Jacinta Gonzalez and Dennis Soriano work for the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice to fight the exploitation of workers.
In the post-Katrina landscape, thousands of displaced New Orleanians who wished to rebuild their city were unable to find jobs. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought in to do the work were often badly exploited, paid little or nothing under hazardous conditions.
The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) brings these groups of workers together to fight exploitation. In the city that is experiencing more wage theft than anywhere else in the country, NOWCRJ staff members have their work cut out for them. By bringing together disparate groups of low-wage workers, they are leading the way in fighting for fair working conditions for people of all colors.
“We have the problems, but we also have the solutions,” said NOWCRJ organizer Dennis Soriano.
Soriano knows about wage theft from experience. He was among the first to arrive in post-Katrina New Orleans, from Tennessee, to help with the rebuilding. One day shortly after Hurricane Gustav, he and 11 other day laborers were offered jobs in Beaumont, Texas, to work on demolishing flooded houses in that city. They were promised food, lodging, high wages, and safety equipment. They accepted the offer. But when they arrived, they found that the situation was far from what had been promised.
“The lodging was a bunch of tents set up in an old refinery,” said Soriano. “We were watched constantly by security guards. There was little food. The white workers were given adequate safety equipment, and they were sent in first. Then we were sent in after, without safety equipment, to do the dirty work.”
The workers confronted their employer about these inequities. He called them lazy and fired them. Stuck in Beaumont without housing or transportation, under a curfew, Soriano and the others told their employer that at the very least they needed to be paid for the work they had done. The employer then called the police and accused one of the workers of stealing his own necklace. The 12 were arrested and brought to jail, despite their presenting a receipt for the purchase of the necklace. Charges were soon dropped, but then the police reported the workers to immigration officials, who began deportation proceedings.
Thanks to pressure from the Congress of Day Laborers – one of three groups making up NOWCRJ – nine of the workers were released. The other three, who had previous deportation orders, were deported. But one of the nine, who was released early due to his legal status, was found dead by the side of the highway.
“That is the part that really hurts,” said Soriano. “If we had never gone to Beaumont, he would still be alive today, either here or in Mexico with his daughter.”
Organizers for NOWCRJ go out every morning to educate workers on their rights and how to protect themselves. Campaigns and strategies are decided by the members in weekly meetings. The organization’s in-house legal department allows them to pursue legal solutions at a lower cost. NOWCRJ has written an ordinance criminalizing wage theft, which is rarely treated as a crime. Usually the abused workers are treated as criminals, and employers are allowed to continue to engage in abuse and exploitation. The ordinance has received a positive response so far from the City Council and Police Superintendent Warren Riley.
Even legal immigrants are subject to widespread exploitation, which is why the organization formed the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, another of the three groups making up NOWCRJ and the only organized group of guest workers in the country. Guest workers are legal immigrants brought to the United States from around the world on temporary work visas. They often pay up-front fees for the promise of great jobs in the U.S., only to face inhumane working conditions and low wages upon arrival. Now owing money in their home countries, they often find themselves stuck, with their legal status in the U.S. tied to their abusive employer.
The Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity has given many of these guest workers the power to stand up to their employers, some of whom are now being investigated by the FBI. Soriano’s former employer in Beaumont is being investigated as well.
The third group making up NOWCRJ is Stand for Dignity, a group of low-income and displaced New Orleans residents, primarily African Americans. Stand for Dignity focuses on issues related to housing, homelessness, and evacuations, while joining forces with NOWCRJ’s other two groups.
At a City Council hearing, a council member asked Soriano why he believed that middle class people would support the wage theft ordinance.
“They will support it because wage theft happens not just to Latinos, but to people of all colors, to women as well as men,” said Soriano. “It is an issue that affects all low-income people. We have to change the mentality of employers who think that people of color should work for free. We’re trying to flip the tortillas, to create a balance of power for the employer and the worker.”
