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NEWS & LETTERS, JULY 2003
Labor agency thievesChicago--On June 17, San Lucas Workers’ Center took over the waiting room of Elite Labor Services, demanding that they immediately begin giving work tickets to workers whether requested or not. This is because workers need to be able to show the hours they work if their checks come up short. The demonstrators presented the day laborers waiting there and the agency with a survey showing that 40% of workers polled had had hours or even whole days of work missing from their pay; or had experienced delayed payment of wages at least once. All the workers said that they wanted work tickets for their records. Harvey Cole, the owner of Elite, looked foolish in front of TV and print journalists by refusing this simple request. A Spanish language station in Chicago carried this as the lead story in their newscast. Harvey Cole was targeted as the head of the association
of temporary staffing agencies which negotiated last year with the Chicago City
Council on the ordinance to regulate the day labor “industry.” The ordinance
passed on May Day with strong input from day labor organizers and workers from
San Lucas Workers’ Center, but the association worked to soften the cost of
having to treat day laborers like human beings. Since then, while the city has made no attempt to
enforce the law, the day labor agencies have devised ways so that the commodity
(labor) still has to pay for its own delivery. They still favor immigrants for
jobs over Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and other native born workers in order to send
them into sweatshop conditions. The worst capitalist practices are kept in place
so as not to inconvenience those making profits off of human misery. --D. D. |
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