Shocking State Fair Scandal, Wage Theft Epidemic, Spur Nationwide Protests

[Catherina]

The linked article has embedded links.

Shocking State Fair Scandal, Wage Theft Epidemic, Spur Nationwide Protests

by Art Levine

Activists in more than 30 cities, organized by Interfaith Worker Justice and backed by labor groups, are staging a National Day of Action Against Wage Theft on November 18. "As the crisis for working families in the economy has deepened, so too has the crisis of wage theft," says Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) Executive Director Kim Bobo, perhaps the country's leading reformer addressing the ongoing scandal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn6nr2PviIU&feature=player_embedded

As much as $19 billion is stolen from American workers annually in unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations and, in some cases, through the human trafficking of legal immigrant workers. The latest case to come to light involves alleged horrendous conditions for immigrant workers reportedly hoodwinked in Mexico by a food services contractor for the New York State Fair and kept in near-slavery conditions of $2 an hour.

Indeed, the scandal surfaced when some of these legal guest workers showed up several weeks ago at a Syracuse area clinic, severely dehydrated and malnourished after allegedly being kept in virtual imprisonment in a trailer at the fair and at other locations; they were reportedly being denied thousands of dollars in legal wages owed them while working about 100 hours a week at fairs for months, according to legal filings and Danny Postel, communications coordinator for Interfaith Worker Justice.

"It's one of the most shocking cases of wage theft," Postel says.

The contractor, Pantelis Karageorgis, is the target of a labor standards class-action lawsuit filed last month by Farmworker Legal Services and a Labor Department investigation. But criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney's office have been dropped— "dismissed without prejudice"—and instead a modest settlement involving some back payment for the workers is being hammered out, knowledgeable sources say. In These Times spoke to the vendor's attorney Thursday seeking comment, but didn't hear back as of this writing.

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Cincinnati workers bilked out of overtime pay?

The failure to effectively enforce wage theft has allowed employers to underpay and stiff workers with impunity. For instance, one alleged scheme by owners of a Cincinnati animal hospital reportedly involved paying immigrant workers overtime, but then demanding the pay be returned to the owners in the form of cash kickbacks.

...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6663/shocking_state_fair_scandal_wage_theft_epidemic_spur_nationwide_protes/

[burnsei sensei]

1. Wage theft?

Why that's been going on nationally since at least 1970.
The value of wages has never increased since then.
You don't need too many brains to figure out why and how.
Why weren't we using this to describe events 30 to 40 years ago?

[Catherina]

2. You tell me. We live in a country of Low-Wage Capitalism

Where else does the profit come from?

These cases are egregious but it's nothing now. People need to be aware however and stand in solidarity.