joined up approach to enforce-ment. So if an inspector from the authoritygoes along to a gangmaster inspection butsees a health and safety issue, s/he can even-tually report that to the Health and Safetydepartment, and vice versa. We don’t wantthe license to just become a piece of paperthat legitimizes any gangmaster who won’thave to worry about whether it’s beingenforced. We want this to be a rigorous androbust system,” said Gary Brisley.

The Gangmasters Licensing Act is an importantmeasure for ensuring that employers offer fair work-ing conditions to their workers. “The Act is not thelast word. What it will do in the first instance is closea very large loophole: it will allow legal employers tobe clearly separated from illegal employers. With 30years of deregulation, a sort of Wild West employ-

ment situation has developed where workersbecome casualized and where the most awful treat-ment of workers can go undetected. This act is atransparency measure that will help distinguish therogues from the reputable,” said Pauline Doyle, Headof Campaigns at the T&G.

The Act also has many implications for trade unions,added Pauline Doyle. “Once the Act becomes law, itgives the trade union a green light to organize amongstthese workers. The government will have a duty toenforce the law and the supply chain will have a duty tocomply with the law. But in terms of what it means fortrade unions, it presents a tremendous opportunity tolocate and organize migrant workers. And the new lawallows us to be able to say to these workers, ‘exploita-tion is unacceptable – and it is also illegal.’”

Standard Contract for Domestic Workers in

New York City

A coalition of organizations in the New York City areawaged a campaign to urge New York City Councilmembers to enact legislation that would compelemployment agencies to do more to promote work-ers’ rights in domestic employment relationships.

The campaign was led by Domestic Workers United(DWU), which developed draft legislation in conjunc-tion with the New York University Immigrant RightsLaw Clinic. The organization Andolan OrganizingSouth Asian Workers was one of the founding mem-bers of the coalition. The coalition carried out advo-cacy and organizing efforts aimed at legislators,including a large demonstration in October 2002where hundreds of domestic workers marched onCity Hall.

In June 2003, a bill was passed by the New York CityCouncil demanding a standard contract for domes-tic workers that guarantees minimum wage laws,health insurance, regular working hours, overtimepay, and enforces other basic labor standards.

The companion legislation requires that employersand agencies provide domestic workers with awritten statement of job conditions, and requires

agencies to inform workers of their rights andemployers of their legal obligations.

There is still work to be done to ensure that this billis implemented and enforced, such as campaign-ing for strong monitoring and recourse in cases ofviolation of the laws set forth. Most of the enforce-ment measures in the bill are for agencies thatplace domestic workers.

BASIC LABOR STANDARDS FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS


The coalition has developed a proposal for legislationfor the whole state of New York, as opposed to justNew York City (the scope of the original legislation),said Ai-Jen Poo of DWU. This legislative proposal iscalled the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, and pro-vides comprehensive protection for domestic work-ers including notice, severance pay, paid vacationand sick leave.

“There are slim chances that this bill will beapproved in the near future, but we are prepared tobuild a strong movement to make it happen,” said Ai-Jen Poo.

Bill to Sanction Restaurant Employers in

New York City

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York(ROC-NY) is currently exploring policy options for theCity Council of New York City that will protect restau-rant workers from abuse and exploitation, andsimultaneously protect restaurant clients fromunsafe food handling practices. ROC-NY’s PolicyCommittee, which is comprised entirely of restaurantworkers, is reviewing the possibility of presenting abill to the New York City Council that would sanctionemployers who do not pay their workers minimumwage or workers’ compensation by canceling theiroperating licenses.

Sekou Siby, ROC-NY Outreach Coordinator,explained why his organization is promoting theseoptions: “An inspector will check to see if the tablesare clean and if it generally is a clean restaurant, butthere is one factor that they ignore: the people thatwork in the restaurant. The Health Department justchecks the material and doesn’t know if the personwho works inside might have a communicable dis-ease because he is working in very difficult condi-tions, he’s not paid, etc. It is our impression thatthese things are linked. If somebody is not gettingthe minimum wage and he doesn’t have the capabil-ity of taking care of himself, he can be a public healththreat. We know through research that we’ve con-ducted that most of the restaurants in New York Citythat violate the health code also violate the laborcode. So it all goes together.”

GENERAL FINDINGS

• This chapter focuses on how working together withemployers can help prevent exploitation and abuseof undocumented workers. At the same time itfocuses on the legal measures that sanctionemployers who violate fair labor conditions.

• By fostering a positive image of undocumentedworkers, organizations can help enhance the rela-tionship between employers and workers. It isimportant to build a relationship based on respectfor workers and their rights in order to preventexploitation and abuse.

• Some organizations establish minimum standardsof employment making sure that if an undocu-mented worker is working, s/he is doing it within aframework of decent working conditions. Doing afollow-up on the minimum standards is an impor-tant way of contributing to fair standards of labor.

• Raising awareness about cultural differences canalso have a positive effect on the relationshipbetween employer and workers because it can helpimprove the contact and communication betweenthe employer and the worker.

• Advocating for laws that hold employers account-able for fair labor conditions is also paramount inprotecting undocumented workers. The last sec-tion of this chapter gives an overview of severallaws, such as the “Social Responsibility” law inPortugal which holds that employers can be heldaccountable for the hiring of sub contractors whoabuse and exploit undocumented workers. Anotherexample is the California Assembly Bill 633, whichalso holds the people at the top of the hiring chainresponsible for workers’ minimum wages andovertime compensation.

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It is very difficult for undocumented workers tomake a complaint against their employer aboutpoor working conditions or any form of abuse.

Complaining against an employer almost inevitablyentails the risk of being fired, and might also entailthe risk of being reported to the authorities due tothe worker’s irregular status. Undocumented work-ers all too often only make a complaint when they areseriously abused or exploited.

Many organizations specialize in providing assis-tance to workers who wish to seek redress if theyhave serious workplace problems. Chapter Eightillustrates the ways that NGOs and trade unionsattempt to resolve these problems through the legalsystem. The focus of the present chapter is to shedlight on other invaluable methods workers and theiradvocates use to address serious workplace prob-lems.

This chapter begins by presenting some of the rea-sons for using mediation and/or collective actions toaddress a labor dispute. The various examplesincluded illustrate the effectiveness of mediation inresolving problems of exploitation or abuse. This

chapter also highlights various collective actions thatadvocates engage in to pressure abusive employers,including protests and demonstrations, strikes, andcampaigns.

Why Engage in Mediation and

Collective Actions?

In most cases of exploitation or abuse of undocu-mented workers, mediation with the employer is thefirst step that an organization will take to resolve theparticular problem. Mediation essentially involvescontacting the employer by making a phone calland/or sending a letter to inform them about thespecific complaint, and engaging in discussions withthe worker and employer.

There are several reasons why organizations priori-tize mediation and/or collective actions to try toobtain redress for undocumented workers who suf-fer from problems in the workplace.

As opposed to assisting workers in filing a complaint inthe legal system (which is discussed at length in

7. Challenging Exploitation and Abuse Through Mediation and Collective Actions

“We started with a group of workers going to a crew leader and demanding thatthey pay a particular worker or workers. Nobody wants a bunch of angry workerson their doorstep or circling their car, making it hard for them to do their work.The first year that we did that, we ended up getting $150,000 in back wages. Andnow essentially all it takes is a call from our organization to the employer, tellinghim that so-and-so worked for him for x number of days, that he owes him xamount, and when can he get a check over to our office?”

• Julia Perkins of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

“Nearly 80% of the cases of exploitation of day laborers are resolved when ourmember organizations call the employer to talk about the situation and negotiatebetween the employer and the worker.”

• Pablo Alvarado, National Coordinator of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)


Chapter Eight) - a process that puts many demands onorganizations - negotiation is an alternative for organi-zations with few resources and limited capacities.

In addition, the official claims and hearing process involvedin making a claim through a governmental body can beintimidating for workers. Hence, attempting to solve a casethrough mediation and/or collective action is a preferredoption in many cases.

Another reason why mediation and collective actionare alternatives to legal enforcement is because it isvery time consuming to file a complaint through legalchannels. The Restaurant Opportunities Center ofNew York (ROC-NY) organizes restaurant workers inNew York City to fight against poor conditions. Incases of withheld wages, it uses mediation anddemonstrations to publicly denounce exploitativeemployers. “We think that the legal process may takeyears, so what we do is to find an agreement, and wetry to do this by protesting,” said Sekou Siby,Outreach Organizer at ROC-NY.

Mediation with the Employer as an

Effective Strategy

Mediation, the act of intervening in a dispute to bringabout an agreement or reconciliation, is a valuableway of addressing a workplace problem involving anundocumented worker. By mediating with anemployer, advocates in many cases find solutions tolabor disputes without having to resort to furtheractions. The following section highlights some of thereasons why mediation has proven to be an effectivestrategy used by organizations and unions in situa-tions of exploitation and abuse of undocumentedworkers.

Positive Impact Due to the “Weight” of the

Organization

In many instances, a phone call or letter from anorganization or a trade union is enough to make theemployer take steps to solve the problem withouthaving to go further.

One of the most common forms of exploitation ofundocumented workers concerns wages. Not onlydo employers propose wages that are below theminimum wage, but they consistently pay undocu-mented workers late, and in many cases, do noteven pay them at all.

Many times workers will ask an organization forassistance in recovering unpaid wages or in exertingpressure on the employer concerning other wage-related problems. When a worker comes to anorganization to seek assistance, there is first an in-depth discussion with the worker and the advocateabout the particular situation of abuse. Ensuringthat the worker has a good, truthful case is part ofthe procedure for advocates who are often stretchedbeyond their resources. It is essential for organiza-tions to make sure that the case is sound beforecontinuing to the next step, which entails contactingthe employer to try to resolve the problem.

The goal is to reach an agreement with theemployer through negotiation. But the worker

faces the challenge of how to prove the complaint.Undocumented workers in most cases have noconcrete means of demonstrating that an employ-er owes them a certain amount.

“Most of the time in these situations, the workersare paid off the books, so there’s no proof that theyare owed anything by their employer. The workercan say, ‘I worked there for a month, and I’m owed$2,000’ but the employer could say, ‘Oh no, he onlyworked there for three days.’ And how are yougoing to prove otherwise?” said Nadia Marin-Molina, Executive Director of the WorkplaceProject.

Negotiation is a first way of trying to recover theunpaid wages or to exert pressure on the employ-er for other concerns. “If we can get the employerto sign something that says, ‘I agree that I owe$2,000 but I’m going to pay it in ten payments,’ orwhatever, then at least we have something in writ-ing that says he owes,” continued Nadia Marin-Molina.

LOW WAGES, LATE WAGES, NO WAGES AT ALL: WHAT ROLE DOES MEDIATIONWITH THE EMPLOYER PLAY?

70 P I C U M

“When we call the employer, we explain the situationto them. Many times they will agree to meet in a cer-tain place so that they can pay what they owe,because they don’t necessarily want to get into adeeper problem. Having an organization act as a liai-son helps,” said Angelica Salas, Executive Director ofthe Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of LosAngeles (CHIRLA).

According to Pablo Alvarado, National Coordinator ofthe National Day Laborer Organizing Network(NDLON), nearly 80% of the cases of exploitation of daylaborers are resolved when NDLON member organiza-tions call the employer to talk about the situation andnegotiate between the employer and the worker.

Unwillingness of Employer to Engage in

Official Procedures

In many cases employers agree to negotiate becausethey are not willing to go through the various admin-istrative procedures involved when a worker files anofficial complaint against an employer.

Case managers at the Multi-Ethnic ImmigrantWorker Organizing Network (MIWON) in Californiafirst send a letter to the employer stating the amountof money owed and the deadline for taking action.The letter stipulates that if the employer does not paythe worker by a certain date, then the case will besent to the Department of Labor StandardsEnforcement (DLSE), the entity in California thathandles wage and hour claims.

If the employer wants to negotiate, then it essential-ly involves direct exchange between the worker andthe employer, who come to MIWON’s office and sitacross from one another at the table to discuss theproblem. Liz Sunwoo, MIWON Coordinator, said thatabout 25% of employers are very stubborn and thinkthat a case will never make it if it’s sent to the DLSE,so they refuse to pay the worker. Nonetheless, mostemployers will try to settle the case.

Employer’s Fear of Denunciation Due to

Illegal Employment Practices

An organization in Spain with limited staff and finan-cial resources has successfully used the threat ofdenouncing an employer for illegal employment

practices to resolve numerous cases of exploitationof undocumented agricultural workers in the regionof Andalusia through mediation.

The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) has beenfighting for nearly 30 years for the rights of Spanishday laborers working in agriculture in Andalusia. Asa result of the February 2000 race riots againstMoroccan immigrants in El Ejido, the SOC decided toset up an office in the greenhouse region in Almeriato support and organize the workers who are mainlyfrom Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa and over-whelmingly undocumented. The SOC office inAlmeria is run by a two-person staff and relies pri-marily on mediation to seek redress in cases ofexploitation.

When the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo(SOC) SOC confronts an employer aboutalleged abuse or exploitation of one of hisworkers, the employer will usually deny thatthe person ever worked for him.

“We try to play a double game with theemployer, because he’s counting on the work-er being afraid and thinking that it would beimpossible to receive the money owedbecause he’s undocumented,” said GabrielM’Binki Ataya of the SOC. “We try to use thesame tactics to ‘frighten’ the employer,because usually if he’s hired one undocument-ed worker, then all his employees are probablyundocumented. So we tell him that if he does-n’t pay the worker, then we’ll denounce himand he’ll have an even bigger amount to paydue to the fines and whatever else.”

In many cases the employer will end up pay-ing the amount due, but only after the SOChas exerted pressure.

Undertaking Collective Actions to

Fight Abuse

While mediation has proven to be an effective tool foradvocates in resolving labor disputes, it does notwork in all cases. Some employers simply have no

interest in negotiating and in recognizing that theyhave wronged a worker.

Manuel Correia of the União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa(USL) said that while leaders in his union have suc-ceeded in many cases in demanding employers toobserve fair working conditions, in many other casesthey have encountered reluctance, sabotage andinadmissible behavior from employers. This phe-nomenon occurs in numerous places where advo-cates support undocumented workers.

When mediation alone appears to no longer have apotential for changing the situation, and filing a com-plaint in the legal system is not an option or does notyield immediate results, another method is to findout if more workers have similar stories of abuse andwage a collective action. Some organizations organ-ize workers to carry out demonstrations, publicprotests, strikes and campaigns to contest employ-ers.

Demonstrations and Public Protests

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York(ROC-NY) holds demonstrations in front of restau-rants in New York City where employers are knownfor abusing workers. The aim is to inform potentialcustomers about the labor violations undertaken bythe employer, and to encourage them not to eat inthe restaurant.

When the restaurant owner sees a group of demon-strators, they usually get upset and call the police.However, the police usually do not intervene becauseas long as the demonstrators respect police bound-aries and apply for a sound permit if they use amicrophone, they have the right to protest. Thesetypes of demonstrations can hurt the restaurant bycreating a loss of business, especially if they aredone during peak hours such as lunchtime and din-nertime.

“When we demonstrate, we pass out leaflets that say‘DAILY SPECIALS,’ so people really think that there isa daily special,” said Sekou Siby, ROC-NY OutreachOrganizer. “Then we say ‘SERVING UP UNFAIRLABOR PRACTICES DAILY,’ and when you look insidethe leaflet, there is a list of the different health codeviolations and unfair labor practices as well as thewebsite where you can get more information. Some

people are supportive and say that they won’t eat inthe restaurant. There are also people who come outof their car and see a big crowd in front of the restau-rant and don’t think that it’s worth it.”

Protesting in front of an employer’s business or res-idence can be effective in drawing public attention tothe fact that a community member is exploiting agroup of workers, as well as reinforcing mutual sup-port amongst workers. “It gives people an alternativeto filing a Department of Labor complaint or a law-suit, and a community to do it from. People have asense that they’re not on their own, because thecommunity backs them up,” said Julia Perkins of theCoalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

This tactic has been successful in Immokalee,Florida, where the CIW has built up a reputation fororganizing workers and putting pressure on crewleaders who try to exploit them.

“We started with a group of workers going to a crewleader and demanding that they pay a particularworker or workers. Nobody wants a bunch of angryworkers on their doorstep or circling their car, mak-ing it hard for them to do their work. The first yearthat we did that, we ended up getting $150,000 inback wages. And now essentially all it takes is a callfrom our organization to the employer, telling himthat so-and-so worked for him for x number of days,that he owes him x amount, and when can he get acheck over to our office?” said Julia Perkins of theCIW.

Strikes

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) not onlysupports workers in cases of unpaid wages, but hassuccessfully ended over twenty years of decliningwages in the tomato industry by combining communi-ty-wide work stoppages with intense public pressure.

A campaign launched in 1997 included three generalweeklong strikes of nearly 5,000 workers that essen-tially shut down tomato picking in the area. Thestrikes were not enough of an impetus to bring aboutimproved conditions, and in 1998 six CIW memberswent on a month-long hunger strike to demand araise in wages and to dialogue with growers toaddress the general deterioration of working condi-tions and wages. The strike was called off when for-


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mer President Jimmy Carter intervened, and therewas an ensuing industry-wide agreement to raisewages by 13% to 25%, which brought the tomatopicking piece-rate back to pre-1980 levels. (In thepast two decades workers have essentially beenearning less than what workers were earning twentyyears ago).

Despite the raise in wages, workers were still earn-ing below poverty level, and the CIW was still not ableto get growers to the table to negotiate for betterworking conditions. In 2000, workers again tried tocall public attention to the working conditions offarmworkers in Immokalee and put pressure onemployers to bring about changes in wages andworking conditions. They thus decided to hold a his-toric 230-mile (370-kilometer) march across thestate of Florida, to the Florida Fruit and VegetableGrowers Association.

Campaigns

Domestic Workers United (DWU) has held campaignsto highlight the cases of domestic workers who areowed wages and in some cases even raped by theiremployers. “The majority of the migrant domesticworkers we work with are undocumented, and com-plain about under payment, late payment and non-payment of wages. In many instances the women willeven be denied the opportunity to see a doctor ifthey’re sick. We always send a letter to the employerwhen there is a labor dispute, but direct pressure isnot as effective if there is no legal case. And suing anemployer is a long and costly process, and manycan’t engage in this,” said Ai-Jen Poo of DWU.

In some instances, DWU has picketed in front of theemployer’s home and held meetings for the generalpublic on the theme of rape in the workplace. DWUhas also held demonstrations in front of an embassyto protest the treatment of a domestic worker by herdiplomat boss.

The organization Andolan Organizing South AsianWorkers challenges exploitative and abusive employ-ers through various campaigns, such as theCampaign to Increase the Minimum Wage, which itco-coordinates with another community basedorganization, CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities.Through dialogue with local and state officials, advo-cacy efforts and public demonstrations, Andolan is

trying to spur greater action on minimum wage lawsin New York. Andolan and CAAAV advocate for theinstitution of a livable wage of $14 per hour.

In addition, Andolan is currently the only organizationto be working on a campaign against the diplomaticimmunity of UN employers. Andolan demands thatdiplomatic immunity not be used to shield abusiveemployers from accountability for their treatment ofdomestic workers.

Campaign activities include protests outside thehomes and offices of abusive employers, communityeducation sessions on the issue, and legal supportfor individual victims. In the past, Andolan hasorganized demonstrations with workers who havebeen exploited by UN employers to bring publicattention to the campaign and to the need foraccountability.

Combination of Several Techniques

Collective actions can be effective in putting pressureon an employer to resolve the issue at stake whileadvocates continue to undertake other actions insupport of the worker. Several approaches may beused simultaneously, such as negotiating with theemployer, protesting, and introducing a case for pro-tection through a governmental body.

