Yesterday, there were May Day rallies and marches throughout the US, and fortunately Pablo Manriquez, a writer and photographer, out of Washington, D.C. was able to capture these photos from the event in Lafayette Park and contribute them to LatinoPoliticsBlog:

I find the picture with the children especially poignant since families are being separated by the immigration raids leaving US born children behind in many instances.

Worth noting is that Representative Luis Gutierrez got arrested at the D.C. protest yesterday. The New York Times reports:

In Washington, Mr. Gutierrez sat crossed-legged on the sidewalk in front of the White House at about 3 p.m., holding a small American flag and wearing a white T-shirt with red letters that read, ‘Arrest me not my friends.’ The protesters each held letters that spelled out the message, ‘Obama, stop deporting our families.’

Even though many knew that Gutierrez had planned in advance to get arrested in this act of civil disobedience, I think that his actions yesterday showed some solidarity for the immigration advocacy movement, especially in light of recent events in Arizona. We can chalk Gutierrez’s actions up to political theater, but he put himself out there.

I believe that marches and rallies need to be followed up with higher voter participation, especially this coming November for the midterm elections. Fernando Espuelas penned a great piece in the Huffington Post encouraging people to stop marching and to start voting. I agree with the essence of his argument, although I think that marching can get people energized, especially our youth and those who may not be as engaged and for those who cannot yet vote due to their immigration status. What if we had voter registration tables at these marches and then passed out small cards with the numbers to the House of Representatives switchboard with simple instructions on how to make an advocacy call? Espuelas takes his argument a step further in expressing the need for a new crop of leaders who will demonstrate success in enacting legislation instead of marching:

These so-called leaders inhabit an alternative universe of political action where failure is accepted as further example that Latinos don’t have a voice in the United States and therefore require more marches to “be heard”.

This cynical manipulation of peoples’ emotions, dreams and hopes, neither serves the cause of the Latino community nor America as a whole.

Until we come to grips with the reality of the situation — we don’t vote anywhere near the levels of whites and African Americans — our relative power in Congress will always be weak.

Not facing this reality is a self-actualization of political impotence.

This call to action is nothing new on LatinoPoliticsBlog, as Seneca and I have both opined that the our power in Congress and overall representation in the federal bureaucracy is weak at best. For those of us who are citizens and of legal voting age and haven’t been convicted of a felony, there is no excuse for not casting a ballot.

Cesar Chavez was an American iconic figure, who could mingle with Hollywood celebrities, the Kennedys, and the working class people he represented. He could get away with wearing whatever he wanted, but the current leadership of the UFW doesn’t have his gravitas.

I was a bit surprised last week when the White House sent out this photo of the current UFW leadership along with Dolores Huerta and members of Cesar Chavez’s family for a signing of a proclamation on what would have been Chavez’s 83rd birthday. Most notably I was taken aback by what current UFW President Arturo Rodriguez decided to wear to the Oval Office for this meeting with President Obama. If you notice, he is wearing a tan colored guayabera. Is this an attempt to alter men’s formal fashions and remind Pat Buchanan that the Reconquista is at hand? Or is this fashion choice Rodriguez’s way of saying “Yo soy muy macho! I’m too sexy for a suit!”? Or is he saying, “Quien es mas macho? Ricardo Montalban o Arturo Rodriguez?”

If Rodriguez is thinking that he’s going to hold court at the Governor’s mansion (especially if Meg Whitman ends up living there) with that getup, he better rethink his fashion choices. We don’t see President Obama wearing dashikis, and I certainly don’t see the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus or the NAACP wearing traditional African garb to the Oval Office, so what’s with the guayabera?

Finally, the other leaders of the big unions such as Andy Stern and Richard Trumka wear more formal men’s attire. Even Dolores Huerta was wearing a suit in the White House photo showing some style and understanding of public perception. Rodriguez is a public union official seeking political status amongst the elite in the nation’s capitol — he should dress the part.

