Labor

Following a series of reports on migrant children being exploited in the meatpacking industry, Latino Rebels Radio host Julio Ricardo Varela welcomes Rose Godinez, legal and policy counsel for the Nebraska chapter of the ACLU and the child of meatpacking workers herself, to break down an industry rife with exploitation and retaliation under unsafe conditions.

Last week a federal judge nullified Puerto Rico’s Labor Reform Law approved only months ago, saying that Gov. Pedro Pierluisi did not provide evidence that the law would not impact the oversight board’s fiscal plan.

After a short five-day strike that closed access to most campuses, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Workers’ Union reached an agreement with the administration that should see workers’ salaries match the archipelago’s minimum wage of $8.50 per hour, rising to $9.50 on July 1.

A roundup of the week’s top Latino news from around the world, written by Latino Rebels senior editor Hector Luis Alamo.

This week’s wrap-up comes to you from the cozy confines of quarantine, as senior editor Hector Luis Alamo has managed to catch COVID for only the second time this year.

Equal pay isn’t just about our paychecks, it’s about our economic security. And our ability to control our economic security is inextricably linked to our ability to decide whether and when to become a parent.

The announcement, made on Friday, is part of the Biden administration’s effort to directly address the disproportionate impacts of pollution that have existed for decades in many low-income communities and communities of color.

In this episode, we look at the types of jobs Latinos and Latinas are doing within the oil and gas industry, the struggles they face when they move to a place like North Dakota, and how some of them are trying to turn North Dakota into the place they want to see it become.

In this episode, we look at the politics of oil and gas, the types of jobs Latinos and Latinas are doing within this controversial industry and the impact that drilling is having on the environment and Indigenous communities in North Dakota.

Producer Monica Morales-Garcia began to research the origins of the L.B.D. to answer: How had so much changed, yet so much had stayed the same? Listen as Monica walks us through the decline of an industry and the rise of a garment.

Let’s stop shoehorning immigration debates into economic trends. In a country built largely by and very much running off the hard work of immigrants, there is no need to justify their role in the economy.

At sunrise on Tuesday, July 12, Ana Guajardo began peddling north on her bicycle from Monterrey, Mexico, destined for Chicago. It’s a 19-day journey that requires Ana to endure intense heat, incredible exhaustion, and long stretches of loneliness.

Since the first layoffs were announced, then canceled, in April, a lingering suspicion has surfaced among Senate cafeteria workers that the $3.75 million Blanton said would keep the workers in their jobs through September has been misspent.

The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights began accepting applications Monday for Hill offices looking to form unions just minutes after organizing protections, passed by the House of Representatives in May, went into effect.

Senate cafeteria workers tell Latino Rebels that Restaurant Associates, the vendor that runs the dining facilities in the Senate, announced Wednesday that 38 cafeteria workers will be laid off on July 28.

The injustice of not paying interns for their work was not lost on Carlos Mark Vera, a formerly undocumented immigrant who escaped violence in Colombia to come to the United States. He founded Pay Our Interns with a clear, simple mission: get interns paid.

After a resolution to protect Hill staffers from retaliation for organizing a union in their offices had been adopted by the House on Tuesday night, a number of Congress members tell Latino Rebels they expect their offices to unionize.

Reforming the childcare system in this country can impact the overall poverty rate of the early childhood workforce as well as the children they serve by allowing their parents to return to work.

Following a massive fire at Costa Sur Power Plant and the ensuing island-wide blackout that lasted multiple days, the firefighters union has called on the government to cancel its contract with LUMA Energy.

Workers at Authentico Foods, which produces tortilla chips and tostadas under the El Ranchero brand and tamales and masa under the La Guadalupana brand, began organizing in March after hearing about the efforts of the workers at El Milagro. 

On Monday, the workers at El Milagro announced several campaign victories, including wage increases totaling approximately $1.3 million, anti-sexual harassment training for managers, and air conditioning in the lunchrooms. But not all of the workers’ demands have been met, and the company disputes their claims.