This way of working is used by an organization thathas combated the exploitation of workers throughoutits 13-year history. The Workplace Project was creat-ed in 1992 as a response to the exploitation of low-wage immigrant workers in Long Island, New York. Itaims to fight for the rights of these workers by pro-viding information and orientation and by fosteringorganizing.

The Workplace Project provides support in seeking avariety of solutions to workplace abuse, as long as theworker commits to mutual support of workers whowill join his/her justice committee. Workers areorganized in committees in the areas of day labor, fac-tory, building maintenance and domestic work. “Thefact that it is an organization gives the workers somefeeling that there is somebody behind them. And theyalso have to become aware that they’re usually not theonly person who is owed wages, but that many otherworkers are likely to be in the same situation,”explained Nadia Marin-Molina, Executive Director.

The majority of cases of exploitation handledby the Workplace Project concern non-pay-ment of wages of undocumented day labor-ers.

In cases of unpaid wages, the organizationusually sends a letter to the employer torequest payment and tries to hold a meetingto negotiate the case. If the employer refus-es to negotiate, the Workplace Project mightfile a case at the state or federal Departmentof Labor or the small claims court on behalfof the worker. Depending on the particularcase, the organization may file a case andcontinue negotiation with the employer, inaddition to supporting workers in a collectiveaction.

While a worker may be reluctant at first toconfront their employer, they usually startto get angry when they see that even afterseveral attempts from the WorkplaceProject to solve the problem through medi-ation, they still have not been paid for theirwork, said Nadia-Marin-Molina, ExecutiveDirector.

In such cases, workers will go as a group toan employer’s house or business with a flyer,telling him that they will distribute it aroundthe neighborhood because he refuses tonegotiate. In one collective action, protes-tors went to the house of an employer whoaccumulated an enormous debt towardsthirteen workers. They distributed a flyerwith the following message: WANTED:GEORGE BESSER OF BESSER ROOFINGCOMPANY. HE DOESN’T PAY HIS WORK-ERS. AMOUNT OWED TO 13 WORKERS:$25,077.75. “In cases like this, the employ-er is usually furious when he sees the flyerand may decide to negotiate. But if he does-n’t, the workers continue with publicactions,” said Nadia Marin-Molina.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• This chapter has focused on solving exploitationand abuse through mediation between employersand workers and through collective actions. Thegoal is to reach an agreement with the employerthrough negotiation.

• There are several reasons why mediation and col-lective actions can be useful alternatives to endingdisputes rather than to filing a complaint. Filing acomplaint through legal channels is often verytime-consuming and many undocumented work-ers are intimidated by making a claim through agovernmental body which they fear might deportthem. This situation can be avoided by mediatingwith the employer. Furthermore, mediation andcollective actions require fewer resources andcapacities, which is beneficial for organizations oflimited size.

• Mediation has proven to be a successful strategy inmany ways. The “weight” of an organization canhave a positive impact on employers who wish toavoid going through the various administrative pro-cedures involved in the official claims process.Many therefore agree to engage in mediation.Some organizations threaten to denounce theemployer for illegal employment, a strategy whichin many cases encourages the employer to thenegotiation table.

• Collective actions such as public protests, demon-strations, strikes, and campaigns can be necessaryand helpful in situations where mediation does notreach the desired solution and where filing a com-plaint in the legal system is not a solution. The aimis to pressure the employer through public aware-ness and through a potential loss of business.


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When mediation and collective actions are notinfluential in resolving a problem of abuseor exploitation, undocumented workers can

resort to making a claim through legal channels. Inmany instances, laws guarantee fair working condi-tions for all workers, regardless of their legal status.

The information in this chapter is arranged in fourmain sections. The first section highlights some ofthe obstacles encountered by undocumented work-ers in filing a complaint through governmentalmechanisms, and how they go about overcomingthem.

The second and third sections represent the bulk ofthe chapter. In the second section, numerous casesin which NGOs and unions have assisted undocu-mented workers in filing for workers’ compensationin the case of an accident or injury are presented.The third section devotes much attention to the pro-cedures for labor disputes involving undocumentedworkers in the industrial tribunals and court systemin various countries. Since the information on legalprocedures is often very country specific, we haveopted to arrange most of the information in thesesections per country.

The fourth section sheds light on a recent court deci-sion in the United States that has had a negativeimpact on undocumented workers’ rights.

Obstacles and How to Overcome

Them

Many obstacles impede undocumented workers inobtaining protection when needed.

Fear is perhaps one of the biggest obstacles. Asmentioned in the previous chapter, undocumentedworkers are often afraid to use governmental mech-anisms to file a complaint, for fear that their irregu-lar status might become known and would causethem to be deported. They also might fear thatspeaking out against an abusive employer wouldhave negative repercussions for family membersand/or friends who may be working for the sameemployer.

Organizations cope with undocumented workers’fear of filing a complaint by providing them withassistance, adequately informing them about theirlegal possibilities, and representing them in a courtcase (if they have the capacities to do so). But anadvocate cannot force a worker to file an officialcomplaint against his/her employer. As Greg Schell,attorney at the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project,explained: “Most workers are reluctant to talk to alawyer and are particularly afraid if they are undocu-mented of losing their job. They may only approach alawyer if they feel like they’ve got nothing to lose, ifthey feel like they’re already wrecked and don’t wantto go back to work for the same employer.”

It is also difficult to show substantive proof ofemployment. If a worker decides to file an officialcomplaint, they have to have proof to support theircase. In the absence of a written contract, an undoc-umented worker has to provide other forms of proofof employment, a task which is not very simple.

“It’s the same problem for undocumented workersas for native workers who are working without a writ-ten contract,” said Norbert Cyrus of the Polish SocialCouncil. “You have an oral contract and that is suffi-

8. Asserting Undocumented Workers’ Rights in the Legal System

“As undocumented workers we do have rights, the trade unions and everyone elsetell us that we do, but the problem is exercising them. It’s like having a Porschewithout knowing how to drive.”

Henry Cardona of the Collectif des travailleurs et des travailleuses sans statut légal - Génève (CTSSL)


cient because it is legally binding. But with an oralcontract you need someone who can testify that bothparties entered into agreement about it.”

It is possible to overcome this problem, explainedMaría Helena Bedoya of the Spanish trade unionComisiones Obreras (CCOO). “The courts realize thatthey have to accept the jurisprudence if the workercan prove that he was employed. Usually the proof issomething physical, such as a photograph or a workuniform. But it can also be the fact that the workercan describe the place where they worked and knowsthe name(s) of their boss(es), and can back this upthrough witnesses,” she said.

Another obstacle concerns undocumented workerswho wish to take out a lawsuit against an employer,as opposed to filing a complaint against the employ-

er through an administrative agency (explained fur-ther in “Launching Lawsuits Against AbusiveEmployers in the United States” in this chapter).

Launching a lawsuit incurs many different costs,notably the fees demanded by the private lawyer tak-ing the case. An undocumented worker would mostlikely be unable to pay such exorbitant fees, whichcan easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

To cover the costs of the case, lawyers often proposethat they retain a percentage of the settlement if thecase wins. However, the amount that the worker isowed is often not large enough to justify a privatelawyer’s handling of the case. Attorneys, legal clinicsor the Attorney General are usually only interested intaking out a lawsuit if it is a big case, said NadiaMarin-Molina of the Workplace Project. But most of

Various Member States of the European Uniongrant legal protection to undocumented workers.

Undocumented workers can make a claim againsttheir employers for withheld wages in the industri-al tribunals in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece,Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal. If the workerwas employed in Belgium, Germany or Greece, andwas deported or voluntarily returned to his/hercountry of origin, s/he may still initiate a claimagainst the employer from abroad.36

Undocumented workers in the United States gener-ally have the same workplace rights under manylabor and civil rights laws as documented workersand citizens, including the right to minimum wageand overtime pay, disability pay and compensationand safe worksite conditions. These laws also guar-antee that the workplace will be free of discrimina-tion based on race, gender, religion and ethnicity.37

Undocumented workers are entitled to accidentinsurance in many of the above-mentioned coun-

tries and often benefit from workers’ compensa-tion, the insurance system for job-related injuriesand illnesses. Workers’ compensation is generallysupposed to provide injured workers with medicalinsurance coverage, rehabilitation costs, and partof their salary during the period that they were dis-abled due to a workplace injury. This system alsohas provisions to grant indemnities to family mem-bers of a worker killed on the job.

Nonetheless, it is not an easy task to be awardedsuch coverage. Obtaining a medical certificate thatconfirms that an injury or accident is job related isnot always a straightforward process. Doctorsmay claim that a worker’s injury is due to a gener-al degradation of their health rather than due tothe work itself. Undocumented workers often haveto struggle to assert their right to workers’ com-pensation, and face challenges from employers aswell as insurance companies, both of whom try toflee from their responsibilities towards theseworkers.

LEGAL PROTECTION OF UNDOCUMENTED WORKERSIN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND IN THE UNITED STATES

36 See Norbert Cyrus, “Protective and Repressive Measures in EU Member States,” in Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and JohanWets, eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA, 2004).

37 See Anna Marie Gallagher, “The Situation of Undocumented Persons in the U.S.: A Practical Overview,” in Michele LeVoy, NeleVerbruggen, and Johan Wets, eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA, 2004). See also AFL-CIO, “WhatUnion Members Should Know About … Legal Rights of Immigrants,” available online at: http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/immigration/upload/LEGAL.pdf, accessed on May 2, 2005.

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the time the cases dealt with by organizations involveonly small amounts of pay. “If a worker wasn’t paidfor a week, and was supposed to receive $100 a day,then he’s owed $500. For an attorney, it’s not worth itin terms of the amount of money they’re going tospend going after the employer to get the $500,” shesaid.

Making a Claim for Workers’

Compensation

Undocumented workers toil in difficult and degrad-ing conditions, but are often hesitant to report anaccident or injury due to the numerous obstaclesmentioned above that prevent them from assertingtheir legal rights. In some instances, such problemsmay sadly enough only become known when a seri-ous accident occurs.

Based on his many years of experience with undocu-mented workers in the Italian trade unionConfederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL),Francesco Ciafaloni of the Associazione IRES LuciaMorosini observed that it is indeed very difficult forundocumented workers to protest their conditionsand demand their rights, including the right to work-ers’ compensation. “You never know how many irreg-ular workers there are in a certain industry such asthe construction industry, for example, until they die.If someone falls four or five stories and dies, then youknow that he was an irregular Albanian,” he said.

Unions Battle Insurance Companies in

Portugal

Two major trade unions in Portugal have broughtforth numerous cases to the Social SecurityAdministration of undocumented workers who havesuffered injuries and accidents on the job.

In the Portuguese system, a percentage of a worker’ssalary is taken out by the employer for social securi-ty, which the employer is supposed to pay to theinsurance company for every worker s/he employs,explained Manuel Correia of the União dosSindicatos de Lisboa (USL). This is the usual systemfor workers under contract, including undocumentedworkers. Even if the worker does not have a contract,labor laws stipulate that as long as a worker is paidby an employer, they are entitled to protection. In thecase of an industrial accident, the insurance compa-ny is responsible for carrying out the procedure forworkers’ compensation.

The USL sees many problems concerning workers’safety and health, as well as many accidents, someof which are fatal. The union has struggled withinsurance companies to obtain workers’ compensa-tion for numerous undocumented African andEastern European workers and their families.

“We first go after the employer, because they have todemonstrate that they paid the insurance company.There are two ways that the employer can take out aninsurance policy for a worker: either they make anominative policy for each individual worker on theworksite, or they take out a blank policy which can be

“Workers face obstacles at every stage of theofficial claims process,” said AlejandraDomenzain, Associate Director of SweatshopWatch. Her organization has extensive experi-ence with garment workers who have filedclaims in California against abusive and exploita-tive employers. Some of these problems include:

• language access barriers

• poor investigations

• long waits

• loopholes for employers

• deputies who fail to enforce certain provisionsof the labor code

• pressure on the worker to accept a settlementinstead of continuing with their case.

“In the case of garment wage claims, manycases may ‘settle,’ but often this means workersaccept incredibly low payments that don’t evencover half of the minimum wage and/or overtimethey are owed”, said Alejandra Domenzain.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY WORKERS WHOFILE AN OFFICIAL CLAIM FOR UNPAID WAGES


filled in with the name of a worker if an accidentoccurs. So the first thing that we do when an accidentoccurs is to make sure that the employer puts thename of the worker on that policy. The insurancecompany then has to investigate the accident, butthis can be a very long and arduous process. There isa lack of coordination amongst the different govern-mental entities, such as the Immigration Servicesand ACIME (the High Commissioner for Immigrationand Ethnic Minorities),” said Manuel Correia of theUSL.

The union will support a worker’s request for anindemnity, but many times the insurance companyproposes only a fraction of what they could be enti-tled to under workers’ compensation, said AquilinoJoaquim Faustino Coelho of the Sindicato dosTrabalhadores da Construção, Mármores e Madeirase Materiais de Construção do Sul. “It’s clear thatinsurance companies are after a profit, so manytimes they only offer half or not even a third of whatthe worker should receive.”

French Organization Fights to Get

Compensation for Injured Farmworkers

An organization in France that works primarily withseasonal migrant farmworkers has seen numerousinstances of accidents in the fields due to poor work-ing conditions.

Denis Natanelic of the Collectif de défense des tra-vailleurs étrangers dans l’agriculture (CODETRAS)said that many times farmworkers fall and sustainback injuries, but encounter difficulties in receivingworkers’ compensation. This is largely due to theambiguity between what the worker knows is a gen-uine workplace accident, versus what the SocialSecurity office claims is a general degradation of theworker’s health (e.g. problems due to old age, over-work, etc.).

Despite the frequent conflicts that occur, CODETRAShas filed complaints in the administrative courts forworkers’ compensation and has obtained favorabledecisions for the workers in some cases.

During the summer of 2000, the Collectif de

défense des travailleurs étrangers dans l’a-

griculture (CODETRAS) became aware of thesituation of a seasonal migrant farmworkerwho fell on his back while working on a farmin the Bouches du Rhône region in the southof France. The worker broke his hip and had tohave it removed. He was given an artificial hip,but was no longer able to work.

After receiving an indemnity for two yearsafter the accident, the Social Security officeoffered him a rate of 14% of a pension for anindustrial accident. His doctors said that 14%was insufficient, and he contested the offer. Ahearing was held and it was decided to awardthe worker 18% of the pension for an indus-trial accident. He contested that decision aswell, and was finally awarded a rate of 20%.Denis Natanelic of CODETRAS explained that20% “may not be a high rate, but if a workerin France has an industrial accident or has anoccupational illness and obtains a minimumrate of 20% of permanent disability, then theyare eligible for a residence permit.”38

He also underlined the general difficulties inobtaining workers’ compensation: “Even in acase like this one, where it was clear that theworker would never be able to work again, itwas still incredibly difficult to obtain even 20%of the pension for an industrial accident.”

Spanish Unions Obtain Compensation for

Workers Killed or Injured on the Job

The Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union hasbeen able to win indemnities for immediate familymembers of undocumented workers who have beenkilled while working in Spain.

María Helena Bedoya, a lawyer working in theForeign Workers’ Information Center (CITE) of theCCOO trade union, said that the first case that theCCOO waged on behalf of an undocumented worker

38 For more information on undocumented migrants’ access to workers’ compensation in France, see GISTI, Sans-papiers mais passans droits, 3ème edition (Paris: GISTI, 2004), available online at: http://www.gisti.org/doc/publications/2004/sans-papiers/sommaire.html, accessed on June 14, 2005.

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was for an industrial accident. “We intervened in thatcase because it was shocking for a union to realizethat if an undocumented worker suffered from anaccident, they wouldn’t benefit from workers’ com-pensation simply because they were undocument-ed,” she said.

That case set a precedent for the courts, who fromthen on analyzed all possible situations that couldcome up concerning workers’ compensation, such asthe many accidents involving immigrant workers thatoccurred during the construction of the high speedAVE train and a new metro line in Madrid. It was dis-covered that these workers were undocumented andhad been hired by subcontractors, who had beenhired by temporary employment agencies.

“In those cases, the first thing we did was to get intouch with the consulates. The Colombian Consulatehas been particularly efficient in immediately provid-ing legal assistance, because there have been manyundocumented Colombians who have died on work-sites in Spain. We have been able to get indemnitiesfor families of these workers. We have also workedwith the consulates to suggest that the transfer ofthe indemnity from the insurance company to thefamily be made by diplomatic bag, so that the familywould be guaranteed that the money wouldn’t disap-pear into the pockets of a lawyer they may have hadlittle contact with in Spain,” said María HelenaBedoya.

The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) has alsodealt with a number of cases of accidents of undoc-umented workers in Spain. It has been able to receivesome form of workers’ compensation in some cases,but has been unable to move forward in otherinstances due to the particular circumstances sur-rounding the cases.

Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the SOC recalled a tragedythat occurred when the employer of an undocument-ed Malian worker provided housing for the worker ina farmhouse where some chemical products werestored.

“The worker’s bed was in a store room, right next tocontainers of toxic substances. One night, he wokeup and wanted to drink something, and mistakenlydrank from one of the containers. He was hospital-ized and died shortly afterwards. We would have

been able to get an indemnity for his family but hisemployer didn’t even want to say that he worked forhim, and we weren’t able to make any claim. Theworker didn’t have any immediate family in Spain,only distant cousins, and we unfortunately wereunable to track them down and gather more infor-mation about him to move on with the case,” he said.

Upholding Workers’ Right to Accident

Insurance in Germany

Undocumented workers in Germany are entitled toaccident insurance and in some cases have beenawarded workers’ compensation.

“The employer has to register all of his employees,and if he doesn’t, the insurance company has to payfor the employer. We filed a complaint for an undoc-umented Polish construction worker who fell andsuffered a serious injury to his leg and his hip, whichconfined him to a wheelchair. The accident insurancecovered his hospital costs and rehabilitation, and hewas also able to get a pension,” said Norbert Cyrusof the Polish Social Council, an organization based inBerlin.

Domestic workers in Germany are also entitled toaccident insurance, regardless of their legal status.“Employers have the obligation to insure theirdomestic workers, whether they’re legal or not. Theyare entitled to benefit from a pension if they sufferfrom an accident, and if it is fatal, their spouse andchildren can also claim entitlements,” said NorbertCyrus.

U.S. Organization of Female Farmworkers

Emphasizes Prevention and Intervention

An organization in California takes a dual approach inaddressing the issue of workplace health and safety,by emphasizing prevention as well as intervention insituations where workers may be exposed to toxicsubstances. It prioritizes awareness raising of thedangers of pesticides so that the women who work infarms in California may try to avoid situations wherethey may be unnecessarily exposed, and helps thewomen to file complaints for workers’ compensation.

Mily Treviño Sauceda, Executive Director of theOrganización en California de Líderes Campesinas,used to be a farmworker in California and knows

what it’s like when the members of her organizationtalk about being unaware of the effects of pesticides.

“You only know that you’re being sprayed with chem-icals, and you don’t know how dangerous it isbecause you don’t have that information. You justknow that you’re ill and you’re afraid to stop workingbecause you’ll be fired. Or many times because of thelack of health clinics, you don’t go to the doctor forpre-natal care because you don’t even realize thatyou’re pregnant. But one day you’re working in thefields and all of a sudden you have a miscarriage. Ifyou think back you could remember that there was abad odor in the fields for a number of days, andmaybe you had a miscarriage because you had beenworking in fields that were sprayed with pesticides.Or you’re poisoned by pesticides but afraid to go tothe hospital because you’re undocumented. So whenyour crew leader tells you to go home for the day andcome back to a different workplace in two days, youdon’t protest. You find out later that even though youmay be undocumented, you still have rights, so youmake an appointment with an agency who’s going tolisten to you about your case. But by that time thechemicals have dissolved and can’t be traced in yourblood, so it’s too late for the necessary tests. Or youmay already be aware that you have these rights, soif you’re poisoned you get to a doctor. But sometimesdoctors are not prepared to deal with the healthimpacts of pesticides, so they don’t do the propertests and end up examining you for something elselike food poisoning… What can you do in situationslike these? How can you prove you suffered from pes-ticide poisoning? It’s a very complex situation,” saidMily Treviño Sauceda.