On January 28, 2010, huddled inside a Mexican grocery store & panaderia in Gresham, Oregon, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and I hosted a Labor & Employment Forum to educate Oregonian workers of their rights as workers, the work of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) and most importantly to listen to concerns from the Latino community. Interestingly, it began with a conversation I was having with Roxy De La Torre and Delia Hernandez over at KUNP-TV Univision regarding Latino workers not being paid. In their role as journalists they would receive calls and emails from workers who had performed work but were not being paid, workers who often didn’t know their rights, and workers who sent their requests over to BOLI but were being denied a claim. I became curious, and asked Commissioner Brad Avakian if he and his bilingual staff would join me at a community forum in Gresham to discuss and respond to these concerns, which he happily agreed to. Oregon Labor Commissioner Avakian leads BOLI and is one of six statewide-elected officials. He’s the person responsible for ensuring that “when you work a days work, you get paid.”

A few takeaways from the community forum:

BOLI receives and processes thousands of claims annually, but not all are awarded. Workers should document who they are going to work for at all times, including but not limited to business name, owner/contractor, address, phone, location of work, hours of work, etc. It doesn’t matter if you are a citizen of the United States of America, everyone who works has the right to get paid at least the minimum wage for hours worked. Document the license number of person who writes you a check in the case the check cannot be paid.

From the Q&A w/ Commissioner Brad Avakian:

Q: What is your agency doing so that construction company’s treat us equally with full benefits, not as sub-contractors.
A: We need to know when this happens. They need to pay you as an employee. Please let us know so we can help. We legally have the power to demand them to pay you.

Q: Is it illegal for companies to treat you as a sub-contractor?
A: If you are an employee, yes.

Q: I worked for a construction company for 3 months and I haven’t been paid. What do I do?
A: That’s illegal, they have to pay you. You need to file a claim. Companies have to pay you whether they have money or not. But, if they are in bankruptcy, there are funds to help companies in crisis.

Q: Why don’t I get a pay stub but I get taxes taken from my check?
A: That’s a problem, let us help.

Q: Why do companies do this? What is BOLI doing to stop this?
A: We need to know they are doing this in order to help. Employers have to pay at least the minimum wage ($8.40 p/hr), not just pay you.

Q: What are the rights when people get sick on the job?
A: When a person gets injured at work don’t go to BOLI, go to Workers Compensation. There’s a a way to get medical treatment and wages payed when you get hurt. If your employer fires you, then you got to see BOLI. Just remember this: call BOLI for any questions and we will direct you to the appropriate agency.

Q: What info is needed to win a case?
A: The more info you can give us, the better, i.e. any info that is given to you by your employer that specifies hours and wages you were told you were going to be paid, witnesses and other co-workers contact information.

Q: How long do I have to file a claim with BOLI?
A: A person has to file a claim with BOLI within a year after being unfairly fired.

Q: Is it illegal to not get a pay stub? A pay raise?
A: It’s not illegal to not get raises. Keep records of how many hours you are working in case they are not paying you so you can get your wages. Yes, you are entitled to your pay stub.

In the Nov 2009 Health Care Reform & Latino Health Care Disparities Forum, I used a combination of Spanish-TV, radio and print marketing (2,500 flyers) and the event attracted upwards of 60+ individuals. In the Labor & Employment Forum, I dropped the print marketing and focused my attention on producing a 30-second commercial (disclaimer: sponsored by Tienda La Tapatia & El Rey 93.1FM) and did interviews on KUNP-TV Univision, La Gran D, and Radio Tonalli. The results were as expected. Non-stop calls of individuals RSPVing to the forum.

Heartfelt thanks to Commissioner Avakian and his bilingual staff for their participation. Special thanks to Milan Homola of Clear Creek Community Church for letting us borrow chairs; Obie Quiroz and MEChA at Mt. Hood Community College for setting up chairs/tables, take-down and manning the registration table; Alvaro Gongora of Reynolds School District for his a/v equipment set-up and expertise. Special thanks to El Hispanic News y Más, AlegreTV and KUNP-TV Univision for their special news coverage. And, finally, Mauricio Alvarez of Tienda La Tapatia for his generous hospitality and sponsorship.

