Report on Wage Theft in El Paso Exposes Newest Crime Wave

Economy • July 2011 • Views: 1,506

[Link http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/wage-theft-in-el-paso/

One in every five low-wage workers in El Paso receives under minimum wage.” This is just one of the many disturbing findings presented by from Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, Border Network for Human Rights, the Labor Justice Committee, Dr. Cristina Morales, and Eric Murillo who unveiled their report on wage theft and labor violations in the El Paso area at the local office of the Border Network for Human Rights.

This groundbreaking report uncovers an epidemic of wage and hour violations running rampant in the El Paso area, and the impunity with which employers are able to violate their employees’ rights.

Wage Theft

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5 comments

Dark_Falcon Mon, Jul 11, 2011 6:16:49pm

Hence the need for a major reduction in illegal immigration. Reduce the percentage of the population vulnerable to such tactics and the crimes will be reduced. But one cannot expect that all those here can simply be thrown out. Those allowed to remain (and those not permitted to remain who are not guilty of other crimes) must be allowed redress for those crimes they have suffered.

andres Mon, Jul 11, 2011 7:52:30pm

Err... This will continue to happen with or without undocumented immigrants. This is not merely a problem caused by immigrants.

RadicalModerate Mon, Jul 11, 2011 10:53:08pm

And yet, there are individuals (and groups) who will scream "Let the free market decide!", and will defend the actions of these companies. There are already states who are enacting (or have enacted) legislation - both rescinding minimum-wage, overtime and child-labor laws to allow for exactly this.

Obdicut Tue, Jul 12, 2011 3:46:52am

re: #1 Dark_Falcon

Hence the need for a major reduction in illegal immigration. Reduce the percentage of the population vulnerable to such tactics and the crimes will be reduced. But one cannot expect that all those here can simply be thrown out. Those allowed to remain (and those not permitted to remain who are not guilty of other crimes) must be allowed redress for those crimes they have suffered.

You've got it backwards, twice:

The illegal immigrant population are here because of the jobs. The jobs are the source of the immigrants.

The population vulnerable to such tactics are the very poor, including perfectly legal immigrants, and natives. Being illegal gives employers an extra stick to beat the workers with, but in these economic times and with the lack of enforcement in Texas of labor laws, legal workers are vulnerable as hell as well.

lostlakehiker Tue, Jul 12, 2011 7:37:04am

re: #4 Obdicut

You've got it backwards, twice:

The illegal immigrant population are here because of the jobs. The jobs are the source of the immigrants.

The population vulnerable to such tactics are the very poor, including perfectly legal immigrants, and natives. Being illegal gives employers an extra stick to beat the workers with, but in these economic times and with the lack of enforcement in Texas of labor laws, legal workers are vulnerable as hell as well.

The immigrants contribute to the mismatch between available jobs and available employees. If there were fewer illegal immigrants, there would be less competition for low-wage jobs.

A glut of applicants for low-wage jobs contributes to the vulnerability of those applying for such jobs. In a less saturated market, the employer would have more to lose if a worker quit because of not getting the minimum wage. It wouldn't be so easy to replace the worker. Also, it wouldn't be so easy to escape notice, because there would be fewer employers breaking the law, and enforcement would be correspondingly stricter.

Many nations are able to control immigration better than we do, even though their unemployment rate is lower than ours. So while it is true that if there were no jobs in the U.S. we would have little illegal immigration, it is also irrelevant.

The current U.S. policy of importing [by tacitly leaving borders rather permeable] however many illegal immigrants it takes to drive down the market wage of low-skill labor is morally unsustainable.

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