One of the ways that the Organización en

California de Líderes Campesinas hassought to find an answer to workplace healthand safety problems is to educate its membersabout different ways they can prevent pesti-cide poisoning.

When the organization first started to tacklethe issue of pesticide poisoning, the staff real-ized that although the women were receivingtraining at their workplaces about how to pre-vent being poisoned, these short presentationswere extremely inadequate. Employers are

required by law to inform workers about anykinds of chemicals that are being applied in theworkplace, but they would schedule 10-minute presentations and have the workerssign small cards saying that they have beentrained, whereas the law requires the trainingto last a full day, said Mily Treviño Sauceda,Executive Director.

The Organización en California de LíderesCampesinas thus decided to train workers tomake sure that they understood that theyneeded to leave the fields and tell otherworkers to leave if they found pesticide duston the field or saw an adjoining field beingsprayed. “Many times the women pressurethe crew leaders to evacuate the otherworkers until they can go back and work, orthey go to another field to work in themeantime. We want to make sure thatmembers understand about how the chemi-cals work, and how to be alert for the smelland the white dust. They have to realizethat pesticides can be dangerous, because ittakes time for them take effect and decom-pose. This is why we emphasize the trainingof community members, so that they canfully understand these dangers,” explainedMily Treviño Sauceda.

If workers are poisoned, the Organización enCalifornia de Líderes Campesinas helps themto file a complaint for workers’ compensationand in some cases also files lawsuits. The non-profit organizations Californians for PesticideReform and Pesticide Action Network havesupported their efforts to file lawsuits by pro-viding legal services or private attorneys. TheOrganización en California de LíderesCampesinas also collaborates with severalorganizations working on environmentalissues on the state, national and internationallevels, by acting as advisory members or byparticipating in the board of directors.Through this collaboration, it aims to ensurethat the concerns of female farmworkers areon the agenda of all of the efforts made bythese organizations in their work on pesti-cides.


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Filing a Case in Industrial Tribunals

If an undocumented worker wishes to make a claimagainst an abusive employer in the labor courts, themain concern of this legal entity is to determine if fairlabor conditions are being respected, not if the work-er is documented or undocumented.

Industrial tribunals in many countries in Europe donot have the duty to denounce an undocumentedworker to the Immigration authorities simplybecause they are undocumented. There is no sharingof information between these legal entities, as thiswould be contrary to the idea of protection.

In the United States, there is no automatic reportingby the courts or governmental agencies to the immi-gration authorities when undocumented workers fileclaims against their employers. Groups around thecountry have worked with the police, with authoritiesand with all sorts of governmental agencies to makesure that there is a firewall, said Rebecca Smith,Immigrant Worker Project Coordinator at theNational Employment Law Project (NELP).

The following sections describe legal practices inseveral countries in Europe as well as in the UnitedStates concerning the labor rights of undocumentedworkers. Examples of a class action lawsuit and atransnational approach to legal advocacy are alsoincluded.

NGO Supports Workers’ Claims in Industrial

Tribunals in Germany

A situation in which a labor court would be requiredto report a worker’s immigration status might arisein Germany. All public offices in Germany arerequired by law to notify the Foreigners’ Office withinformation received on undocumented migrantsduring the course of public service. This law impliesthat although undocumented workers have the rightin theory to file a claim in an industrial tribunal,information about their immigration status isnonetheless communicated to Immigration authori-ties, and they could risk deportation.

In examining the theoretical duty of the labor courtsto report immigration status, Norbert Cyrus of the

Polish Social Council found that while industrial tri-bunals are obliged to inform the Foreigners’ Office,they do not have to investigate the residence andwork permit status of undocumented workers. Thisdistinction between the obligation to transmit but notto examine the status opens an opportunity forundocumented workers to present a case in industri-al tribunals.39

Based on this important distinction within the legalsystem, the Polish Social Council, an organizationbased in Berlin, Germany, helped a number ofundocumented workers to file a case in the labor tri-bunals against abusive employers, and was success-ful in many cases.

Until 1997, there had been no court cases inGermany in which an undocumented workerhad petitioned for withheld wages fromhis/her employer. “It was a generally heldconviction that undocumented workers hadno rights at all,” explained Norbert Cyrus ofthe Polish Social Council. By conductingresearch and supporting cases of immigrantworkers with legal contracts, the Polish SocialCouncil acquired knowledge and experienceof the proceedings of the industrial tribunals inGermany. The organization observed thatindustrial tribunals on the whole were notobsessed with the legal status of workers. If anundocumented worker filed a complaintagainst his/her employer, there was still a pos-sibility that a judge could report the worker tothe Immigration authorities, but the risk wasmost likely low.

In the meantime, the Polish Social Council hadbeen dealing with a number of cases in whichemployers were abusing workers, many ofthem undocumented. The organization firsttried to resolve these problems by mediatingwith the employer, and in some cases thisworked. However, in others it didn’t work,because the employer did not answer thedemand letter, couldn’t be reached, or simplyrefused to pay the worker. In the absence of asolution through mediation, the worker had to

39 See Norbert Cyrus, “Representing Undocumented Migrant Workers in Industrial Tribunals: Stimulating NGO Experiences fromGermany,” in Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and Johan Wets, eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM andHIVA, 2004).


decide if they wanted to take the case to thelabor court. There was a slight risk that theycould be deported, simply because there wasno history of undocumented workers makingclaims through the labor courts in Germany. Ifa worker decided to take the case to court, thePolish Social Council helped them to buildtheir cases by gathering elements of proof thatthey had been cheated.

Gathering proof was often a laborious process,as it entailed filing a claim within a certaindeadline (e.g. in some industries a worker onlyhas two months to file a claim concerninglabor issues) and making sure that the workerhad an accurate account of all the hoursworked as well as the wage demanded.Photos or testimonies by witnesses confirmingthat the person worked for the employer couldalso be used as proof.

From 1997-2001, the Polish Social Councildealt with eleven cases in which employershad deceived 27 undocumented workers. Innine cases the workers appealed to industrialtribunals, and in some of these cases an indus-trial tribunal hearing took place with a finaljudgment in favor of the undocumentedworkers. In a case ruled in January 2003, anindustrial tribunal ruled that the employers ofan undocumented Polish domestic worker hadto pay a withheld wage of €1.700. The work-er, who had been fired after having an occu-pational accident without receiving medicalcare, was also awarded a small pensionbecause of her amputated fingertip, whichwas recognized as a partial inability to work.

Historical Ruling in Spanish Courts Won by

Trade Union

Undocumented workers in Spain have the right to filea claim against their employer in court. This rightwas established by a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that

said that a worker has to be recognized as a worker,regardless of his/her legal status. The ruling, whichwas issued on May 14th, 2002 by the Supreme Court ofCatalonia, referred to a case that was brought forthby the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union onDecember 4, 2000. The ruling also stipulated thatcriminal proceedings would be taken out against anemployer found guilty of exploiting a worker.

40 See Bridget Anderson and Ben Rogaly, “Forced Labor and Migration to the UK,” Study prepared by COMPAS in collaboration withthe Trades Union Congress, available online at: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/publications/papers/Forced%20Labour%20TUC%20Report.pdf, accessed on August 12, 2005. See also TUC and JCWI, Migrant Workers: A TUC Guide(London: TUC and JCWI, 2002); TUC, Overworked, underpaid and over here: Migrant Workers in Britain (London: TUC, 2003).

Undocumented workers in the United Kingdomface difficulties if they wish to file a complaintagainst their employers in the industrial tri-bunals, because the latter may decline to hearcomplaints from workers deemed not to havelegal contracts. These workers also fear that byrevealing their irregular status to an official enti-ty, this could lead to their deportation (see sec-tion on “Obstacles and How to Overcome Them”in the beginning of this chapter). The followingcase is a crucial exception to this.

Sharma v. Hindu Temple (EAT/253/90)

Nineteen stonemasons were brought fromrural India to build a Hindu temple in Wembley,United Kingdom. They were living in appallingconditions on the construction site and, havingbeen told that they would receive up to £190 aweek (approximately €280), they were in factbeing paid £125 a month (approx. €183), or 30pence an hour (approx. 43 Eurocents). Theiremployers tried to argue that they did not haveto pay the minimum wage on the grounds thatthe workers were undocumented.

The construction union UCATT took up theircase. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT)said it was necessary to take into account pub-lic policy, which was to ensure that all workerswere paid the national minimum wage. Theemployer was forced to pay the workers backwages totaling £100,000 (approx. €146.657).40

IMPORTANT RULING IN FAVOR OFUNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN THE UK

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Before the historical ruling, a worker could not file aclaim for withheld wages or other retribution if theywere engaged in irregular employment. As a result ofthe ruling, courts have applied the jurisprudence andrecognize that while a worker may have irregularlegal status, s/he still has inalienable labor rights.41

“A judge in an industrial tribunal is not interested atall in knowing whether a worker is legal or undocu-mented. The only thing that they are concerned aboutis the labor issue at stake,” said María HelenaBedoya of the CCOO.

The trade union has dealt with many cases in whichworkers seek assistance from the union becausetheir employers don’t pay them their wages, or areunjustly fired. “We’ve come across many situations ofworkers who were fired, and when they protest, theemployer or crew leader will beat them up or injurethem. Many times these employers think that justbecause the worker is undocumented, they won’treport them to the police or take it any further,” saidMaría Helena Bedoya.

When the worker comes to the union for help, theCCOO will go with them to the police to report theemployer for physically abusing the worker, and aunion lawyer will immediately make a demand forthe withheld wages.

In recent years the Comisiones Obreras(CCOO) has defended and won a number ofcases involving undocumented workers whohave filed complaints against their employers.

One of the most influential cases concerned38 undocumented Ecuadorian workers whowere employed in an underground wood com-pany. The workers were continually exploitedand had been fired without receiving theirwages. The CCOO took on the case and madea triple defense by demanding that: 1) theindustrial tribunal pay the workers the wages;2) criminal legal proceedings be made against

the employer for violating the workers’ laborrights; and 3) a residence permit be granted tothe workers for collaborating with the justicesystem in a case concerning labor exploitation.The CCOO won in all three areas.

“Winning a case concerning an undocument-ed worker has more worth than winning acase concerning a legal immigrant worker,because these cases represent very importantnew developments in Spanish law,” said MaríaHelena Bedoya of the CCOO.

Undocumented Workers File Claims with

the State Prosecutor in Portugal

Portuguese organizations and unions often use legalchannels to address the growing problem of labordisputes involving undocumented workers.

Manuel Correia of the União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa(USL) said that in his union alone, there may beupwards of 1,000 labor disputes at a given time.Though they do not predominantly concern immi-grant workers, in some industries (such as the con-struction industry), the majority of labor disputesinvolve undocumented workers. The hotel industry isanother case in point, as 70% of the labor disputesinvolve immigrant workers, many of whom areundocumented Brazilians who were able to find jobsin the hotel industry due to their facility with the lan-guage and culture of Portugal, said Yasmine ArangoTorres of the USL. “Three to five undocumentedworkers come to our union office in Santarém on adaily basis with workplace problems,” said AquilinoJoaquim Faustino Coelho of the Sindicato dosTrabalhadores da Construção, Mármores e Madeirase Materiais de Construção do Sul.

To find a solution to these problems, these unionsand organizations in Portugal first try to engage inmediation between the employer and the worker.Many labor disputes are settled this way, but those

41 In addition, the Labor Division of the Supreme Court has created an interesting jurisprudence on the issue of labor rights ofundocumented workers. A noteworthy example (amongst many others) is the June 9th, 2003 decision of the Fourth Division of theSupreme Court (Appeal 4217/2002 made by Judge Martínez Garrido). In an appeal for the standardization of doctrine, this decisionholds that immigrant workers who do not have a work or residence permit but are employed, are entitled to payments from theSocial Security Administration if they have an accident in the workplace, and to health care and financial benefits under the sameconditions as Spanish workers.


that aren’t can be taken to the department of laborinspection or to the State Prosecutor (MinistérioPublico) and industrial tribunals. In Portugal, theseentities have demonstrated through practice that theirregular legal status of undocumented workers willnot be a factor that prevents them from havingaccess to legal channels.

The State Prosecutor and industrial tribunals areinvoked in cases in which the employment has beenterminated and issue at stake is e.g. non-payment ofwages. The Department of Labor Inspection is con-tacted if the worker is still employed but has a work-place problem such as late payment of wages.

“Many times when undocumented workers are firedor encounter some other problem on the job, theiremployers will use the argument of ‘Well, you’re hereillegally so you can’t do anything.’ Fortunately here inPortugal, this doesn’t happen like this. The worker isalready unprotected, and if they are exploited by theiremployer and don’t have the right to be representedin the adequate institutions for this, then it wouldreally be the law of the jungle!” said Gustavo Behr ofthe Casa do Brasil de Lisboa.

His organization has never come across any cases inwhich an undocumented worker hasn’t been able tomake a complaint through legal channels. The StateProsecutor of the industrial tribunals is usually not con-cerned if a worker has a valid legal status in Portugal ornot, but simply verifies if the contract is being respect-ed, and if not, then will act according to the law.

The unions described above have legal departmentsand represent undocumented workers in industrialtribunals. There have been numerous cases broughtforth by these unions in which undocumented work-ers have been able to obtain a settlement in theirfavor. Two non-governmental organizations in Lisbonhave also made important strides in informingundocumented workers about the possibilities ofmaking a claim in industrial tribunals and guidingthem through the legal process.

The legal services programs of the Casa doBrasil de Lisboa and the Serviço Jesuita aosRefugiados (JRS) provide orientation and information to immigrants on general immi-

gration law as well as labor law. The programsare run by lawyers who usually come to theorganizations during the evenings to providevolunteer legal assistance. José ManuelMacedo Vilaça, pro bono lawyer at JRS, saidthat many of the cases involving workplaceproblems that are handled by the JRS legalservices program involve non-payment orunder-payment of salaries. Gustavo Behr, probono lawyer at the Casa do Brasil de Lisboa,said that of all the labor-related cases handledby his organization concerning undocumentedBrazilian workers, the majority concern work-ers who have been fired from their jobs with-out being paid.

Both the JRS and the Casa do Brasil de Lisboausually refer undocumented workers to theState Prosecutor to file a complaint againsttheir employers. Gustavo Behr explained whathappens during a typical procedure involvingthe State Prosecutor: “The undocumentedworker goes to the State Prosecutor’s office tofile a complaint against their employer. Withina certain timeframe, the worker is summonedto appear at the State Prosecutor’s office alongwith the employer, and there is a first attemptat reconciliation before entering into legal pro-ceedings. If they are not able to come to anagreement in this phase, then the StateProsecutor will be assigned to defend theworker, and will file an initial complaint statingthe worker’s demands. If there is no agree-ment after the initial complaint is filed, thenthe employer has ten days to contest it. In theabsence of an agreement, the case moves onto the industrial tribunals. If there is adequateproof of exploitation, then the case is usuallyresolved in favor of the worker.”

The State Prosecutor is legally required to pro-vide assistance to all workers, regardless oftheir legal status. While Portuguese law hastraditionally distinguished between legal andundocumented workers, the practices of theindustrial tribunals have made the differencesbetween these workers disappear. “In regardto workplace issues, the method of making acomplaint to the State Prosecutor is quite effi-

cient, and the complaints are usually resolved.In a case involving e.g. late payment of wages,the employer receives an official summons toappear in court concerning the payment. If theemployer does not show up in the tribunal,then they receive a fine,” said José ManuelMacedo VilaçaI. “I think that this system ispreferable to a traditional legal judgmentinvolving lawyers, because it seems to workbetter and is more efficient. The StateProsecutor also has powers that lawyers don’thave,” he added.

French Network Builds Knowledge About

Cases Concerning Farmworkers

The Collectif de défense des travailleurs étrangersdans l’agriculture (CODETRAS) strives to strengthenthe legal assertiveness of migrant agricultural farm-workers in France by building knowledge about thedifferent cases that have been filed in industrial tri-bunals.

CODETRAS was able to locate eight lawyers in theBouches du Rhône region who work on these casesand asked them to participate in its network by shar-ing information and by adopting a common strategyon the cases. The lawyers were also asked to informthe different organizations in CODETRAS about anyfollow-up to the cases, so that the information andexperiences could be used in other cases.

“It’s not always easy to make lawyers work togetherbut some have shown keen interest in working withCODETRAS and agreed to share information abouttheir cases. We find it important to be aware of theoutcome of a particular case, and also to know moreabout the type of analysis used by the lawyer, partic-ularly if it was successful and could be applied toanother case,” said Denis Natanelic of CODETRAS.

CODETRAS has also developed a repertory that clas-sifies all of the different labor disputes that havebeen filed in legal channels between these workersand their employers. Each file is continually updatedand contains specific information about the case, thecontact information of the lawyer representing thecase, its current status in the legal system, and the

type of ruling issued. As the participating organiza-tions in CODETRAS are often contacted by localorganizations who are confronted in their daily workwith these issues, the repertory is a useful tool inmaking a referral to the organization and/or lawyerin the network with expertise on the particular issue,said Denis Natanelic.

Launching Lawsuits Against Abusive

Employers in the United States

Most of the labor disputes involving undocumentedworkers and employers in the United States are han-dled by administrative agencies in the differentstates, rather than through lawsuits, said AnaAvendaño, Associate General Counsel and Directorof the Immigrant Worker Program at the AmericanFederation of Labor – Congress of IndustrialOrganizations (AFL-CIO). “There are very few NGOsand lawyers that do litigation on behalf of undocu-mented workers, because it is not economically fea-sible to be handling individual cases.”

Nonetheless, a number of NGOs have collaboratedwith pro bono lawyers in launching lawsuits againstabusive employers. A decision in favor of the undoc-umented worker has been reached in many cases.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York(ROC-NY) works with pro bono lawyers and recentlysettled long-standing lawsuits against two restau-rants in New York City for alleged discrimination andfailure to pay overtime against 23 workers, most ofthem immigrants from Mexico. ROC-NY helpedarrange for lawyers at the Urban Justice Center, theCUNY Law School Immigrant Rights Clinic and a pri-vate law firm to handle cases against the Cité andPark Avenue Cafe restaurants in New York City. ROC-NY waged a campaign for one and a half yearsagainst the restaurant owners, using methods suchas litigation, protests and hand billing in front of therestaurant, press coverage and clergy visits.

“We did protests almost every week. But when thatwasn’t working, we decided that we would changetactics. So we stopped the protests but went everyday in front of the restaurants to give out pamphletsabout the ‘Daily Specials – Serving Up Unfair LaborPractices’ (see Chapter Seven),” said Sekou Siby,Outreach Coordinator at ROC-NY.

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In January 2005, ROC-NY won $164,000 for the 23workers when the executives from the restaurantgroup that owns the two restaurants agreed to settlethe lawsuit. In an interview with the New York Times,Saru Jayaraman, ROC-NY Executive Director, com-mented on the important legal victory: “It’s a bigachievement for a nonunion workers’ center to go upagainst one of the industry’s biggest players and winsuch a good settlement, which goes far to improveworking conditions. These problems are prevalent inthe industry, and this settlement should send a sig-nal through the industry.”42

One of the main strategies of the organizationAndolan Organizing South Asian Workers in uphold-ing undocumented workers’ rights is to bring law-suits against and public attention to abusive employ-ers. Claims include violations of federal and mini-mum state wage laws, sexual harassment andabuse, and assault and false imprisonment.