Commissioner David Molina serves on the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs, an eleven-member statewide commission with statutory authority that advises the governors’ office and legislative body on all policy issues pertaining to Oregon’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic community, Latinos. Appointed by Governor Ted Kulongoski in April 2006, he was recently reappointed to a second three-year term.

Photo: Brad Avakian

I think that if more Latinos in the community realized that their civil rights organizations were to heavily tied to the corporate entities that produce sugar and junk food and perpetuate racial stereotypes like Disney has had a history of doing (of course, let’s not forget Disney’s labor history in regards to its hotel workers, which this blog has covered before back in the Summer of 2008), then there would be some sort of outrage about who exactly these associations serve. I have met one of the previous presidents of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association, and I thought that she was approachable and even receptive to criticism and questions, similar to how I felt about Brent Wilkes of LULAC willingness to answer my own questions. Perhaps people in the community need to start asking the questions that Gustavo and I have been raising on the blogs. These organizations aren’t going to sever ties or consider other sponsors without more people questioning their relationships. Currently, the Walt Disney Company is listed as a sponsor of the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association.

Disney wants its hotel workers who earn around $11 per hour to enroll in a health plan with costly premiums. Currently, 2,150 hotel workers are in a plan where they only pay co-payments for doctor’s visits and prescriptions. Plainly, these hotel workers are in an income bracket where they will have to make a choice between rent and health care or perhaps forgo coverage altogether. It is my hope that the Orange County Hispanic Bar Association reconsiders celebrating at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel in a display of solidarity with the workers who are fighting to keep more affordable health benefits. To add to the irony, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is going to be the keynote speaker at this event. I wonder if Secretary Solis would bestow the “corporate citizen award” upon Disney given its latest labor disputes. Hopefully, Secretary Solis and her people are keeping an eye on the Disney labor dispute and will consider the message that being a keynote speaker at this hotel may send to the workers who have been striking.

To read more about the Disney labor disputes, please check out this link.

This record fine stems from an explosion incident in 2005 where 15 people were killed and 170 injured at a BP refinery in Texas. OSHA had been investigating to determine whether BP was complying with an agreement it signed with the agency after the explosion to reduce workplace hazards. And Secretary Solis felt that the company was out of compliance.

Secretary Solis said, “When BP signed the OSHA settlement from the March 2005 explosion, it agreed to take comprehensive action to protect employees. Instead of living up to that commitment, BP has allowed hundreds of potential hazards to continue unabated.”

Finally, BP is fighting back with a challenge to the fine stating that it has pursued action plans outlined in the agreement, but there have been three other fatalities at this plant since the 2005 explosion. It will be interesting to see how the Department of Labor and Secretary Solis proceed with workplace violations like this one.

Last week, Secretary Solis visited a coal mine in West Virginia, and I caught word of this via twitter, where she sent tweets from inside the mine. She wrote an op-ed piece about her experience in the mine featured in a local West Virginia paper, and I thought I would share it with you. I was particularly struck by this part:

“It was evident that management and labor can work together to ensure that workers are safe, earn a good wage, and can be proud that their work is contributing to meeting our nation’s diverse energy needs. It also reinforced my commitment to ensure that all American workers have the right to be safe and secure on the job and they return home to their family every night.”

At a time when the latest statistics reveal that Latino workers are injured or die on the job at higher rates, Secretary Solis’s work becomes even more meaningful in our community. Sure, she represents all Americans, but we can count on her to uphold values of worker safety and wage integrity.

Photo Credit: Department of Labor, To view more photos from Solis’s coal mine visit, click here.

A recent poll reveals this:

“Brown enjoys a huge lead in the polls among Latino voters, with 51 percent saying they’d back him compared with to 22 percent for Newsom.”

