2L Student Jonathan Harris Speaks at Peggy Browning Fundraiser
April 29, 2009
Jonathan Harris, 2L, was featured as a speaker at the 2009 New York City fundraiser for the Peggy Browning Fund. The Fund, named after former National Labor Relations Board Member Peggy Browning, funds summer placements for students interested in labor law. Jonathan spoke about immigrant rights at the workplace, based on his experience last summer working at CASA de Maryland, a worker center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Speech
"Thank you for asking me to speak and thanks to everyone here for supporting the Peggy Browning Fund.
"I worked last summer at CASA de Maryland, a worker center and service provider for Latino and African residents of Maryland. I worked as a union and community organizer for 6 yrs before deciding to go to law school, so I was already familiar with the effects of immigration status on workplace rights. But this summer really put me in the trenches in dealing directly with the legal problems workers face as a result of heightened immigration enforcement. The recent increase in raids at homes and worksites has made immigrant workers even more fearful of reporting workplace abuses to government agencies. And immigrant worker centers like CASA are feeling the effects of the heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric among politicians and tv pundits.
"One of the main parts of my job was counseling day laborers, construction workers, restaurant workers, and housekeepers about typical problems at the worksite like health and safety violations, wage and hour problems, and respect on the job. I also got to work on a broader campaign against Verizon to pressure the company into forcing its subcontractors to pay wages owed to day laborers. More than 40 day laborers, digging trenches for the Verizon FiOS project in suburban Maryland and Virginia, were owed money from the subcontractors Verizon has hired to carry out the work. Many of those subcontractors refused to pay and CASA thought that Verizon's role in negotiating the payments would be highly beneficial. I organized a protest of Verizon at their DC headquarters in June. In preparation for the protest, I facilitated conference calls among the lawyers and organizers planning the action, I prepped the workers who spoke at the protest, and I helped promote the action through local networks. The protest had about 150 people, and Verizon immediately agreed to sit down and meet with unpaid workers as a result of the action. As a result, workers have since recovered over $50,000 so far from the contractors. I also helped by interviewing some of these day laborers who have claims against the Verizon subcontractors for unpaid work, and I researched recommendations for further pressure tactics against Verizon.
"In the middle of the summer, ICE officials raided the company houses of Annapolis Painting Cp., detaining 46 workers and their families. This raid was conducted around 5:00 am, and ICE officials dragged sleeping workers and their families out of bed to question their immigration status. Everyone in the legal dept. dropped what we were doing to help the detained workers and their families. During this process, I interviewed detainees and their family members regarding possible constitutional violations by ICE and wage/hour violations by the employer. I also interpreted for lawyer meetings with detainees and helped to track the status of the cases, to find out how we could help those threatened with deportation. It was amazing to think that law enforcement could carry out non-criminal middle-of-the-night raids against families who are only here to work. These workplace raids are now all too common, and Labor MUST take a clear stand against them. We need to remember the 2003 Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides and their message that workplace rights should be respected, regardless of immigration status.
"In addition to the raids, anti immigrant hate crimes are on the rise and unfortunately CASA has been one of the victims. One of my jobs was to maintain a hotline for immigrant workers to call to report persecution by employers and local law enforcement. I check the messages one day to hear a man threatening to bomb CASA's facilities for helping the "Mexicans" (ironically, very few Mexicans came to CASA for services in the Silver Spring office). This was particularly scary since one of CASA's other hiring sites had been burned down the year before. We worked to pressure local and federal law enforcement to investigate and the man was recently arrested and charged.
"My favorite work at CASA was the Verizon campaign and Monday intakes-every Monday the legal office opened its doors to give free legal referrals to community members. Many of these intakes dealt with wage and hour violations, and I enjoyed the direct contact with people and the ability to offer them some resources. In some of these cases, I helped workers negotiate a payment plan with their bosses. In other cases, I helped workers file complaints with DLLR (Maryland Dept. of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation) for unpaid wages. While it felt good to help some individual workers, we need systemic change in employment laws. Indeed, many nonunion workers came with valid complaints (disrespect on the job, unfair pay, favoritism) but there are no legal remedies. This reaffirmed my opinion that organizing for a union contract is the best way for workers increase their rights on the job.
"The internship gave me a chance to test out my abilities in a legal environment and reflect on where I see myself in the movement for social justice back here in New York. I appreciate everyone here who made my summer experience possible by supporting the Peggy Browning Fund."