Successful cases involving abused and exploiteddomestic workers have resulted in payment of backwages and other damages.

Domestic worker fights abusive employers:case study of a member of AndolanOrganizing South Asian Workers

Marjina was brought to the United States fromBangladesh on a temporary visa as a domesticworker by an Indian family. Upon arriving inthe United States and being told by heremployers to overstay her visa, Marijna wasforced to work 80 hours per week with no hol-idays and endured severe verbal abuse. Herwork duties included cooking three meals aday for twelve extended family members,cleaning, hand washing dishes, doing laundryfor immediate and extended family, ironing

42 For more information about the settlement, see Steven Greenhouse, “Two Restaurants to Pay Workers $164,000,” New YorkTimes, January 12, 2005, available on ROC-NY website at: http://www.rocny.org/programs-corporatecampaigns.htm, accessedon April 17, 2005.

One of the reasons that NGOs in the United Statesrely on support from pro bono lawyers is due to thegradual cuts that have been made by the federalgovernment to legal services programs over thepast twenty years.

In the late 1980s, the Reagan administration cutfunding for non-profit organizations that were pro-viding legal services to undocumented migrants.Those budget cuts had serious impacts for organi-zations such as the National Employment LawProject (NELP), which at the time relied heavily onfederal funding to carry out its work as a legalservices backup center for labor and employmentissues of low-income workers, said CathyRuckelshaus, NELP Litigation Director. Manyorganizations were forced to look for other fundingif their mission included providing legal services toundocumented migrants.

The situation became worse in 1996, when the U.S.Congress decided to target federally funded legalservices programs by making even more restric-

tions. Under the new rule, if an organizationaccepted money from the federal government, ithad to promise not to represent undocumentedworkers with money from any other source, includ-ing private funding. Organizations that needed fed-eral government funding to exist were thus forcedto stop providing legal assistance to undocument-ed migrants, or depend entirely on private fundingin order to carry out this work.

As a result, thousands of lawyers across the coun-try that provided legal assistance to undocument-ed migrants were no longer available after 1996,putting a huge burden on the organizations thatcontinued the work (without federal governmentfunding). Some organizations were set up with pri-vate funding to provide legal services to undocu-mented migrants in some states. But in areas ofthe country such as the Southeast, which histori-cally has had a high concentration of low-wageworkers, there are only a handful of organizationsthat can provide legal services to undocumentedworkers.

BUDGET CUTS AFFECT NGOS’ CAPACITIES TO LEGALLY REPRESENTUNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

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and shoveling snow, in addition to taking careof two infants, including a newborn baby. Forthis work, Marjina was paid only $100 permonth, wages which she never once saw sincethey were sent directly to her family inBangladesh.

Marjina escaped from her abusive work situa-tion in 1999 and decided to work for anotherBangladeshi family who lived nearby andpromised to pay her higher wages. Marjinafaced extreme hardship with the new family,suffering sexual abuse and was again extreme-ly underpaid. Complaining to the wife of thefamily about the abuse she faced at the handsof her husband, Marjina was thrown out ofthe house, unable to gather any of her belong-ings and forced to fend for herself with littlemoney or knowledge of English. After findingher way to New York City, a bus driver intro-duced Marjina to an Indian storeowner withwhom she could communicate and he calledsome contacts to seek a referral for her. It isthrough this chance encounter that Marjinawas put in touch with Andolan.

With Andolan’s support, Marjina met one ofthe many lawyers who do pro-bono work withAndolan and decided to file a lawsuit againstboth of her previous employers. After suc-cessfully winning one of the cases in 2002,Marjina settled the second case against heremployer for back wages in July 2003. Moreimportant than the financial compensationwas the message sent to the employers whowere forced to account for their actions andrecognize the unacceptable treatment of theirformer employee.

Another organization that launches lawsuits onbehalf of workers is the National Day LaborOrganizing Network (NDLON), which challengesanti-day labor solicitation ordinances in FederalCourt. Ordinances have been made by a number ofmunicipalities in the United States to prohibit daylaborers from soliciting work in public places. “Thatmeans that basically it would be a crime if you go outin the streets to look for work to feed your family,”said Pablo Alvarado, NDLON National Coordinator.

Before challenging a municipality in court, NDLONmakes significant efforts to dialogue with cities inorder to address the civil rights violations that thesetype of ordinances entail. However, if dialogue doesnot work, litigation can be a powerful weapon.

When NDLON challenges the ordinances in court, italways makes sure that the day laborers understandand take part in the process by holding comprehen-sive organizing campaigns. NDLON works closelywith the Mexican American Legal Defense andEducational Fund (MALDEF) and the Puerto RicanLegal Defense and Educational Fund (PRLDEF),which provide and finance legal representation tochallenge the ordinances. The outcome has beenpositive, since many of the ordinances have beendeclared unconstitutional.

Class Action Lawsuits Involving

Undocumented Farmworkers

in the United States

One of the few organizations in the southeasternUnited States that provides legal services to undocu-mented migrants is the Migrant Farmworker JusticeProject in Florida.

Established in 1996 and funded by the Florida BarFoundation, the Migrant Farmworker Justice Projectis committed to ensuring that the full range of legaladvocacy is available to the 300,000 farmworkerswho work in Florida’s fields and groves. Greg Schell,attorney at the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project,says that nearly 80% of farmworkers in the State ofFlorida are undocumented. At a time when theundocumented proportion of the population is grow-ing, his organization has been struggling to re-inventa system. Its main line of work is litigation, but giventhe organization’s limited capacities and the sheervolume of labor disputes involving undocumentedfarmworkers, cases must be carefully chosen thatwill have a broad impact and will bring a maximumreturn.

Greg Schell explained that in agriculture or in anyother low-wage job, it is common for employers notto cheat just one worker, but most likely all theirworkers: “So these are cases that lend themselves toclass actions. You file a case and demand that notjust one client is paid, but everyone who was workingthere and who was cheated gets paid.” Paralegals

working for the Migrant Farmworker Justice Projectdo outreach to undocumented workers, carefullyexplaining them their rights and encouraging themto bring lawsuits when appropriate. Most of thecases taken on by the organization involve wageclaims from a group of workers.

Greg Schell, attorney at the MigrantFarmworker Justice Project, gave the follow-ing example of a successful class action lawsuitrepresented by his organization:

“15-year old Mario Lopez Diaz came fromGuatemala as an undocumented migrant andstarted working with family members illegallyat the Pero pepper farm. Mario had only beenin the country three months when a truck thatwas used to transport big bins of peppers ranover him and crushed his legs. Mario woke uptwo days later in a hospital in a town he’dnever heard of and didn’t know where he was.Eventually he found a phone number some-where from one of his relatives, so one ofthem picked him up. He received assistancefrom a social service agency, who brought himto our office because they said that he hadsome serious problems and needed legal assis-tance. We asked Mario who he worked for butall he could remember was that he had beenpicking peppers for a Mexican guy namedJosé. We were able through really outstandingdetective work to figure out who he workedfor, and it turned out to be this huge companyPero, which he didn’t know at the time is thelargest producer of green peppers in theUnited States.”

“We eventually got him paid for his accident.But we had been looking for somebody foryears to sue Pero, because we knew that theywere cheating workers right and left. So weasked Mario if he was happy with the way thecompany was treating him, and he replied,‘No, they’re treating me terribly.’ Weexplained him his rights, and asked him if hewould like to do something called a classaction lawsuit. His family members workingfor Pero ostracized him as did a lot of the olderworkers, saying ‘You’re making trouble for the

boss, don’t do it,’ but he wanted to, so hetook out a lawsuit against the nation’s largestpepper grower.”

“So we launched the lawsuit with Mario, andwe find out that the labor contractor there -José, who, the truth be told, is not the worstguy in the world, but he’s not paid enough bythe company, so he cheats the workers – notonly does he pay workers less than the mini-mum wage, but José has stolen the socialsecurity money that he’s deducted from theworkers for the past 25 years. Early in thecase, we take José’s statement, and the farmeris sitting there, and José admits: ‘I stole thesocial security money. I made up the records. Ididn’t insure the vehicles. Yes, I did all thatstuff,’ and the farmer just says: ‘I want to stopthis. I’m embarrassed for our company, I wantto do better.’ We enter into negotiations, andat the end of the day the company now says:‘We will no longer pay people through José.The workers will be our employees, and wewill go to electronic time keeping, so thatevery time a worker (they all have electronicbadges) hands in a bucket of peppers, it isscanned, so we can tell them down to theminute how long it takes them to pick a buck-et.’ Like most farmworkers, these workers gotpaid based on volume and only were paid forthe buckets they picked. But now the comput-er automatically - if they didn’t earn the mini-mum wage - makes up the difference, which iswhat the law requires. So all the workersthought: ‘We got a raise!’ What they really gotfor the first time in their lives was the mini-mum wage.”

“Pero is now paying out hundreds of thou-sands of dollars in back money to thousands ofworkers, the majority who are undocumented.It’s now regarded as a model company fortreating its employees right, and has been ableto use the data from the electronic badges toproperly gage actual costs. The companyfarmer told us ‘I should have done this 20years ago. It has been a win-win all around,because of one brave little Guatemalanundocumented worker.’”


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Transnational Approach to Legal Advocacy:

Mexico and the United States

A sizeable percentage of the total population ofundocumented migrants in the United States areMexicans, many of whom are considered to be “shut-tle migrants” because they go back and forthbetween the two countries to work and return totheir families. The increased border restrictions onthe U.S.-Mexico border have made it difficult andeven deadly for these migrants to come and go. Whilemany end up settling in the United States, the vastmajority inevitably return to Mexico, said Greg Schell,attorney at the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project.

While they are working in the United States, Mexicanworkers toil in difficult conditions and in some indus-tries run high risks of accidents or injuries due to theparticular work they carry out. In addition, their unfa-miliarity with safety precautions as well as govern-ment entities that can offer them protection increas-es their risk of accidents and injuries. Lawyer RachelMicah-Jones said that Mexican workers in the UnitedStates are often unwilling to speak openly aboutworkplace conditions because of employer controlor immigration status. The costs and logistics ofrepresenting migrants in the United States are alsoan obstacle to obtaining justice in labor disputes.

Once these workers return to Mexico, it is almostimpossible to seek redress, as connecting with andmaintaining contact with advocates in the UnitedStates is extremely difficult. If they are deported,there is also no effort made by the U.S. governmentto make sure they receive their last pay.

“Undocumented workers rarely connect with thesystems that exist in the United States to help them,be they legal assistance, be they medical assistanceor be they social services. They end up in Mexico andtry to get help from their local government officials,but most times these officials don’t know what to dowith them. We have done training sessions forMexican consulate officials who were going to workin the United States and we were struck by their lackof knowledge about what’s available in the UnitedStates to protect workers. These officials hadabsolutely no clue of the labor laws or where to senda worker if they have a labor dispute,” said GregSchell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project.

A new organization is being developed that will takean innovative approach in seeking redress for work-ers based in Mexico with unresolved labor disputes inthe United States.

The non-profit organization Centro de losDerechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM) aims tobridge the transnational gap between Mexico-based migrant workers and advocates in theUnited States. CDM is projected to open in Fall2005 in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, whichhas the longest and most developed history ofmigration to the United States of any of theMexican states.

The staff of both U.S. and Mexican trainedadvocates will conduct outreach efforts inMexico, where workers are more accessibleand speak openly about workplace conditions,said Rachel Micah-Jones, CDM director. Theseoutreach efforts will include oral presentationsto workers in major sending communities inMexico about their workplace rights in theUnited States. CDM will also connect workerswho have experienced problems with theiremployment in the United States (such asunpaid wages or workplace injuries) withlawyers, unions or worker groups in theUnited States that can help them. It will pro-vide on the ground support for advocates inthe U.S. who represent Mexico-basedmigrants but face financial difficulties due tothe costs of conducting site visits to the work-ers in Mexico. In addition, the CDM will facil-itate international cooperation around legaland policy issues.

Crucial Legal Drawback:

The Hoffman Plastic Case

in the United States

While the above-mentioned examples demonstratethat it is indeed possible for undocumented workersto obtain victories in the legal system, it should alsobe highlighted that an unfavorable legal decisionconcerning undocumented workers can have very


serious and wide-reaching negative consequences.Such a legal decision may affect workers’ rights inareas that were not the focus of the original ruling.

This situation has occurred in the United States dueto the aftereffects of a 2002 Supreme Court ruling inthe Hoffman Plastic case.

Rights Without Remedies

How does a case involving the right to organize affectother cases concerning the labor rights of undocu-mented workers?

Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel andDirector of the Immigrant Worker Program at theAmerican Federation of Labor – Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), explained thatthere are two components to U.S. laws: a rights com-ponent that covers undocumented workers by law,and a remedy if they are wronged. “A right without aremedy is an empty right, because if I have a right towork, but if I have no remedy if that right is violated,then what’s the point in having a right? Since the2002 Hoffman decision, the remedy is what’s becomea problem in the U.S.,” she said.

As a result of the Hoffman ruling, undocumentedworkers have been fearful of challenging theiremployers through the legal system for fear thattheir immigration status could be used against themin any labor dispute. Amy Sugimori, Staff Attorney at

the National Employment Law Project (NELP),explained that “employers are arguing that theHoffman decision makes immigration status relevantin more cases. They’re also saying that the Hoffmandecision meant that undocumented workers have norights anymore, which is actually wrong. But theHoffman decision is an incentive for employers andtheir lawyers to start bringing up immigration statusand using harassing questions which are intimidat-ing and which can induce people to feel like theydon’t want to go through with something.”

There have been a number of court cases since 2002in which employers’ lawyers have attempted to makeimmigration status relevant in cases involvingundocumented workers, even when the issue atstake in the case is not about receiving back pay as aremedy for being unlawfully fired for organizing in aunion, which was the original meaning of theHoffman decision.

Advocates Fight Back By Exchanging

Information and Strategies

NGOs and other advocates have responded to thesedevelopments by raising awareness amongst undoc-umented workers and their lawyers about theHoffman decision and its impact.

The Low Wage Immigrant Worker Coalition(LWIW) has been an important vehicle for advo-cates to exchange information and legal strate-

43 See NELP, “Used and Abused: The Treatment of Undocumented Victims of Labor Law Violations Since Hoffman PlasticCompounds v. NLRB,” January 2003, more information available at: http://www.nelp.org/iwp/rights/organize/usedandabused.cfm, accessed on January 5, 2005. See also NELP, “Supreme Court Decision in Hoffman Plastic Compounds v.NLRB: Fact Sheet for Workers,” May 2002, available online at: http://www.nelp.org/docUploads/pub132%2Epdf, accessed onJanuary 5, 2005.

This case involved an undocumented workernamed José Castro who was working in a factory inCalifornia. His employer violated the NationalLabor Relations Act (NLRA) by firing him for help-ing to organize a union.

Under the NLRA, a worker whose rights have beenviolated can be awarded back pay. Back pay is themoney the employer is required to pay a worker tomake up for wages the worker would have earnedif she or he had not been illegally fired. Back pay is

the primary and most effective remedy awardedunder the NLRA. It serves as compensation, as anincentive for workers to complain about unfair andillegal practices, and deterrence against illegallabor practices.

However, in the Hoffman case, the Supreme Courtdecided in 2002 that Mr. Castro could not beawarded back pay, since he was unauthorized towork and had used false documents to obtainwork.43

HOFFMAN PLASTIC V. THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

gies concerning the impact of the Hoffman deci-sion on undocumented workers. One of its suc-cesses has been to get the courts to issue protec-tive orders to forbid an employer from asking aworker about his/her immigration status duringcourt proceedings (see Chapter Five). AnaAvendaño, Associate General Counsel andDirector of the Immigrant Worker Program at theAmerican Federation of Labor – Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), said that oneof the important roles of the LWIW is to educatelawyers who are representing undocumentedworkers in court on how to do the cases well andprotect these workers’ rights.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) has donesignificant work in informing NGOs and unionsthroughout the country about various issues impactingimmigrant workers, including the Hoffman decision.

NILC holds training sessions in which it clarifieswhat the Hoffman decision means and doesn’t meanfor undocumented workers, and provides informa-tion about the different court rulings since then thatimpact undocumented workers’ rights, saidMarielena Hincapié, Director of Programs at NILC.NILC is pushing for legislative reform to undo theHoffman decision, and the training sessions coverthis and other legislative work.

NILC also holds a national conference every twoyears which aims to help set a national agenda onissues affecting low-income immigrant andrefugee communities in the United States, focusingon workers’ rights, access to government pro-grams, and immigration rights. The annual confer-ences draw up to 500 of the leading advocates,organizers and other experts representing local,state and national immigrant and refugee rights,civil rights, health care, anti-poverty, legal, reli-gious, ethnic, labor, community and low-wageworker groups.

Although the Hoffman decision represents an impor-tant legal drawback for undocumented workers inthe United States, it has not weakened the resolve oftheir advocates. NGOs and other advocates continueto emphasize through their practices that the legalsystem is an important mechanism for undocument-ed workers to assert their rights to fair working con-ditions.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• This chapter illustrates that undocumented work-ers do in fact have the possibility of obtaining victo-ries in the legal system.

• Nonetheless, it was pointed out that there are manyobstacles that prevent undocumented workersfrom filing a claim. Fear of being deported and theneed for substantive proof makes it very difficultfor undocumented workers to obtain needed pro-tection. Other obstacles such as language barriers,poor investigation and the mere cost that lawsuitscan amount to also create serious barriers. Thesemust be overcome by informing the workers abouttheir rights and about legal possibilities, as well asby providing them with assistance in filing a com-plaint. Helping workers obtain proof such asdescriptions and photographs of the work place,work uniforms or even finding witnesses is alsoimportant in protecting their rights.

• Despite these obstacles, examples from France,Germany, Portugal, Spain, and the United Statesshow how undocumented workers have success-fully achieved workers’ compensation for work-place injuries (and in some cases indemnities forfamilies of workers killed on the job).

• Examples from industrial tribunals in Europe andin the United States show how undocumentedworkers are able to file complaints against abusiveemployers in the labor courts and achieve rulingsin their favor. In many countries the main missionof an industrial tribunal is not to determine thelegal status of the worker, but to investigate if fairlabor conditions have been respected. Rulingshave often been in favor of exploited and abusedundocumented workers, as the examples in thischapter illustrate.

• Unfavorable cases such as the Hoffman Plasticcase in the United States can, however, cause seri-ous damage to undocumented workers’ rights.This particular case shows how undocumentedworkers have rights but at the same time do nothave remedies if they are wronged. The case is aserious legal drawback and implies wide-reachingnegative consequences.

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This chapter portrays the different ways thatorganizations work with governmental agen-cies to promote awareness amongst these

institutions about undocumented workers’ rights andto effectively improve their legal protection.

The first part of the chapter presents some of the dif-ferent challenges advocates encounter when facingthe governmental agency responsible for laborinspection.

The second part of the chapter highlights variousexamples of alliances that a number of organizationshave formed to improve the way the governmentalagencies responsible for labor inspection, occupa-tional safety and health, social security, as well asthe police department handle issues facing undocu-mented workers.

