Whistleblower protections for immigrant workers also protect U.S. workers

WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2013—The Senate immigration bill’s inclusion of POWER Act worker protections is a huge victory for immigrant and U.S. workers alike.

Too often, employers use threats of retaliation and deportation to silence immigrant whistleblowers and get away with abuse. Immigrant workers become trapped in captive labor, and U.S. workers are trapped in a race to the bottom as employers use guestworkers to drive down wages and conditions for all.

The Senate bill addresses this by providing crucial protections for whistleblowers so immigrant workers can expose abuse without fear of deportation. The bill also allows immigrant workers to demand back pay and reinstatement when they face retaliatory termination.

• These protections are crucial for workers like Josue Diaz, who performed dangerous, toxic cleanup work after Hurricane Ike so Texans could return to their homes—then spent 78 days in jail when he protested stolen wages and his employer retaliated by having him arrested.
• They’re crucial for workers like Delmy Palencia, a mother and member of the Congress of Day Laborers who faces deportation after immigration authorities retaliated against her for standing up against racial profiling and abuse of power by local law enforcement.
• They’re crucial for workers like Mary and Pat, National Alliance of Domestic Workers members who worked around the clock, facing isolation, low wages, threats, and even physical violence.
• They’re crucial for workers like Jorge Rios, a J-1 guestworker who faced severe exploitation at McDonald’s and threats of deportation when he spoke up.
• Such protections are overdue for workers at Corinthian Contractors employed on a pipeline project for DC Water who organized to demand their legal mandated wage, only to have ICE used in retaliation against them, leaving over half of the workers fired and key worker-leaders in deportation proceedings.

Only strong workers can build a strong economy. We look forward to preserving and strengthening POWER Act worker protections as immigration reform moves forward.

ABOUT: The POWER Campaign seeks to ensure the basic civil and labor rights of immigrant workers who organize to end exploitation, and to ensure that U.S. workers’ wages and conditions are not undermined by employers who pit them against a captive workforce of exploited immigrant workers. The POWER Campaign includes Jobs with Justice, the National Guestworker Alliance, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, the United Workers Congress, and the National Immigration Law Center.

CONTACTS: Liz Cattaneo, lcattaneo@americanrightsatwork.org, 202-822-2127 x104

Stephen Boykewich, stephen@guestworkeralliance.org, 718-791-9162