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06-13-2009, 02:12 PM
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Location: Maryland
15,171 posts, read 17,814,721 times
Reputation: 3037
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If this isn’t nerve, I don’t know what is. These people have violated our laws by not only entering this country illegally, but also by working in this country. Yet, they expect the same laws they flagrantly ignore, to protect them against unscrupulous employers.
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The traditional Spanish empowerment chant "Si, se puede!" ("Yes, we can!") rang a little truer Friday as New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow told a crowd on the steps of City Hall that he would push for an ordinance criminalizing wage theft.
New Orleans has become ground zero in a national effort to protect mostly Hispanic day laborers after recent surveys found about 80 percent of them have been stiffed on promised wages in the New Orleans area, mostly after finishing jobs rebuilding homes and other buildings destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
About 50 people, representing a nationwide coalition of groups from Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, gathered at City Hall on Friday, hoping New Orleans will lead the way in making wage theft a criminal offense.
The U.S. Department of Labor is supposed to crack down on employers who violate wage laws, but a March report by the Government Accountability Office found the department's enforcement has been lax.
But worker advocates from the National Congress of Day Laborers and others say wage theft should be treated more like robbery, and police should be empowered to slap the cuffs on employers immediately.
"They think they can use intimidation to not pay us for work we've done, " said Jeronimo Salguero, the director of the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, speaking in Spanish at the New Orleans rally. "Well, this is the first time we've put these local forces together with the day-laborer community, and I think this is going to make it better for sure."
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New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime - NOLA.com |
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06-13-2009, 02:27 PM
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472 posts, read 714,351 times
Reputation: 370
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The authoritys should investigate claims, and if true, prosecute the offending empoyers, recover the unpaid wages, and give to the illegal aliens what is left after deducting the cost of immediate deportation.
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06-13-2009, 02:56 PM
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Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 81,484,169 times
Reputation: 27707
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Weedsnake
The authoritys should investigate claims, and if true, prosecute the offending empoyers, recover the unpaid wages, and give to the illegal aliens what is left after deducting the cost of immediate deportation.
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ROFL..I don't think that's exactly what they are hoping for but hey..sounds like a good plan.
I'll bet they want minimum wage, OSHA conditions and everything else a lawful US citizen would get if they worked the same job. |
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06-13-2009, 02:59 PM
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3,712 posts, read 6,263,380 times
Reputation: 1289
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Benicar
If this isn’t nerve, I don’t know what is. These people have violated our laws by not only entering this country illegally, but also by working in this country. Yet, they expect the same laws they flagrantly ignore, to protect them against unscrupulous employers.
New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime - NOLA.com |
The moral of the story is that these jobs should have gone to Americans in the first place. Next the illegal lovers will try to claim that no Americans applied for the jobs, even though we know they did and were turned away by unscrupulous employers. Hopefully, five years from now when the work the illegals have done is falling apart we will have learned our lesson, namely that you get what you pay for. |
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06-13-2009, 03:30 PM
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47,531 posts, read 67,304,998 times
Reputation: 22436
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Actually I'm all for it. I hope all the illegals turn in their criminal employers and the employers are not only required to pay back wages, overtime and whatever to their illegals, but are slammed hard with big fines, and that the IRS shows up to collect "their" portion from these crooks.
Shut down all employers of illegals and this problem will begin to subside.
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06-13-2009, 03:31 PM
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47,531 posts, read 67,304,998 times
Reputation: 22436
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And that goes for the live in nannies and landscapers and housekeepers who pretty much work round the clock for less than minimum wage and no overtime pay. Let's encourage them all to go after the legal wages and overtime pay they weren't given.
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06-13-2009, 04:14 PM
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Location: Phoenix
2,075 posts, read 2,060,188 times
Reputation: 947
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Benicar
If this isn’t nerve, I don’t know what is. These people have violated our laws by not only entering this country illegally, but also by working in this country. Yet, they expect the same laws they flagrantly ignore, to protect them against unscrupulous employers.
New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime - NOLA.com |
Wage theft is a crime, for Americans. The illegals are just that, illegal. non citizens.. How many real American jobs were lost (construction, roofing, drywall, ect.) when these scumsuckers came to New Orleans???
GWB and FEMA imported these Mexican illegal alien scabs by the thousands. They could have hired Americans at a decent wage, but, they didn't want that. The Government just added insult to injury by bringing in the scabs.
How can you claim "rights" in a country you sneaked into? I think they got about what they deserve. New Orleans will find out cheap Mexican labor with the next big blow. The whole city will be under water.
How about this idea? We get the wages and send them (complete with anchor brats) straight back home. |
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06-13-2009, 04:19 PM
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8,178 posts, read 12,216,906 times
Reputation: 2886
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You live an illegal life - you take your chances. Sometimes that means going to jail, sometimes that means being deported and sometimes that means getting scre*ed out of your paycheck.
You roll the dice, you take your chances.
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06-13-2009, 04:29 PM
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34,995 posts, read 37,898,524 times
Reputation: 6191
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Benicar
If this isn’t nerve, I don’t know what is. These people have violated our laws by not only entering this country illegally, but also by working in this country. Yet, they expect the same laws they flagrantly ignore, to protect them against unscrupulous employers.
New Orleans day laborers want wage theft made a crime - NOLA.com |
The poor employers! The had no problem with hiring illegal workers. They had no problem trying to stiff the illegal workers. Now they're being called out and they're crying.
What a bunch of rat cowards. |
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06-13-2009, 04:32 PM
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34,995 posts, read 37,898,524 times
Reputation: 6191
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Quote:
Originally Posted by camping!
You live an illegal life - you take your chances. Sometimes that means going to jail, sometimes that means being deported and sometimes that means getting scre*ed out of your paycheck.
You roll the dice, you take your chances.
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So they diod, and they probably feel what's the worst that can happen, I get sent back? At least they're making a stand. And I applaud them for doing so.
It was so the companies rebuilding NO could hire them in the first place that Bush suspended Davis-Bacon.
Now the greedy companies want to take it further, and the workers are standing up against that. Good for the workers  |
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