Diverse Barriers When

Approaching Labor Inspection

One way of attempting to solve a workplace problemis to contact the governmental entity responsible forlabor inspection and request that it intervenes. Theprocess of involving the department of labor inspec-tion is similar in most countries. Advocates must firstfile a written complaint, indicating the type of irregu-larity encountered and what the worker shouldexpect to receive. In a case involving e.g. unpaidwages, the worker’s salary needs to be indicated.The labor inspector goes to the workplace to inspectthe situation and makes a report. If the worker is notsatisfied with the labor inspector’s report, furtheractions can be undertaken, such as filing a case inthe industrial tribunals to attack the employer(s)responsible for the problems.

9. Working with Governmental Agencies to Promote UndocumentedWorkers’ Rights

“Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a leftist trade union to havethis type of relationship with the police. We have slowly developed a workingrelationship wherein we help the Foreigners’ Police to clarify who the victims areand why they’re victims, and they issue a report that is supportive of the workerand that can be used in applying for a residence permit due to the fact that theyare a victim.”

• María Helena Bedoya of the Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union

Before delving into the issue of how NGOs andunions work with governmental agencies concern-ing undocumented workers, a word of caution isneeded. Many advocates of undocumented work-ers have serious doubts about working with gov-ernmental agencies, because the latter have a rep-utation for not offering protection to undocument-ed workers. There are unfortunately many pocketswithin governmental agencies where immigration

status is important and constitutes a barrier toservices.

On the other hand, there are also pockets withingovernmental agencies which constitute goodpractices in the protection of undocumented work-ers. Such initiatives – and NGOs’ and trade unions’collaboration with governmental entities regardingthese measures - are the focus of this chapter.

A WORD OF CAUTION CONCERNING COLLABORATION WITH GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES

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The governmental entity responsible for laborinspection has a duty to ensure that employersrespect their obligations towards workers: they haveto pay workers their wages, guarantee safe and fairworking conditions, and maintain an employmentrelation that is free from exploitation. Given its pre-occupation with upholding fair working conditionsand sanctioning employers who do not fulfill laborrequirements, the department of labor inspectionwould seem to be a natural ally for those concernedby the working conditions of undocumented workers.

Nevertheless, while individual labor inspectors inmany cases may be supportive of undocumentedworkers, this governmental entity faces a number ofchallenges that affect its ability to promote fair work-ing conditions for these workers.

Lack of Resources

A common complaint by advocates of undocumentedworkers is that there simply aren’t enough resourcesand labor inspectors to properly investigate all of theaccidents and abuses encountered by these workers.

Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the Sindicato de Obreros delCampo (SOC) said that this is the case in Almeria,Spain, where there are six labor inspectors for thewhole province. “In this region there are thousandsof hectares of greenhouses. It’s very difficult forinspectors to reach the worksites, because they arespread out all over the place and hard to get to. Wehave good relations with labor inspectors, and someare very concerned about the workers, but they justdon’t have the resources. In the past we made com-plaints and eight or nine months went by before theinspector was able to visit the particular worksite. Bythat time the worker had either left or been fired, butin any case was no longer available to confirm thecomplaint,” he said.

Angelica Salas, Executive Director of the Coalition forHumane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA),said that while the State of California has good laws onthe protection of immigrant workers, including thosewho are undocumented, there isn’t any money to hireinspectors who will actually go out and check up onwhether people are actually following the law.

“There are something like 37 inspectors for a five-county area.44 There is no way that you can have 37people try and crack down on exploitative employers.But then it’s also a question of how much money doyou have to enforce the law? This is where I feel thatwe are really short, considering we have millions andmillions of workers. Here in Los Angeles we have1.27 million undocumented workers. This is justbased on census numbers, so the actual numbersare most likely higher. We have the garment industrywith about 140,000 workers here in Los Angeles. Daylaborers are estimated at about 20,000 with 125 cor-ners. There is mass abuse. What really also happensis that sometimes workers don’t have just oneemployer, but they have multiple employers. So itwould entail going after multiple employers for eachworker,” said Angelica Salas.

A lack of resources within the governmental agen-cies charged with enforcing labor law can have seri-ous negative consequences for workers who filewage claims.

In the State of California, even though workers maywin a case, they may never get the money they areowed. This is especially the case because the gov-ernment agencies charged with enforcing labor law(such as the DLSE, Cal OSHA for health and safety,etc.) are all under funded, and unable to carry outenough investigations and ensure that employers payonce a case has been decided, said AlejandraDomenzain, Associate Director of Sweatshop Watch.

Liz Sunwoo, Coordinator of the Multi-EthnicImmigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON),painted a similar picture of the situation involvingworkers’ claims: “We’ve had cases in the past withjudgments of hundreds of thousands of dollars, butthe employer knew that after a long period of timepassed and if they still didn’t pay, then they could getaway with it. The governmental entity responsible forcollecting on judgments is so backlogged, and thereis no one keeping up with the case judgments. It’skind of a slap in the face for the worker. It is intimi-dating to go through the whole hearing process. Youcan have a moral victory by winning the claim butthen… no money. The money never sees the light ofday.”

44 The Greater Los Angeles area encompasses the Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and has atotal area of 87,972 km2. As of 2005 the population was 17.5 million. See listing on “Greater Los Angeles Area,”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Los_Angeles_Area, accessed on September 2, 2005.


Incompetent and Inefficient Inspectors

Not only is there an overall lack of resources, butthose who are employed to do this work are expect-ed to be competent and efficient, which isn’t alwaysthe case. Union leaders in Portugal harshly criticizethe management of this governmental entity in theircountry, which they said is classified as having theworst labor conditions amongst the original fifteenEuropean Union Member States.

While there are labor inspectors in Portugal whocarry out their work responsibly, they are overshad-owed by the many labor inspectors who wereappointed to their jobs by former party leaders andremained in the positions, explained AquilinoJoaquim Faustino Coelho of the Sindicato dosTrabalhadores da Construção, Mármores e Madeirase Materiais de Construção do Sul. “There is a lack ofseriousness within this department, even corrup-tion,” he said.

“Many times labor inspectors will be contacted tointervene in incidents which are clear violations oflabor rights within contractual law, and they eitherdon’t go to inspect, or if they do show up, they don’teven properly check which worker made the com-plaint,” said Manuel Correia of the União dosSindicatos de Lisboa (USL). “Unions have continuallyprotested against these working methods but the sit-uation has only gotten worse in the past three years.The government’s attitude is that workplace prob-lems have to be resolved between employers andemployees, not by involving the department of laborinspection,” he added.

Inspectors Who Report a Worker to the

Immigration Authorities

When an undocumented worker or advocate contactsthe labor inspection to report a situation of abuse orexploitation, they have to have some reassurancethat the inspector will not report the worker’s irreg-ular status to the Immigration Authorities. Yet insome countries visited during the course of theresearch for this report, it was observed that laborinspectors do denounce undocumented workersirregular legal status. This happens in theNetherlands, said Dirk Kloosterboer, Researcher atDunya Advies. He said that it would be good if work-ers could contact the labor inspection to report unac-

ceptable working conditions or payment without therisk and fear of being deported, but “this is not real-ly the case in the Netherlands, since the laborinspection agency maintains close collaboration withthe Immigration Service.”

It is worrying if the governmental entity charged withinspecting labor standards is sidetracked from thereal issue at stake by a worker’s irregular legal sta-tus. Fortunately, the department of labor inspectionin a number of countries is clear about its mission,which is to uphold decent working conditions for allworkers.

Stefan Malomgré, Head of the Social Inspection Unitof the Federal Public Service of Employment, Laborand Social Dialogue of the Brussels Capital Region,said that there are most likely 600 to 750 laborinspectors for the whole country of Belgium. Theinspectors are divided amongst two different FederalPublic Services and are all active in verifying workingconditions and social security rights, including thoseexperienced by undocumented workers. Amongstthese departments, there is no obligation todenounce an undocumented worker to the police,since their main mission is to investigate if theemployer is upholding the working conditions.

Inspectors in California and other U.S. states will notreport workers to the Immigration Services becauseit is independent of their work, said Angelica Salas,Executive Director of the Coalition for HumaneImmigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).“Literally, they deal with labor issues. The only timethey get involved is in situations where there is traf-ficking or slave labor,” she said.

Alliances with Governmental

Agencies

Many organizations find it important to build rela-tionships with governmental agencies that arerequired to protect workers, so that these agenciescan effectively provide protection within the realm oftheir capacities.

While governmental agencies are commonly knownfor their negative practices towards undocumentedworkers, it is also important to underline that theseinstitutions are not the enemy. Many times govern-

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mental agencies can and want to intervene to protectworkers, but are limited because they cannot effec-tively reach the workers.

Stefan Malomgré, Head of the Social Inspection Unitof the Federal Public Service of Employment, Laborand Social Dialogue of the Brussels Capital Region,said that if his department was contacted by an NGOor trade union, it would be possible to do many thingsfor undocumented workers: “If an NGO or a unioncontacts us and asks us to investigate a situation inwhich an undocumented worker complained thats/he hadn’t been paid, and if this falls within ourcompetences, we will investigate the situation andtry to find a solution to the worker’s problem of notbeing paid. Another area that we think could beimproved is the money owed to workers. Thereshould be a way of paying an undocumented workerimmediately if s/he’s a victim of fraud, because nowthese workers are doubly sanctioned: in most casesthey are deported and their means of existence aredestroyed because they often do not end up receivingthe money they are owed. The employer is sanc-tioned, but he won’t feel it directly and even has thepossibility of hiring another undocumented worker inthe meantime to replace the one who was deported.”

The following sections highlight examples of the var-ious coalitions and alliances amongst governmentalagencies, organizations and other actors that havebeen influential in promoting workers’ rights andaccess to services.

Raising Awareness About Undocumented

Workers’ Rights

A number of organizations find it important to estab-lish working relationships with governmental agen-cies that are required to protect all workers. The aimis to make these institutions aware that a worker’slegal status is irrelevant in many instances. “Itseems evident, but a lot of agencies don’t know thatthey shouldn’t be asking about immigration status,”said Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel andDirector of the Immigrant Worker Program at theAmerican Federation of Labor – Congress ofIndustrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) hastaken the lead in working with agencies in the United

States to ensure that a worker’s legal status is not animpediment to protection. Within the framework ofits Immigrant Worker Project, NELP has developed anumber of resources as well as model legislation forensuring that immigrant workers can access govern-ment services and other important institutions with-out fear of revealing confidential information. AmySugimori, Staff Attorney at NELP, said that NELP hasbeen trying to work with local groups who want tonegotiate with the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration (OSHA), because OSHA is promotingand carrying out outreach to immigrant communitiesbut at the same time not providing any guaranteesabout not asking or sharing immigration statusinformation.

Trade unions - especially in Europe, where they arean accepted social partner (see Chapter Five) – canparticularly make an impact amongst governmentalentities by engaging in efforts to sensitize theseinstitutions to undocumented workers’ rights.

The Foreign Workers’ Information Center (CITE) ofthe Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) trade union in theSpanish province of Catalonia has developed a work-ing relationship over the years with all of the govern-mental agencies in Catalonia that deal with immigra-tion, including the industrial tribunals, the AttorneyGeneral’s Office and the police. María Helena Bedoyaof the CCOO said that CITE-CCOO’s relations with theAttorney General’s Office are particularly close andhave resulted in the creation of a special AttorneyGeneral’s office to protect workers’ rights. On theother hand, it took a long time to build the protocolthat it now maintains with the police.

“Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable for aleftist trade union to have this type of relationship withthe police. The mission of the Foreigners’ Police hasmainly been to remove as many undocumentedmigrants from Spain as possible, whereas ours is theopposite – to protect these workers. So we started byasking them, ‘If these workers are exploited by theiremployers, then why should we deport them?’ Andslowly we developed a working relationship wherein wehelp the Foreigners’ Police to clarify who the victims areand why they’re victims, and they issue a report that issupportive of the worker and that can be used in apply-ing for a residence permit due to the fact that they are avictim,” said María Helena Bedoya of the CCOO.


When asked what made these governmental agen-cies slowly start working with the CITE-CCOO, MaríaHelena Bedoya said that it might be due to theirrespect for the trade union’s work in the protection ofimmigrant workers. “In a way it’s because we do ourwork well and efficiently, and people recognize this.We may not always agree on things from an ideolog-ical perspective, but I think that these governmentalagencies are no longer afraid of working with usbecause they respect us.”

Facilitating Access to a Special Help Desk

for Immigrant Workers

An alliance of organizations in California seeks topromote immigrant workers’ rights through a uniquecollaboration of governmental agencies and organi-zations that have direct contact with these workers.

EMPLEO – Employment Education andOutreach – is an alliance of federal and stategovernmental agencies, local business andcommunity organizations and the consulatesof Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,Nicaragua and Costa Rica in the greater LosAngeles area.45

EMPLEO aims to empower the Hispanic com-munity, especially recent immigrants (a largemajority of whom are undocumented), by pro-viding education, services and protection oftheir rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

The project has a toll-free help line that Latinoimmigrants can call to ask questions aboutworkplace issues dealing with pay, benefits,discrimination, job safety and health. Spanish-speaking volunteers from the Diocese of SanBernardino’s Catholic Charities Center staff theline. The volunteers are trained by each of thegovernmental agencies participating in thealliance, and forward information from callers

to the appropriate agency. If the agency deter-mines that the case meets all of the requiredcriteria, then it contacts the worker in order toproceed with the case.

By having the Coalition for Humane ImmigrantRights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) involved, itreinforces the notion that legal status is irrele-vant for workers who need to contact or file acase at a government agency concerning alabor issue, said CHIRLA Executive DirectorAngelica Salas. “We wanted to try to facilitatedirect access to these agencies, so we have anagreement with these agencies about workers’immigration status. We let people know that itdoesn’t matter what your immigration status is;you can still use these governmental agencies.That’s also why the consulates are involved, sothat people would be connected based upontheir country of origin, as well as the church andthe business community,” she said.

In less than a month and a half after EMPLEOwas launched in July 2004, 700 people usedthe service, indicating the need for more serv-ices directed at the immigrant community andenforcement of labor laws. “Part of the reasonwhy we wanted EMPLEO to be such a broadalliance was to actually create an official docu-mentation of the need. So if you have 700cases in such a short time, then you know thatthere is a huge need and it might be a way ofprompting more money to go into enforce-ment,” said Angelica Salas.

Collaborating on Strategies to Improve

Labor Enforcement

In response to the problem of inadequate labor lawenforcement, the Coalition of Immigrant WorkerAdvocates (CIWA)46 was formed in 2001 to improve

45 Partners in the EMPLEO Program include: the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division and Occupational Safety andHealth Administration (OSHA); the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission; the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement(DLSE) and Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CAL-OSHA); the Diocese of San Bernardino, the consulates of Mexico, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and the Coalition forHumane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).

46 The Coalition of Immigrant Worker Advocates (CIWA) is a collaborative effort of the Garment Worker Center, Sweatshop Watch,Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, Korean ImmigrantWorkers Advocates (KIWA), Pilipino Worker Center, Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA) and UCLALabor Center.

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the working conditions and labor law enforcement inlow-wage industries around the state of California,including domestic, day labor, garment, market,restaurant and janitorial industries.

One of CIWA’s approaches has been to work with thelabor officials from the Labor and WorkforceDevelopment Agency to develop strategies forimproving labor law enforcement within these com-plex industries where violations are rampant, preda-tory employers run businesses with total disregardfor the law, and sub-contracting arrangements makeit easier for parties to avoid labor law compliance.

An example of how CIWA works to ensure accounta-bility for labor law enforcement is by meeting regu-larly with labor officials to propose ways to strength-en and streamline enforcement efforts. Another wayCIWA pushes for reforms is to participate in publichearings where workers can testify about their expe-riences with the labor commissioner, describing theobstacles they face at every stage of filing a wageclaim (see Chapter Eight), as well as other violationsat work. “On the one hand, we try to work collabora-tively with labor agencies to bring forth proposalsthat could save resources and increase effective-ness. Often, we are able to bring additional resourcesthat help their work, such as language and outreachcapacity. On the other hand, when we see that agen-cies are failing to enforce the law or protect workers,

we have to put pressure on them to ensure account-ability,” explained Alejandra Domenzain, AssociateDirector of Sweatshop Watch.

CIWA has a unique role in that it looks at patterns ofabuse of certain employers or industries. Some of themember organizations of the Multi-Ethnic ImmigrantWorker Organizing Network (MIWON) are also part ofCIWA, because they recognize the importance ofworking within a coalition that can look beyond indi-vidual cases to industry-wide problems, said LizSunwoo, MIWON Coordinator. “We’re just one organi-zation and can battle one employer at a time, ormaybe two. But with CIWA we’re able to change theway the state uses enforcement by giving them moreinnovative ideas on law enforcement based on work-ers’ experiences. In coalitions we can take on suchhuge issues as immigration reform (through MIWON)and labor law enforcement (through CIWA),” she said.

Influencing an Administration’s Handling of

a Particular Issue Affecting Undocumented

Workers

In an effort to assist workers and advocates dealingwith problems encountered by “no-match” letters,the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) hasdeveloped a tool-kit that contains background infor-mation on the no-match program, samples of thevarious no-match letter sent by the Social Security

The U.S. Social Security Administration oftensends employers letters informing them that someof their workers’ social security numbers andnames don’t match. These letters are so-called“no-match” letters.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC)Director of Programs, Marielena Hincapié,explained how the “no-match” letters have affect-ed undocumented workers:

“The Social Security Administration sends theseletters to workers at their home address, and noware also sending some of them to employers.When employers get them, they’re very confusedbecause the letter says that the worker’s nameand their social security number do not match,

and they don’t match the Social SecurityAdministration’s database.”

“It doesn’t mean that the numbers are wrong or false,or illegal, but that is immediately of course the reac-tion from employers. They think ‘Oh my goodness, thisperson lied to me, they’re undocumented,’ and theyfire workers on the spot, or they just give them a cou-ple of days to correct their papers. Or, even in worsesituations, employers know that the workers areundocumented and have received these letters in thepast and don’t do anything. But it’s not until the work-ers start organizing a union or until the workers com-plain about sexual harassment or a safety violation, orwhatever, that the employers suddenly rememberthey got these letters from the Social SecurityAdministration and use them to fire the workers.”

“NO-MATCH” LETTERS AFFECT UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES


Administration, and practical suggestions for work-ers and community and labor organizations abouthow to effectively deal with employers on this issue.

NILC also finds it crucial to build a relationship withthe Social Security Administration to be able to havean effect on this agency’s handling of the no-matchissue as well as other issues affecting immigrants.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC)has worked with the Social SecurityAdministration (SSA) since 1996 to influencethe way this governmental agency conveysinformation in “no-match” letters it sends toworkers and employers. Marielena Hincapié,NILC Director of Programs, said that NILC hasliterally re-written these letters with the SSAevery year, because issues kept coming upagain and again and employers still didn’tunderstand what kind of response they had tomake when they received the letters.

“In 2003 we finally got the SSA to accept ourchanges and now we have specific language inthe letter the SSA sends to employers, that saysin big letters: ‘Important: This letter does notsay anything about the worker’s immigrationstatus. You cannot threaten, fire or suspend aworker simply based on having received thisletter.’ In the letter the SSA sends to workers, italso says, ‘If you think that your rights havebeen violated contact these agencies,’ and liststhe agencies,” said Marielena Hincapié.

Maintaining a close working relationship withthe SSA is helpful in NILC’s work on otherissues concerning immigrants, such as publicbenefits and employment issues. But therehave been instances where NILC has had totake a much stronger position and has helpedorganize protests and actions against the SSAat the local level.

