Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Comes to Chicago Thursday April first

[Omaha Steve]

PRESS ADVISORY FOR THURSDAY, April 1



Contacts:

Danny Postel | Communications Coordinator, Interfaith Worker Justice | [phone] x24 | [e-mail]

Adam Kader | Director, Arise Chicago Worker Center | [phone] | [e-mail]



Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Comes to Chicago

U.S. Department of Labor Launches Worker Rights Campaign in Partnership with Local Groups



U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis – recently described as “Labor’s New Sheriff” – will be in Chicago tomorrow to kick off the national “We Can Help” public awareness campaign, an effort in which the local organization Arise Chicago and Chicago-based national network Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) are actively involved.



The campaign is an effort to connect with America’s most vulnerable workers – in industries such as construction, janitorial work, food service, hotel/motel, and home health care – on the national epidemic of wage theft and how to combat it.



Staff members of Arise Chicago and IWJ will join Secretary Solis for the event, and worker-members of the Arise Chicago Worker Center will be present and available to discuss their own experiences of wage theft with the media.



“At no point in recent memory has the Department of Labor done this kind of direct outreach to workers,” says Adam Kader, director of the Arise Chicago Worker Center. “We’re encouraged and eager to work with the new leadership.”



Secretary Solis has praised IWJ Executive Director Kim Bobo’s 2008 book Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid—And What We Can Do About It as “excellent.”



“Tomorrow’s event is about strengthening partnerships between community-based worker advocates and the Department of Labor to fight the epidemic of wage theft,” says Ted Smukler, IWJ’s Public Policy Director.



Secretary Solis announced she was tripling the staff of the department’s Wage and Hour Division and planning the campaign on November 19, a National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft organized by IWJ.



WHO:
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis
Wage and Hour Division Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink
Local Wage and Hour Division Investigators
Local Workers and Worker Advocates from Arise Chicago and Interfaith Worker Justice
Local Elected Officials and Community Leaders



WHAT:

“We Can Help” Campaign Kickoff Event, Including Screening of Video Public Service Announcements

Event to be followed by press availability



WHEN:
Thursday, April 1

Members of the press should arrive no later than 10:45 a.m.



WHERE:
UIC, Student Center East Building, 2nd Floor, 750 S. Halsted



Media planning to attend are requested to notify the Labor Department’s Office of Public Affairs at 312-353-6976.



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