Labor

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.

Restaurant Associates, the company that manages Senate cafeteria workers, confirmed on Friday that the layoffs announced a week ago have been canceled.

On Friday, workers at the Dirksen Café were told by management that there would be mass layoffs on April 15. The workers tell Latino Rebels that 81 employees of Restaurant Associates, the federal contractor that runs the Senate cafeterias, are on the chopping block.

At least two senators were accosted at lunchtime on Wednesday by Capitol cafeteria workers demanding answers to what they say has been a heavy-handed unionization push by Local 23, which represents over 25,000 hospitality workers in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

The Instagram account “Dear White Staffers” sent an updated whip count of House members who co-sponsored the PRO Act, a bill that would strengthen unions generally, but have not signed onto a resolution to empower unions in Congressional offices.

The new appropriations, if enacted, would also increase the amount of funding available in each Congressional office for paying interns from $25,000 to $35,000 per year.

Funding for paid internships at the State Department has been removed from the Senate version of the 2022 appropriations bill currently being negotiated in the upper chamber of Congress.

From 2005 to 2020, U.S. employers around the country were ordered to pay more than $42.5 million in back wages to 69,000 workers who perform seasonal low-wage jobs on H-2A and H-2B visas. But labor advocates are worried that many more workers are being cheated.

Less than a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) told Latino Rebels that they support staffers looking to unionize their workplaces, a resolution has been introduced by Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) to formalize worker rights.

Sixty-six members of the House of Representatives who co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize Act last year have yet to support a resolution by Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) that would create a legal framework for Hill staffers to unionize their offices in Congress.