“One of the things that we did in response tothe no-match issue was to help organize localcoalitions that would meet with the localSocial Security Office, while we at NILC weremeeting with them at the national level. Wewere all sending the same message so that

everybody in different parts of the country thatwas meeting with the SSA was saying, ‘Thesesocial security no-match letters are causingworkers to be fired, their employers are retali-ating against workers, they’re using it in theunion context,’ so that slowly that messagewould trickle up while we were meeting withthem at the national level. The SSA is still abureaucracy and there are times when it workswell and other times not. But we’ve been for-tunate to maintain a good relationship andwhen it works well, we take advantage of it asmuch as we can,” said Marielena Hincapié.

Establishing an Agreement with the Police

to Protect Domestic Workers

An organization in the United Kingdom has fostered arelationship with the police in order to receive pro-tection for migrant domestic workers who face a par-ticular form of abuse from their employers.

The organization Kalayaan works primarily withimmigrant women who are employed as live-indomestic workers in private households in thegreater London area. Many of these workers arrive inthe United Kingdom on specific domestic workingvisas but become undocumented when their visasexpire and they remain in the country.

More than half of the women that seek assistancefrom Kalayaan have had their passports withheld bytheir employers, and they come to the organizationwhen they’ve run away from their employers becausethey are exploited and/or abused, said Fiona Luckhooof Kalayaan. “Not all workers will ask their employersfor their passport back, because they’re too fright-ened. But generally what we find is that for those whodo ask for their passport back, the employers will dothings like threaten to have their visa revoked, orsend them back to their country of origin if they leave.So what tends to happen is people just leave, withoutsaying anything. And their passports are usuallylocked away somewhere by the employers, and theydon’t know how to get them themselves,” she said.

In response to the phenomenon of passport retention,Kalayaan has sought to develop a relationship with thepolice to offer protection to these vulnerable workers.

In 2004, the non-profit organization Kalayaan

set up an agreement with the police depart-ments in two boroughs in London to foster abetter handling of cases of passport retentionof migrant domestic workers.

When a worker flees a situation of exploitationor abuse and asks Kalayaan for help in retrievingher passport from her employer, the organiza-tion will either directly phone the employer, orwrite an official letter in which it states that theemployer has seven working days to return thepassport to its office or to the worker, in London.The police helped Kalayaan with the writing ofthe letter and also allow its logo to appear onthe letter. As a result of the letter, Kalayaan hashad some success in getting more passportsreturned. Nonetheless, if the employer does notget back to Kalayaan within a period of sevenworking days, Kalayaan reports it as theft.

Once the passport retention has been reported astheft, the worker is given a crime reference. But asfar as Kalayaan is aware, no follow-up is made toinvestigate the employer for exploitation orabuse. “The police will investigate allegations oftheft made by employers against domestic work-ers, but if a worker makes an allegation againsther employer, it is not really investigated. Thepolice don’t seem to take the passport retentionvery seriously at all. And that’s because strictlyspeaking, it’s not a criminal offence, because thepassport is the property of the embassy, not ofthe individual,” said Fiona Luckhoo of Kalayaan.

While the agreement has been working well onthe whole, Kalayaan runs into problems in bor-oughs where there isn’t an agreement and thepolice are not sure about how to properly treatsuch cases. There is still a lot of ignorance aboutimmigration laws. “What we tend to do, espe-cially if the worker hasn’t got any proof of theirstatus or if their visa has actually expired, is gowith them to the police station. If there are anyproblems, we can get a solicitor if necessary. Weare very, very wary about sending a worker tothe police, especially because the police havebeen known to call Immigration,” explainedFiona Luckhoo.

Despite these drawbacks, Kalayaan has beensuccessful in getting some passports returnedand aims to extend the agreement to morepolice departments in other boroughs inLondon as well as throughout the country.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• Working together with government officials is cru-cial for the protection and promotion of undocu-mented workers’ rights. This chapter has focusedon ways of collaboration between government offi-cials, NGOs and other organizations.

• There are many obstacles that affect the ability of thegovernmental entity responsible for labor inspectionfrom promoting fair working conditions for undocu-mented workers. Lack of resources means that theycannot do proper investigations. Some examplesshow that from the time a complaint is filed, eight ornine months might pass before an inspector is ableto visit the worksite. In the meantime the worker hasoften either been fired or has left the worksite.Furthermore, many workers have several employ-ers, making investigation more difficult since itentails going after multiple employers at the sametime. Once a worker wins a case, the lack ofresources also compounds the issue of ensuring thatthe worker receives compensation.

• There are several ways to collaborate with govern-mental agencies, such as informing them aboutundocumented workers’ rights, and making govern-ment officials aware of the fact that the legal statusof workers is irrelevant in many instances. Thisimproves the possibility for undocumented workersof gaining access to government services withoutfear of being deported. Participating in public hear-ings and meeting on a regular basis with govern-ment officials enables organizations to affect policydevelopments and to improve labor enforcement.

• Finally, collaborating with the police and influencing agovernmental entity’s handling of certain issues suchas in the case of “no-match” letters and the retentionof passports is also important for the protection andpromotion of undocumented workers’ rights.

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Afinal way of protecting undocumented workersis to advocate for a more stable legal statusthrough regularization. This chapter begins

with a presentation of the different reasons why thelegalization of undocumented workers is justified notonly for workers and their advocates, but also forsociety at large.

The remaining sections list various examples of howNGOs and especially trade unions advocate for spe-cial regularization campaigns to legalize undocu-mented workers, and provide assistance to workersduring the course of a legalization campaign.

Why Advocate for Legal Status?

This report has gone to great lengths to show thateven though they do not have legal residence inEurope or in the United States, undocumented work-ers do have the right to fair working conditions andcan assert these rights. Nonetheless, there are manybenefits for undocumented workers – as well as forsociety on the whole – if they obtain legal residencestatus.

Legal Status = Increased Protection

“Undocumented status in the United States is alicense to abuse,” said Ana Avendaño, AssociateGeneral Counsel and Director of the Immigrant

Worker Program at the American Federation ofLabor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). “It creates a natural division amongst workers.So a large part of what we do is to teach people thatwe have to focus on the worker’s side, and at thesame time we work for legalization, because that’sthe other side of this. And how do you take away alicense to abuse? By legalizing people.”

Legal status is a means for undocumented workersto have increased protection. “We’re asking for workand a residence permit so that we can better defendour rights,” said Henry Cardona of the Collectif destravailleurs/euses sans statut légal – Génève(CTSSL). This is also the reason why so many tradeunions engage in campaigns to regularize undocu-mented workers.

The União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa (USL) hasachieved many positive results over the years byadvocating for the legalization of undocumentedmigrants in Portugal. The trade union was influentialin obtaining changes in the law that resulted in fiveregularization campaigns that have taken place since1993. “As a trade union, we feel that immigrants arefirst of all citizens. They can be members of ourunion if they’re legal or undocumented. But weemphasize that all workers should be legal so thatthey can have increased protection. The union willthus always help those who aren’t legal to obtainlegal status,” said Manuel Correia of the USL.

10. Advocating for Legal Status of Undocumented Workers

“We’re asking for work and a residence permit so that we can better defend ourrights.”

• Henry Cardona of the Collectif des travailleurs/euses sans statut légal – Génève (CTSSL)

“If you’re undocumented, you don’t have all of the rights that a worker with legalstatus has. Those who are legal face many obstacles in asserting their rights, andthose who are undocumented face even more. We help workers to obtainprotection if they’re undocumented, but our main aim is to help them becomelegalized.”

• Lamine Sow of the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL Piemonte)

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Cuc Vu, Immigration Campaign Manager of theService Employees International Union (SEIU), saidthat legalization is an important area that the U.S.trade union will cover in a four-year action plan thatit adopted in June 2004. The action plan identifiesseven “strengths.” The immigration program tapsinto global strength, political strength and communi-ty strength. “From our union’s perspective, we thinkof immigration not only within a rights frameworkbut also as a movement building vehicle. We beginthrough an end goal of legalization to build a power-ful advocacy and community base that has the powerto change the laws concerning immigration as wellas in the workplace,” she said.

Legal Status = More Visibility

“Regularization brings to the limelight many prob-lems that were hidden and brings millions of peopleout of the shadows,” said Carlos Trindade of theConfederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses- Intersindical Nacional (CGTP-IN).

Another reason why unions and NGOs engage inadvocacy for regularization is to bring to the surfacethe many workers who toil in the informal economy.In the development of social policies, it is more con-ducive to have a visible target group as the benefici-aries of such policies. It is contradictory to the pro-motion of social policies that part of the population ina country remains invisible.

Regularization Is Not the Solution

It should be noted, though, that regularization isnever considered to be the only solution to the prob-lems of exploitation and abuse of undocumentedworkers. Legalization is not a long-term solution,and only affects those immigrants without legal res-idence who are in the particular country at a giventime. Those who are legalized are soon replaced byothers, demonstrating that certain economic sectorsneed the presence of undocumented - and henceunprotected, cheap, and flexible - workers to contin-ue running well.

A comprehensive solution goes beyond the regular-ization of workers by tackling the reason why theselow wage sectors always rely on undocumented

workers.47 Further discussion on the need to open upthe debate on the low-wage sector is included in therecommendations at the end of this report.

Promoting Regularization

Campaigns

This section highlights the efforts of some tradeunions and organizations in advocating for regular-ization campaigns for undocumented workers.

Proxy Program to Register Undocumented

Workers

In recent years a campaign to support undocument-ed workers was launched in Geneva, Switzerland,with the end of goal of obtaining the legalization ofthese workers.

In 2001, a host of NGOs, unions and community organ-izations formed the Collectif de soutien aux Sans-papiers Génève to provide support to undocumentedmigrants in Geneva and to do advocacy work towardsthe government. One of the participating trade unionsin the coalition launched a program to register undoc-umented workers in its union by working with a com-munity group of undocumented workers.

The Syndicat interprofessionnel de tra-vailleuses et travailleurs (SIT) launched aproxy program in 2001 to register undocu-mented workers in the union. The undocu-mented worker would give the SIT the powerto intervene on his/her behalf if they werearrested due to their irregular status.

To register the workers, the SIT worked close-ly with the Collectif des travailleurs et des tra-vailleuses sans statut legal - Génève (CTSSL),an organization of approximately 300 undoc-umented workers in the Geneva area.

The majority of the workers in the CTSSL areLatin American, but some members areAfrican and Filipino immigrants. The CTSSLaims to bring together undocumented workersto call for a regularization of their residence

47 See Michele LeVoy, Nele Verbruggen, and Johan Wets, eds., Undocumented Workers in Europe (Leuven: PICUM and HIVA, 2004).


status, and to make referrals, inform, andsearch for solutions to the various difficultiesencountered by the workers in their daily lives.The CTSSL is supported by a host of tradeunions, organizations, political parties, church-es and individuals. It participates in workinggroups on the issue of women and migrationin several trade unions.

By 2004, nearly 5,000 undocumented workerswere registered through the proxy program.The Collectif de soutien aux Sans-papiersGénève (Geneva Support Collective forUndocumented Migrants), which groupschurches, NGOs, political parties, and tradeunions, has applied for the regularization ofthese workers based on their contributions tothe economy.

U.S. Trade Union Leads the Way to Change

Policies

Some trade unions in the United States have alsoactively supported undocumented workers in theirstruggle for legalization.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)has been one of the leading forces in the labor move-ment to change immigration laws. SEIU spearheadeda campaign in which it collected one million postcardsand delivered them to President Bush to encouragethe administration to tackle the issue of a legalizationprogram for undocumented migrants. Following thecampaign, SEIU gave its full support to the HotelEmployees & Restaurant Employees (HERE), theunion that took the lead in organizing the ImmigrantWorkers Freedom Ride (see Chapter One).

“We realize that if we don’t allow our members tofreely be able to fight for their rights, then theyremain with the feeling that they’re going to losetheir livelihood or their future by being deported. Weneed to obviously legalize their status, and the SEIUalong with other unions has been leading the way tochange policies concerning undocumented work-ers,” said SEIU Western Regional Director BenMonterroso.

NGOs Advocate for the Legalization of

Workers

The organization Domestic Workers United (DWU) isaffiliated with two national campaigns for a broadlegalization program for undocumented immigrants:the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty andthe National Legalization Campaign of the NationalNetwork for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR).Through these coalitions, DWU participates in vari-ous coordinated activities to transform the immigra-tion system and to receive the most up to date infor-mation on the fight for general amnesty.

The National Day Labor Organizing Network(NDLON) also does work on legalization, mainly byparticipating in existing campaigns. Pablo Alvarado,NDLON National Coordinator, said that 1,000 daylaborers participated in the Immigrant WorkersFreedom Ride (see Chapter One), which called for theregularization of undocumented workers as one ofits main themes.

Providing Assistance to Workers to

Legalize Their Status

In addition to advocating for measures to legalizeundocumented workers, many organizations andunions provide assistance to workers by helpingthem file an application to regularize their status.This assistance may be a continual facet of an orga-nization’s work, or be limited to the period when aregularization campaign is launched.

The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) dedicatesmuch of its time to helping workers legalize theirstatus. “We help them with their documentation,informing them about ways that they can be regular-ized, such as through family reunification. We alsoaccompany them to the Foreign Office to file ademand for regularization. We’re constantly busy inthis area,” said Gabriel M’Binki Ataya of the SOC.

During the 1999 regularization campaign in Belgium,the Filipino migrants’ organization Samahan workedwith the Filipino chaplaincy in Brussels and otherorganizations to facilitate the application and follow-up of files.

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The Serviço Jesuita aos Refugiados (JRS) was activeduring the 2001 legalization campaign in Portugal byputting undocumented workers in touch withemployers, who also benefited because the workerscould become regularized if they had a job.

The London-based organization Kalayaan also helpsworkers to regularize their status, since the applica-tion for legalization is based upon having a job.

Two trade unions in Europe have done a substantialamount of work in recent legalization campaigns byinforming workers about the possibilities for regu-larization as well as helping them to submit a file.

During the 2003 regularization campaign inPortugal, the União dos Sindicatos de

Santarém helped undocumented workersmake applications to legalize their status. Theunion helped the workers whose employershadn’t made social security deductions tomake them, so that they could submit anapplication for legalization.

“Our capacity for organization and our abilityto work with employers, with the departmentof labor inspection, and with the Foreigners’Office has been influential in helping undocu-mented workers to obtain legal residence per-mits. Of all of the workers that we’ve helpedto apply for legalization, we can guaranteethat more than 90% have been able to obtainlegal residence in Portugal,” said AquilinoJoaquim Faustino Coelho of the Sindicato dosTrabalhadores da Construção, Mármores eMadeiras e Materiais de Construção do Sul,one of the unions affiliated to the União dosSindicatos de Santarém.

There have been a number of regularizationcampaigns in Italy in recent years – in 1986,1990, 1995, 1998 and 2002 – and theConfederazione Generale Italiana del

Lavoro (CGIL) has provided assistance toundocumented workers in all of these cam-paigns. It also informs these workers’ bossesabout possibilities of regularizing the workers.

“The general policy within the CGIL is to helpundocumented workers become legalized.Because if you’re undocumented, you don’thave all of the rights that a worker with legalstatus has. Those who are legal face manyobstacles in asserting their rights, so thosewho are undocumented face even more,right? We help workers to obtain protection ifthey’re undocumented, but our main aim is tohelp them become legalized,” said LamineSow of the CGIL.

GENERAL FINDINGS

• Regularizing undocumented workers is a way ofincreasing protection of their rights. Obtaining a workand residence permit gives undocumented workers abetter opportunity of defending their rights.

• There are several reasons as to why regularizationis good not only for undocumented workers, but forsociety at large. Having a large group of peopleworking in an informal economy undermines theeconomy as a whole. Regularizing undocumentedworkers is a way of combating the informal econo-my while at the same time improving the lives ofthese workers. Furthermore, regularization cre-ates more visibility of the target group that socialpolicies are meant to protect but who, because oftheir irregular status, are denied this protection.

• Regularization campaigns are promoted in severalways. One way is through coalitions of NGOs, unionsand other organizations. Another way is for tradeunions to register the number of undocumentedworkers within unions and at the same time activelysupport undocumented workers in their struggle forlegalization by putting pressure on policy makers.Many organizations also assist workers by helpingthem file an application to regularize their status.

• Regularization, however, is not a long-term solu-tion, since the undocumented workers who areregularized are soon replaced by new workers.Attention to the underlying reasons for why lowwage sectors rely on the work of undocumentedworkers must be given immediate priority in orderto create long-term solutions for the root causes ofundocumented workers.


The Way Forward: Ten Policy Recommendations

The employment and the exploitation of thou-sands of undocumented migrant workers inEurope is a symptom of the shortcomings of

social, employment and migration policies. Tacklingthe roots of the problem of the exploitation of undocu-mented workers therefore constitutes a major chal-lenge, requiring concerted efforts in all of these fields.

PICUM does not hold a magic key for solving the sit-uation in all of its complexity. But the expertise wehave acquired by working on a daily basis withundocumented migrants throughout Europe leads usto formulate the following recommendations thatshould be taken into account by policy makers.

It should be noted that our use of the term“policy makers” does not refer exclusively tonational or European lawmakers. Many moreinstitutions and bodies contribute to the devel-opment of policies in the field of migration andmore explicitly in the area of undocumentedmigration. In a broad sense, policy makersinclude unions and schools, as well as localauthorities. All of these actors formulate andimplement policies that affect PICUM’s targetgroup and the public at large.

1. Acknowledge the social and

economic presence of

undocumented migrants

PICUM urges policy makers to acknowledge thepresence of undocumented migrants in theEuropean Union. Whether they are desired or not,

large numbers of undocumented migrants are pres-ent in the Member States of the European Union, andeven though they tend to live in the shadows, they arepart of our societies and our economies.

Although all consumers in the EU are affected by thepresence of undocumented migrants, too many poli-cy discussions are held without taking this reality intoaccount. To structurally deny the presence of undoc-umented migrants in the EU inevitably leads to inef-fective social, employment and migration policies.

Irregular migration is mainly debated in terms of thefight against illegal migration. Nonetheless, this fightis unsuccessful, and it has been acknowledged by theEuropean Commission that illegal migration willnever disappear. The need for social policies directedat undocumented migrants is therefore an urgentnecessity.

Confronted with this fact, politicians often resort toalmost commonplace conversation stoppers, rang-ing from “We cannot reward people who break thelaw,” to “The better treatment we give them willmake more of them come here,” or “Regularizationschemes have a magnet effect.” None of these con-cerns justify not dealing with the issue at all. Theseassumptions need to be carefully studied, and thealternatives should be investigated.

2. Prioritize data collection

To be able to develop genuine policies in the fields ofmigration, integration, and employment, it is importantto have an understanding of who undocumentedmigrants are, why they come here and how they survive.

104 P I C U M

There is a general lack of research on undocument-ed migrants in Europe. Policy makers should priori-tize collecting and exchanging data on mainly threelevels:

• Firstly, there is a need for qualitative and quantita-tive research regarding undocumented migrants.

• Researchers should also engage in impact studieson current and future policies: What are the socie-tal impacts of policies on irregular migration?What are the impacts of migration policies onworking conditions in general and specifically onundocumented workers?

• Thirdly, research should be conducted on experi-mental and pilot problem resolution processes,demonstrating alternative constructive and coop-erative policy options.

3. Involve (local) NGOs in

conducting research and making

policies

To collect information on undocumented migrants, itis important to have a relation based on trust, asundocumented migrants are often reluctant to speakabout their situation. Local NGOs providing assis-tance to undocumented migrants on a daily basis aretherefore important partners for researchers.

It is also essential for NGOs to be involved in theprocess by which researchers and research institu-tions develop their work plans. Based on theirexpertise, NGOs are good advisors concerningresearch priorities and ensure that the output of theresearch is relevant and supported.

NGOs’ expertise is also beneficial for policy makers.Authorities and grant makers should thereforeenable grassroots NGOs to contribute to research andto policy work by providing them with the time and theresources to do so. Indeed, it is mostly these NGOsthat are very much put under pressure to work on apractical level. As a consequence, their role in criti-cizing policies, stimulating the public debate, andassisting in research projects comes in second place.

4. Mainstream undocumented

migrants in integration policies

and in the Social Inclusion

Strategy

Integration policies

If social cohesion is a real concern for policy makers,the living and working conditions of undocumentedmigrants should be addressed.

Many local authorities in Europe have voiced theirconcerns about the presence of large numbers ofundocumented migrants in their cities and local dis-tricts, indicating that it is detrimental for social cohe-sion that the needs of these immigrants are notbeing addressed. Even though there is a cost in pro-viding services to undocumented migrants, mostlocal authorities know very well that the price of notproviding these services is much higher.

The urgent integration needs of undocumentedmigrants are generally very basic and concernaccess to health care, housing, education for undoc-umented minors, and fair working conditions.Nonetheless, it is advisable that other integrationmeasures designed for legal migrants (such as lan-guage courses) should not be closed off to undocu-mented migrants.

Social Inclusion Strategy

A stronger link between migration and the EuropeanSocial Inclusion Strategy is urgently needed. Themain aim of this strategy is to fight social exclusionand poverty. This report underlines that undocu-mented migrants are a vulnerable group and thus atrisk for social exclusion and poverty.

The European Union upholds principles of socialinclusion. The creation of second-class citizens andworkers should thus be avoided at all costs. To thisend, PICUM urges European policy makers to includeundocumented migrants as a specific target group inthe Social Inclusion Strategy.


5. Invest in workplace inspection

This report has referred to the attractiveness ofundocumented workers for employers, a phenome-non that mainly stems from the fact that these work-ers are not protected, and therefore unlikely to com-plain against exploitative conditions, which allowsemployers to make more profits by cutting down laborcosts. The chance that an employer will be caught andpenalized for exploiting an undocumented worker isindeed still very small in comparison to the potentialprofits they can gain by hiring these workers.

The demand for undocumented workers is not seri-ously addressed in policy debates. European govern-ments overwhelmingly focus on the supply side, as ifthere was no demand for undocumented labor.

PICUM urges national and European authorities toshift the focus away from border control and to investmore means in workplace inspection.

As part of this approach, PICUM urges governmentsto invest in legislative measures penalizing employ-ers who exploit and abuse workers. This report hasrevealed that it is possible to develop laws that pre-vent employers from evading their responsibilitiestowards workers.

To ensure the enforcement of these and other legisla-tive measures, a greater number of labor inspectors isneeded to check if employers respect the minimumwage and working hours and take measures to ensurethat workers (or their families, where relevant) receivefinancial compensation in the case of workplace acci-dents or injuries. Labor inspectors should be trainedand sensitized to specific issues concerning undocu-mented workers. They should consider undeclaredworkers as victims, and should not report a worker’sillegal status to the foreigners’ police.

6. Safeguard the right to equality

before the law

The right to equality before the courts and tribunalsis a universal human right. To deny people the rightto defend themselves in the judiciary system rendersany claim to any other right problematic.

If undocumented workers would be given the meansto legally enforce their rights, this would reduceincentives for hiring them, since they would no longerbe an “easily exploitable” workforce. Given that thedetection of poor employment conditions and exploita-tive employers is in governments’ interest within thecontext of combating the informal labor market, legalchallenges by undocumented workers against theiremployers should be facilitated.

This also means that there should be no risk of depor-tation if an undocumented worker files an officialcomplaint against their employer. Judges and otherstaff in labor courts and industrial tribunals shouldnot report undocumented workers to the foreigners’police, and the migration status of a worker should notplay a role in a decision taken by a judge. We refer inthis context to the United States, where courts haveissued protective orders to ensure that immigrationstatus will be kept out of the court proceedings.

7. Safeguard the right to organize

The benefits and even the necessity of organizingundocumented workers to fight against exploitation andabuse are illustrated throughout this report. Organizedworkers have more strength and an increased potentialfor making an impact in labor disputes.

An increasing number of unions are beginning towork on the issue of undocumented workers and seethe urgent need to include them in their member-ship. It is indeed the mission of unions to upholdworkers’ rights: the present situation of exploitationand abuse of undocumented workers and the lack ofprotection in labor legislation is the same phenome-non that occurred more than a century ago whenunions were beginning to be established. To deny agroup of workers the right to organize would entail aserious relapse in the labor movement.

Including undocumented workers in unions is alsocrucial for unions’ representativity and power base. Iftrade unions refuse to include undocumentedmigrant workers in their ranks, their power base willbecome smaller, and their opinions will no longer beseen as representative of all workers. Unions willend up defending a diminishing group of privileged

106 P I C U M

workers with permanent jobs in traditional indus-tries, who feel threatened by the growing number ofunprotected workers.48

To protect the most vulnerable workers and toensure the survival of the trade union movement,PICUM subscribes to the conclusions made at aninternational trade union conference organized bythe Dutch union FVN, that unions should agree thatthis is an issue worth fighting for, they should edu-cate their members and officials, and allocate thenecessary resources.49

For national authorities, it is of crucial importance tosafeguard undocumented workers’ right to organizein the law. This report has revealed that employersoften prohibit workers from organizing. This adds tothe importance of very clear and unbiased legislationin this regard.

8. Regularize undocumented

migrants

In the “Study on the links between legal and illegalmigration” (COM(2004) 412 final), the EuropeanCommission stated that there are limits to the exist-ing channels for legal immigration and thereforemany Member States establish ways to regularizeundocumented migrants. The Commission alsostates that by carrying out regularization campaigns,governments attempt to incorporate these migrantsin society rather than leave them on the margins,subject to exploitation.

Based on the experiences of its members, PICUMcan fully endorse these findings. The experiences ofpast regularization programs have shown that themost effective way of reducing exploitation andemployers’ illegal practices is to remove workers’irregular and unprotected status. This renders themless vulnerable in employment relations.

Society at large benefits from reducing the numberof people living outside of the system. Policies ingeneral will be more effective. Regularizing workersalso regularizes jobs, thus more contributions arebrought into the social and welfare systems.

9. Open up the debate on the future

of the low wage sector

As indicated in Chapter Ten of this report, regulariz-ing undocumented migrants is not the only solution.Undocumented workers who are legalized are oftenreplaced by new undocumented migrants. Indeed,national and European governments should take intoaccount that several economic sectors in Europedepend on a cheap and voiceless workforce, and thatthe strong desire to rely on undocumented workersis not tackled by legalizing some of these workers.

This observation requires thinking about the ques-tion of why the low wage sector relies heavily onundocumented workers. This sector needs to beanalyzed and studied, and a debate on its futureshould be begun.

If policy makers refuse to tackle the question of theregulation of the low wage sector in Europe, it is veryunlikely that the demand for undocumented migrantworkers will be reduced.

10.Ratify the Migrant Workers

Convention

European Union Member States are urged to ratifythe International Convention for the Protection of theRights of All Migrant Workers and the Members ofTheir Families (1990), which guarantees varioussocial rights to undocumented migrant workers.

48 See FNV, From Marginal Work to Core Business: European Trade Unions Organising in the Informal Economy49 Ibid.


EUROPE

Andalucía Acoge

Andalusia Welcomes

Andalucía Acoge is a federation that was established in 1991 by thefounding members Sevilla Acoge, Almería Acoge, Granada Acoge andMálaga Acoge. These organizations wished to join forces to give a moreefficient and global answer to the recent immigration phenomenon inSpain. The overall objective of Andalucía Acoge is to promote the inte-gration of immigrants in the host society through an interculturalapproach, by fostering communication among diverse cultures coex-isting in the same geographic area.(pp. 61-62)

CONTACT INFORMATION:

C/Pascual de Gayangos 41-E, 1°C41002 SevillaSpainTel: +34/954/900.773; +34/954/903.929Fax: +34/954/901.426Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.acoge.org

Associazione IRES Lucia Morosini

The IRES Lucia Morosini Association

IRES Lucia Morosini is a non-profit organization that was founded bythe CGIL Piemonte trade union in 1982. From the beginning, the insti-tute has been characterized by a pluralistic approach, gathering theexperiences of researchers, trade union leaders and social workers.The institute aims to carry out studies and research on the presentstate and the dynamics of the economy and social issues, particularlyfocusing on the Piedmont region in Italy. (pp. 55, 76)


piazza Vittorio Veneto, 110124 TorinoItalyTel: +39/011/835.939Fax: +39/011/812.5001Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.irescgiltorino.it

Casa do Brasil de Lisboa

The Brazil House in Lisbon

The non-profit organization Casa do Brasil de Lisboa was founded inJanuary 1992, by Brazilians residing in Portugal and by Portuguesepeople with an affinity for Brazil. The Casa do Brasil is open to allnationalities and promotes the interests of all immigrants in Portugal,especially those from Brazil and from Portuguese-speaking countries.The organization upholds social integration, equality of rights and civilresponsibilities of immigrants. It acts as a center for reflection andpromotion of thematic debates and actively intervenes on immigrationpolicy issues in Portugal, as well as on anti-racism and anti-xenopho-bia issues. (pp. 29, 83)


Rua São Pedro de Alcântara 63 – 1° direito1250-238 LisboaPortugalTel: +351/21/340.00.00Fax: +351/21/340.00.01Email: [email protected] [email protected]: http://www.casadobrasildelisboa.pt/

CGIL Piemonte • Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro

Italian General Confederation of Labour

The CGIL is the oldest Italian trade union organization and is also themost representative one, with over 5.5 million members includingworkers, young people entering the world of work and retired people.When it was founded in 1906, it had 200,000 members. The CGILorganization has a double structure: a vertical one, with the branchunion organizations (textile, chemical, industrial, etc.), and a territori-al one, with labor chambers located throughout the country. There arecurrently fifteen national trade federations and 134 labor chambers.The CGIL Piemonte is a regional branch covering the Piedmont regionin Italy. (pp. 50, 54-55, 57-58, 76, 99, 102)


Via Pedrotti, 510152 TorinoItalyTel: +39/011/24.42.479Fax : +32/011/24.42.210Email: [email protected] http://www.pmt.cgil.it/

CGTP-IN • Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores

Portugueses - Intersindical Nacional

General Confederation of Portuguese Workers

The trade union organizations which form the General Confederationof Portuguese Workers (CGTP-IN) are the trade unions, sectoral feder-ations and trades councils. There are 97 trade unions and 13 sectoralfederations affiliated to the CGTP-IN. The territorial structure of theCGTP-IN is composed of 22 trades councils whose scope correspondsto the political and administrative division of the country. At the 10thCongress of the CGTP-IN held in January 2004, there were 759,500workers represented. Among these, 664,500 were represented bytrade unions directly affiliated to the CGTP-IN and 105,000 by unionswhich, not being formally affiliated, regularly take part in its activities. (pp. 50, 52, 100)


Rua Vitor Cordon, 1 – 2º e 3º1249-102 LisboaPortugalTel: +351/21/323.65.00Fax: +351/21/323.66.95Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.cgtp.pt

Index of Organizations

108 P I C U M

CITE-CCOO • Centro de información para trabajadores y

trabajadoras extranjeros de las Comisiones Obreras

Information Center for Foreign Workers of the ComisionesObreras Trade Union

CITE is an organization promoted by the CCOO trade union to supportimmigrants. CITE provides the following services to immigrants, freeof charge: advising and orientating about immigration law; procedureto acquire a work permit, residency, family expatriation, citizenshipand visa exemption; Catalan language classes; and mediation andcommunication with different educational centers in Catalonia in dif-ferent languages. (pp. 50, 52, 55-58, 75, 77, 81-82, 91, 94, 95)


Vía Laietana 16, 1°08012 BarcelonaSpainTel: +34/93/481.27.20; +34/93/481.27.11Fax: +34/93/315.17.24Email: [email protected] (Organization)[email protected] (Legal Services: Ms. Maria Helena Bedoya)Website: http://www.conc.es/cite

CODETRAS • Collectif de défense des travailleurs étrangers

dans l’agriculture

Collective to Defend Seasonal Migrant Farmworkers

CODETRAS is a network of organizations and trade unions that defendthe rights of seasonal migrant farmworkers in the Bouches du Rhôneregion in the south of France. The following organizations and tradeunions are members of CODETRAS: A.S.T.I. de Berre, Association decoopération Nafadji Pays d’Arles, ATTAC Martigues Ouest étang deBerre, Cimade, Confédération Paysanne, CREOPS, Droit PaysanAureilles, Espace-Accueil aux étrangers, Fédération du MRAP 13, FGACFDT, FNAF CGT, Forum Civique Européen, Ligue des Droits del’Homme du Pays d’Arles.(pp. 17, 77, 84)


BP 8713303 Marseille République Cedex 3 FranceEmail: [email protected]

CTSSL • Collectif des travailleurs/euses sans statut légal -

Génève

Geneva Collective of Undocumented Workers

The Collectif des travailleurs/euses sans statut légal – Génève (CTSSL)is a grassroots organization of approximately 300 undocumented work-ers residing in the area of Geneva, Switzerland. The CTSSL aims to bringtogether undocumented workers to call for a regularization of their res-idence status and to make referrals, inform, and search for solutions tothe various difficulties encountered by the workers in their daily lives.The CTSSL is supported by a host of trade unions, organizations, politi-cal parties, churches and individuals. It participates in working groupson the issue of women and migration in several trade unions. (pp. 14-15, 31, 58, 74, 99, 100-101)


25, route des Acacias c/CCSI1227 Acacias, GenevaSwitzerlandTel: +41/22/301.63.33Fax: +41/22/304.48.68Email: [email protected]@ctssl.org

ECF

European Civic Forum

The European Civic Forum (ECF) was founded a couple of months afterthe fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 by citizens from Eastern and WesternEurope who had already been cooperating within the framework of theEuropean Committee for the Defense of Refugees and Immigrants(CEDRI) and the European Federation of Free Radios (FERL). In recentyears, the European Civic Forum has particularly been active in organ-izing international missions to El Ejido, Spain, to monitor the humanrights conditions of migrant workers and the escalation of racial vio-lence. The ECF is a founding member of the French network CODE-TRAS. (pp. 16, 18, 30)


St-Hippolyte04300 LimansFranceTel: +33/4/92.73.18.15Fax: +33/4/92.73.18.18Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.forumcivique.org

ETUC

European Trade Union Confederation

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) was set up in 1973 topromote the interests of working people at the European level and torepresent them in the EU institutions. The ETUC membership present-ly consists of 76 national trade union confederations from 34 Europeancountries, as well as 11 European industry federations, making a totalof 60 million members, plus observer organizations in Macedonia andSerbia. The ETUC is one of the European social partners and is recog-nized by the European Union, by the Council of Europe and by EFTA asthe only representative cross-sectoral trade union organization at theEuropean level.(pp. 12, 42-43, 46, 54, 57, 60)


Boulevard Roi Albert II 51210 BrusselsBelgiumTel: +32/2/224.04.07Fax: +32 2 224.04.54Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.etuc.org

GISTI • Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés

Immigrants’ Information and Support Group

GISTI has been working for the equality of rights of immigrants since1972. GISTI is specialized in foreigners’ law and makes its expertiseavailable to those in need by offering free legal services, publishingresource materials, and holding training sessions. GISTI has approxi-mately 150 members, of which nearly one third are lawyers. (pp. 27-28, 77)


3 villa Marcès75011 ParisFranceTel: +33/1/43.14.84.84Fax: +33/1/43.14.60.69Email: [email protected] Website: www.gisti.org

Kalayaan

When the non-profit organization Kalayaan was founded in 1987,migrant domestic workers were entering the United Kingdom withtheir employers but weren’t allowed to change employers, and manywere subject to extremely poor working conditions and abusive condi-tions. Kalayaan waged a 10-year campaign with support from the T&Gunion and the United Workers’ Association to change the immigrationrules. Its efforts paid off in 1998, when a law was enacted that allowsmigrant domestic workers to change employers. Kalayaan presentlyworks primarily with immigrant women who are employed as live-indomestic workers in private households in the greater London area,advising them about their rights. (pp. 30, 44-45, 54, 57, 62, 97-98, 102)


St Francis Centre13 Hippodrome Place London W11 4 SFUnited KingdomTel: +44/207/243.29.42Fax: +44/207/792.30.60Email: [email protected]

OKIA • OndersteuningsKomitee Illegale Arbeiders

Support Committee for Undocumented Workers

OKIA was formed in 1992 at the request of undocumented Moroccanand Turkish Kurdish workers who were formed in committees. Theworkers wanted help from natives and legal residents in bringing theircases out in the open and organizing societal support for better livingand working conditions and legal status. From the beginning, OKIAdeveloped a network of professionals to provide social support to theworkers and inform the public and policy makers about their living andworking conditions. (pp. 24-26, 49)


Postbox 106482501 HP Den HaagThe NetherlandsTel: +31/70/364.19.60Email: [email protected]

O.R.C.A.

Organisatie voor Clandestiene Arbeidsmigranten

Organization for Undocumented Migrant Workers

OR.C.A. was founded in December 2003 to defend the rights of undoc-umented workers in Belgium. OR.C.A. aims to stimulate cooperationamongst trade unions, labor inspection, employers and NGOs tostrengthen support for undocumented workers. OR.C.A. also offersdirect services to undocumented workers seeking advice on work-related problems through counseling and information campaigns. (p. 30)


Gaucheretstraat 1641030 BrusselsBelgiumTel: +32/2/274.14.31Fax : +32/2/274.14.48Email: [email protected] Website: www.orcasite.be

Polish Social Council

The Polish Social Council was founded in the 1980s by Polish migrantswho had fled to Berlin to escape from martial law in Poland. In thebeginning years, the organization provided assistance to Poles con-cerning asylum applications and their legal status and integration inGermany. In more recent years, the Polish Social Council helped anumber of undocumented workers to file cases in the labor tribunalsagainst abusive employers, and was successful in many instances. (pp. 30, 78, 80-81)


Böckhstrasse 4010967 BerlinGermanyTel: +49/306/92.24.89Email: [email protected]

SAC

Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation

Central Organization of Workers in Sweden

The SAC is a small, socialist trade union with approximately 10,000members. A dedicated group of SAC members in Stockholm has beensupporting undocumented workers for a number of years. Some of thegroup members have written articles in the union’s magazine aboutundocumented workers in Sweden to sensitize other members. (pp. 52, 57)


Stockholms LS Lehusens gränd 4, nb118 65 StockholmSwedenTel: +46/8/658.62.69Fax: +46/8/684.97.39Email: [email protected]: http://www.sac.se/

Samahan

Samahan is an independent and democratic organization that activelypromotes justice, equality and the rights of Filipino migrant workers inBelgium. Established in 1983, Samahan aims to: serve the interestsand promote the rights of Filipino workers and their families inBelgium; achieve unity in the struggle for the rights and interests ofFilipino workers in the Philippines and elsewhere; and achieve unity inthe struggle for the rights and interests of other migrant workers andBelgian workers in Belgium and elsewhere. (pp. 31, 38, 44, 47, 54, 57, 101)


c/o S.A.M. Chaussée de Waterloo, 2441060 BrusselsBelgiumTel: +32/2/537.23.23Fax: +32/2/537.71.20Email: [email protected]


Serviço Jesuita aos Refugiados (JRS)

Jesuit Refugee Services

Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) is an international Catholic organizationwith a mission to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugeesand forcibly displaced people. JRS undertakes services at national andregional levels with the support of an international office in Rome.Founded in November 1980 as a work of the Society of Jesus, JRS wasofficially registered on 19 March 2000 at the Vatican State as a founda-tion. JRS is present in over 70 countries throughout the world. Its officein Portugal is one of several JRS offices in Europe. (pp. 83, 102)


Estrada da Torre, 261750-296 LisboaPortugalTel: +351/21/754.16.20 ; +351/21/754.16.21Fax: +351/21/754.16.25Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Website: http://www.jesref.orgwww.jesuitas.pt/jrs

SOC • Sindicato de Obreros del Campo

The Farmworkers’ Union

The Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (SOC) has been fighting for near-ly 30 years for the rights of Spanish day laborers working in agriculturein Andalusia. As a result of the February 2000 race riots againstMoroccan immigrants in El Ejido, the SOC decided to set up an office inthe greenhouse region in Almeria, to support and organize the work-ers, who are mainly from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa and who areoverwhelmingly undocumented. (pp. 16, 30, 45, 50, 55-58, 60, 70, 78, 92, 101)


Calle Jorge Guillen 1-B04006 AlmeriaSpainTel: +34/950/17.00.38Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.soc-andalucia.com

Sindicato dos Trabalhadores da Construção, Mármores e

Madeiras e Materiais de Construção do Sul

Southern Union of Construction, Marble, Wood andConstruction Material Workers

This union represents workers in the Santarém, Lisboa, Setubal,Alentejo and Algarve districts of Portugal. (pp. 58, 77, 82, 93, 102)


Estrada S. Domingos, 13 1.°Esq2005-324 SantarémPortugalTel: +351/24/332.26.07Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.cgtp.pt

S.H.I.P. • Stichting Haags Islamitisch Platform

The Hague Islamic Platform

S.H.I.P. was founded in 1994 as a religious organization for Muslims inThe Hague, Netherlands. When the organization started to becomeconfronted with the difficult social realities faced by Muslims in 2001,it reconsidered its position and changed its focus to become more of asocial welfare organization. (pp. 35-36, 44, 56)


Teniersstraat 132526 NX Den HaagThe NetherlandsTel: +31/70/750.43.88Fax: +31/70/750.60.05Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.ship-online.nl

SIT • Syndicat interprofessionnel de travailleuses et

travailleurs

The Inter-Professional Union of Workers

The SIT defends the rights of workers in many different sectors andbranches in Switzerland, including: agriculture, parks and gardens;construction and maintenance; industry; goods and services; hotel,restaurant and domestic services industries; health care; public serv-ices; and retired workers.(pp. 58, 100)


16, rue des Chaudronnierscase postale 3287- 1211 Genève 3SwitzerlandTel: +41/22/818.03.00 Fax: +41/22/818.03.99 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.sit-syndicat.ch

T&G • Transport and General Workers’ Union

With over 835,000 members in every type of workplace, the T&G is theUK’s biggest general union, and has a long tradition of representingmembers in the workplace. The T&G organizes workers in the food andagriculture, manufacturing, services and transport sectors. (pp. 42, 44-45, 49, 54, 57-58, 60, 65-66)


Transport House, 128 Theobalds RoadHolborn, London WC1X 8TNUnited KingdomTel: +44/20/7611.25.00Fax: +44/20/7611.27.08Website: http://www.tgwu.org.uk

USL • União dos Sindicatos de Lisboa

Lisbon Trades Council

The Lisbon Trades Council (USL) is the largest regional CGTP-IN struc-ture and is responsible for leading and coordinating trade union activ-ities within the District of Lisbon. Its main objectives – ensuring linkswith all activity sectors – are protecting workers’ interests, intervening,expressing views, assessing, proposing, and negotiating on socialissues which are relevant for those who work in Lisbon. Wages, rights,social security, health, transport and living standards are top prioritiesfor the Lisbon Trades Council.(pp. 15, 47, 50, 56-58, 63-64, 71, 76, 82, 93, 99, 102)

110 P I C U M


Rua São Pedro de Alcântara, 63 – 2°1250-238 LisboaPortugalTel: +351.21/347.49.64Fax: +351/21/342.41.40Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.uniaolisboa-cgtp.pt

UNITED STATES

AFL-CIO • American Federation of Labor – Congress of

Industrial Organizations

The AFL-CIO is the voluntary federation of America’s unions, repre-senting more than nine million working women and men in the UnitedStates. The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 by the merger of theAmerican Federation of Labor and the Congress of IndustrialOrganizations.(pp. 15, 42, 48-49, 51, 55-57, 75, 84, 89, 90, 94, 99)


815 16th Street, NWWashington, DC 20006United StatesTel: +1/202/637-3949Fax: +1/202/637-5323Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aflcio.org

Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers

The non-profit, membership-based group Andolan was founded in1998 and organizes and advocates on behalf of low-wage, immigrantSouth Asian workers. Andolan, which means “movement” in severalSouth Asian languages, seeks to educate workers about their rights,persuade employers to pay a living wage and raise public awarenessabout abusive industry conditions. All Andolan members are low-wageworkers and primarily women; many are undocumented. Andolan’sgoal is to support and empower working-class communities that faceobstacles, including language barriers, discrimination, and immigra-tion status. Most of the members are employed as babysitters, house-keepers, and restaurant workers. Andolan prioritizes the central lead-ership of its members and strives to break a system of dependency soas to foster worker empowerment. (pp. 28-29, 31, 38, 66, 72, 85-86)


P.O. Box 2087Long Island City, NY 11102United StatesTel: +1/718/426-2447 Email: [email protected] Website: www.andolan.net

CDM • Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc.

Migrant Rights’ Center

The non-profit organization Centro de los Derechos del Migrante(CDM) aims to bridge the transnational gap between Mexico-basedmigrant workers and advocates in the United States. The staff fromboth the U.S. and Mexico will conduct outreach efforts in Mexico byinforming workers in major sending communities in Mexico about theirworkplace rights in the United States. CDM will also connect workerswho have experienced problems with their employment in the UnitedStates with lawyers, unions or worker groups in the United States thatcan help them. It will provide on the ground support for advocates inthe U.S. who represent Mexico-based migrants but face financial dif-ficulties due to the costs of conducting site visits to the workers inMexico. In addition, the CDM will facilitate international cooperationaround legal and policy issues.(p. 88)


Mexico office: Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. Calle Victor Roslaes, 164Colonia Centro, C.P. 98000Zacatecas, ZacatecasMexicoTel: +52/492/925-2510Fax: +52/492/925-2511Email: [email protected]: www.cdmigrante.org (operational in Fall 2005)

U.S. contact information: Post Office Box 368Lake Worth, Florida 33460United StatesTel: +1/202/258-2922

CHIRLA • Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los

Angeles

CHIRLA was founded in 1986 and works to advance the human andcivil rights of immigrants and refugees and to foster an environment ofpositive human and community relations in society. One of CHIRLA’sprogram areas is the Workers’ Rights project. Through this project,CHIRLA seeks to educate domestic workers, day laborers and garmentworkers about their rights and to organize them as a way of fightingagainst the problems in their industries and against the abuses theyface as immigrant workers.(pp. 31, 35, 70, 92-93, 95)


2533 W. 3rd. St., Suite 101Los Angeles, CA 90057United StatesTel: +1/213/353-1333Fax: +1/213/353-1344Email: [email protected] Website: www.chirla.org


CIW • Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a community-basedworker organization that was founded in 1993. Its members are large-ly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wagejobs throughout the State of Florida. The CIW strives to build itsstrength as a community on a basis of reflection and analysis, coalitionbuilding across ethnic divisions, and an ongoing investment in leader-ship development. The CIW fights for fair wages, more respect frombosses and the industries where workers are employed, better andcheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement againstthose who would violate workers’ rights, the right to organize withoutfear of retaliation, and an end to indentured servitude in the fields.(pp. 7, 19-20, 32, 35, 38-39, 68, 71-72)


P.O. Box 603Immokalee, FL 34143United StatesTel. and Fax: +1/239/657-8311Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.ciw-online.org

DWU • Domestic Workers United

Domestic Workers United (DWU) is a group of domestic workers anddomestic workers’ organizations organizing to build power, raise thelevel of respect for domestic workers, establish fair labor standards inthe domestic work industry, and win legalization for all undocumentedworkers. To this end, DWU builds leadership among the over 200,000women working as nannies, companions, and housekeepers in thegreater New York metropolitan area, exposes employer and agencyabuse, and targets government bodies to implement enforceable poli-cies that will promote dignity and respect for domestic workers. (pp. 35, 47, 62, 66-67, 72, 101)


c/o CAAAV 2473 Valentine AvenueBronx, NY 10458United StatesTel: +1/718/220-7391 x 11Fax: +1/718/220-7398Email: [email protected] Website: www.domesticworkersunited.org

Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride

http://www.iwfr.org/

In Fall 2003, nearly 1,000 documented and undocumented workers andtheir supporters traveled across the United States to spotlight theneed for immigration reform. Workers of dozens of nationalities board-ed buses in ten different locations and traveled on different routes,covering a total of 103 cities along the way. The event was sponsoredby the American Federation of Labor – Congress of IndustrialOrganizations (AFL-CIO) and led by the Hotel Employees & RestaurantEmployees (HERE). The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride was mod-eled after the 1961 Freedom Rides of the U.S. civil rights movement, inwhich student activists from across the U.S. rode buses to challengeracial segregation in the South. (pp. 15-16, 51, 56, 58, 101)

Justice for Janitors

http://www.seiu.org/building/janitors/about_justice_for_janitors/index.cfm

The Justice for Janitors campaign was formed in Denver, Colorado in1985. The campaign is about hard-working janitors uniting for fairworking conditions with support from communities. Over the years,Justice for Janitors has worked to provide better wages, basic benefits,and job security for janitors who clean buildings in major cities andsuburbs in the United States.(pp. 51-54, 57)

Migrant Farmworker Justice Project

The Migrant Farmworker Justice Project is committed to ensuring thatthe full range of legal advocacy is available to the 300,000 farmwork-ers who work in Florida’s fields and groves, through innovation, lawreform, legislative and administrative advocacy, and class actions. TheMigrant Farmworker Justice Project is funded by the Florida BarFoundation and was established in 1996 by the Florida Legal Services,a non-profit organization that provides civil legal assistance to indigentpersons who would not otherwise have the means to obtain a lawyer. (pp. 74, 86-88)


508 Lucerne Ave. Lake Worth, FL 33460United StatesTel: +1/561/582-3921Fax: +1/561/582-4884Email: [email protected] Website: www.floridalegal.org

MIWON • Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing

Network

MIWON was founded in 2000 by several organizations to unite workersfrom different ethnic groups in several industries and to empowerworkers. MIWON is made up of the following organizations: TheCoalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA),Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates (KIWA), Pilipino Workers Center(PWC), Garment Worker Center (GWC) and the Instituto de EducaciónPopular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA). (pp. 16, 29, 37-39, 70, 92, 96)


3465 W. 8th Street, 2nd floorLos Angeles, CA 90005United StatesTel: +1/213/738-9050Fax: +1/213/738-9919Email: [email protected]

NDLON • National Day Laborer Organizing Network

The mission of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON)is to strengthen and expand the work of local day laborer organizinggroups, in order to become more effective and strategic in buildingleadership, advancing low-wage worker and immigrant rights, anddeveloping successful models for organizing immigrant workers.NDLON fosters healthy, safer and more humane environments for daylaborers to obtain employment and raise their families. In this sense,NDLON advances the human, labor, and civil rights of day workersthroughout the United States. NDLON is composed of 39 memberorganizations.(pp. 29, 36-37, 61-62, 68, 70, 86, 101)

112 P I C U M


2533 W. 3rd St., Suite 101Los Angeles, CA 90057United StatesTel: +1/213/353-1336Fax: +1/213/353-1344Email: [email protected] Website: www.ndlon.org

NELP • National Employment Law Project

For more than thirty years, the National Employment Law Project(NELP) has provided legal services to campaigners, workers’ centers,unions, and organizations that work with low-income workers. Itsfocus has always been on upholding workers’ rights, such as makingsure workers receive the minimum wage, that they are safe andhealthy on the job, that they have access to workers’ compensation,etc. Although NELP had been working on these issues for many years,it wasn’t until around 1999 that it officially designated an immigrantworker program within the organization to focus on ending the abusiveand discriminatory treatment of low-wage immigrant workers. (pp. 28, 43, 80, 85, 89, 94)


55 John Street, 7th floorNew York, NY 10038United StatesTel: +1/212/285-3025 ext. 102Fax: +1/212/285-3044Immigrant Worker Project Coordinator: [email protected] Litigation Director: [email protected] Campaigner on the rights of immigrant workers: [email protected] Website: www.nelp.org

NILC • National Immigration Law Center

Since 1979, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) has been ded-icated to protecting and promoting the rights of low-income immi-grants and their family members. In the past twenty years, NILC hasearned a national reputation in the United States as a leading expert onimmigration, public benefits, and employment laws affecting immi-grants and refugees. Its extensive knowledge of the complex interplaybetween immigrants’ legal status and their rights under U.S. laws is anessential resource for legal aid programs, community groups, andsocial service agencies across the country. (pp. 55, 90, 96-97)


1101 14th St., NW, Suite 410Washington DC 20005United StatesTel: +1/202/216-0261Email: [email protected]@nilc.org Website: http://www.nilc.org/

NNIRR • National Network for Immigrant and Refugee

Rights

The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is anational organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant,refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations andactivists. It serves as a forum to share information and analysis, toeducate communities and the general public, and to develop and coor-dinate plans of action on important immigrant and refugee issues.(pp. 32-33, 41, 101)


310 8th Street, Suite 303Oakland, CA 94607United StatesTel: +1/510/465-1984 ext. 302Fax: +1/510/465-1885Email: [email protected] Website: www.nnirr.org

Organización en California de Líderes Campesinas

California Organization of Farmworker Women

Started in 1992, the Organización en California de Líderes Campesinasorganizes female farmworkers throughout the State of California inlocal groups, to exchange information and to be a support network foreach other. (pp. 32, 34, 38-39, 78-79)


611 S. Rebecca St. Pomona, CA 91766 United StatesTel: +1/909/865-7776Fax: +1/909/865-8779Email: [email protected]

ROC-NY • Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) is dedicat-ed to winning improved conditions for restaurant workers and raisingpublic recognition of restaurant workers’ contributions to the city ofNew York. The organization was formed immediately after the terror-ist attacks in New York City on September 11th, 2001, which claimedthe lives of many of the workers of the Windows on the World restau-rant in the World Trade Center. ROC-NY’s immediate efforts were tohelp the Windows on the World restaurant co-workers and their fami-lies who were impacted by the attacks. Early in 2002, ROC-NY shiftedits focus to organizing restaurant workers throughout New York City. (pp. 23, 67, 69, 71, 84-85)


99 Hudson St., 3rd FloorNew York, NY 10013United StatesTel: +1/212/343-1771Fax: +1/212/343-7217Email: [email protected] [email protected] Website: http://www.rocny.org

SEIU • Service Employees International Union

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has a membershipof 1.8 million working people and 120,000 retirees in the United States,Canada, and Puerto Rico. SEIU members represent health care, publicemployees, building services and industry and allied. (pp. 37, 40, 43, 50-51, 53-54, 56-58, 100-101)


3055 Wilshire Blvd. #1050Los Angeles, CA 90010United StatesTel: +1/213/368-7410Fax: +1/213/381-7348Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.seiu.org/


Sweatshop Watch

Founded in 1995, Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of over thirty labor,community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women’s, religious and stu-dent organizations, and many individuals, committed to eliminating theexploitation that occurs in sweatshops. Sweatshop Watch serves low-wage workers nationally and globally, with a focus on garment work-ers in California. Sweatshop Watch believes that workers should earna living wage in a safe, decent work environment, and that thoseresponsible for the exploitation of sweatshop workers must be heldaccountable. The workers who labor in sweatshops are its drivingforce. The organization’s decisions, projects, and organizing efforts areinformed by the voices, needs, and life experiences of sweatshopworkers.(pp. 20, 24, 29, 31, 64-65, 76, 92, 95-96)


1250 S. Los Angeles St., #214Los Angeles, CA 90015United StatesTel: +1/213/748-5945Fax: +1/213/748-5876Email: [email protected] Website: www.sweatshopwatch.org

The Workplace Project

The Workplace Project is a non-profit organization that fights for therights of immigrant workers who receive low wages, discriminationand abuse on the job. It provides orientation and information to theseworkers and promotes the leadership of the growing Latino population,especially on Long Island, New York, where the Latino population nownumbers more than 300,000. The Workplace Project was created in1992 as a response to the exploitation of these immigrant workers,with the goal of providing information and fostering organizing. (pp. 14, 29, 31-32, 34, 44, 69, 72-73, 75)


91 North Franklin St., Suite 207Hempstead, NY 11550United StatesTel: +1/516/565-5377Fax: +1/516/565-5470Email: [email protected]

UCLA Labor Center

The UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education plays a uniquerole as a bridge between the University and the labor community insouthern California. As part of the university, the Labor Center servesas an important source of information about unions and workers tointerested scholars and students. Through its extensive connectionswith unions and workers, the Labor Center also provides Labor withimportant and clearly defined access to UCLA’s resources and pro-grams. An advisory committee comprised of about forty southernCalifornia labor and community leaders (representing more than onemillion members in the public and private sector) provides advice andsupport for the Center.(pp. 23, 39-40, 95)


675 S. Park View St., 1st floorLos Angeles, CA 90057United StatesTel: +1/213/480-4156Fax: +1/213/480-4160Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.labor.ucla.edu/

Unite for Dignity For Immigrant Workers’ Rights

Unite for Dignity is an immigrant workers’ rights organization dedicat-ed to building new leaders to fight for improved conditions in work-places and immigrant communities in South Florida, creating positivechange in issues confronting immigrant workers, their families andcommunities, such as healthcare and immigrant rights. Unite forDignity was originally formed in 1997 as a project to organize nursinghome workers in South Florida. In 2001, Unite for Dignity convertedinto a non-profit organization to better represent immigrant workersand build stronger community ties. Unite for Dignity and its memberscontinue working to address the needs of immigrant workers in SouthFlorida, and to overcome exploitation and discrimination in the work-place and in the community based on language, cultural barriers, andeconomic status.(p. 40)


1525 NW 167th Street Suite 300Miami, FL 33169United StatesTel: +1/305/623-3000 ext. 128Fax: +1/305/623-3071Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.unitefordignity.org

114 P I C U M

116 P I C U M

This report is an effective contribution to thedevelopment of a just and pragmatic policytowards undocumented migrant workers. Ittouches on issues key to economic growth, aswell as dealing with debates on migration andintegration.

Every day hundreds of thousands of undocu-mented workers labor in different sectors of theeconomy in Europe. Undocumented workers of -ten work and live in inhumane conditions, earn-ing very little or no pay at all, and are insufficient-ly protected by legislation.

Facing exploitation and abuse, many undocu-mented workers believe that they have no otheroption than to accept this situation. Fearing thatthey may be deported if they speak out, an over-whelming number suffer in silence.

Meanwhile some economic sectors in theEuropean Union are to a considerable extent de -pendent upon undocumented workers, who

make up a substantial part of their workforce.This dependence may be hidden, not just bymigrants’ silence, but by sub-contracting chainsand employers’ complicity.

This report presents detailed informationobtained from NGOs, trade unions and otheractors working with and advocating for undocu-mented workers, both in Europe and in theUnited States. Grouped in ten actions, a range ofmethods are presented that contribute to the aimof respecting the dignity of undocumentedmigrants as humans and as workers.

All those concerned with rights and justice willfind the pragmatic approach taken by this reportuseful, be they policy makers, unionists, activists,migrant workers and employers. This report pro-vides expert insight on all issues that should beconsidered to reach just and pragmatic policiesin the fields of migration, economic growth andsocial inclusion.

ISBN number: 90-807813-7-1


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