My take is that the California governor’s race is Jerry Brown’s to lose. He has an established record and is known among older voters and within that category, older Latino voters who have a more established pattern of political participation. Jerry Brown has been an ally of the United Farm Workers, having supported the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975. Regardless of how relevant or irrelevant the UFW is today in the eyes of Latinos in California, there is a segment of the Latino population that is nostalgic for some of the victories of the past, and that group is likely to fall in Brown’s column.

The Whittier Daily News article also mentions that Gavin Newsom has named State Senator Alex Padilla chair of his statewide campaign. If you remember when we discussed Latino elected officials in California cruising like high rollers, Alex Padilla’s name came up for sticking the taxpayer with a $5,000 bill for 18-inch wheels on a Toyota Camry. That action left me scratching my head, but then again, I’m not a fan of extra chrome or pimping an economy ride to look like something out of a rap video. But back to Newsom, I do think that he will ultimately be remembered in the minds of average voters for advocating on behalf of gay marriage. While I don’t have a problem with that kind of advocacy, the more conservative members of our community probably do and will likely note that. However, Alex Padilla, who comes with his own labor support, could wrestle a bit of the union support away from Brown.

Earlier this month, Secretary Solis told a forum organized by the AFL-CIO in Miami, “There’s a new sheriff in town.” She also pledged to uphold labor laws that had been ignored in recent years and vowed to work in cooperation with companies to increase worker productivity. She added, “If you take care of an employee, that employee will produce. Productivity by our workforce, especially union members, has increased.”

Secretary Solis is also addressing the results of an investigation by the Government Accountability Office that showed Hour and Wage Division Employees not adequately following up with worker complaint calls. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“In one fictitious undercover call made to the agency by GAO staff, the complainant said he’d seen children working in a meatpacking plant in California. The person who received the call never followed up on the complaint, which like many others wasn’t recorded in the agency database, the GAO report found. In another situation, an agency worker encouraged the caller to have his own conversation with the employer in question.”

I’m thankful that President Obama appointed Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor. Her compassion for labor issues and the working men and women in this country is welcomed after years of government failure to enforce some of these labor laws. I can’t think of anything more discouraging to a worker in tough times than having to be a victim of wage theft or having to work in unsafe conditions. As Henry George once said, “Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over.”

I have written posts on this humble public servant many times before. You can read more about Hilda Solis here, here, and here. After a relatively smooth confirmation hearing, Solis got hung up on some minor tax issues involving her husband’s small business. She crossed the final hurdle today and will be sworn in by Vice President Biden.

Congresswoman Vazquez, current chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, offered this statement today in a press release about the Solis confirmation:

“As a Member of Congress, Hilda Solis has been an advocate in labor and environmental issues, and a trailblazer in healthcare and women’s issues.  Her confirmation as our nation’s 25th Secretary of Labor is a moment of pride for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Latinos across the country,” said Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Chair of the CHC.  “The influence of the Latino community continues to grow, and today, Hilda Solis helps pave the way for generations of Latinos to come.”

Congrats Secretary of Labor Solis! You persevered and endured. We look forward to your service and continued commitment to your community and all working Americans.

• In other news, Hilda Solis has cleared the committee vote in her nomination for Secretary of Labor. Senators Roberts (R-Kansas) and Coburn (R-Oklahoma) voted no in committee. Now the nomination will go to the full Senate for a vote (hopefully today or tomorrow). The folks at the Coconut Caucus have a funny blog post about a conference call organized yesterday morning by the Latino leadership organizations who are pushing for this confirmation. I listened to most of the call, and I do wish that the Latino orgs had better coordinated with other pro-Solis interest groups. Emily’s List created a petition for people to sign to support Solis last week, and the unions are supportive of this nomination as well. It bodes better for Latino organizations to stand in a coalition in pushing for this nomination in my view. I do know that there are Asian and African-American group members who have expressed support for Solis as well. Hopefully, next time there is more coordination since we have known about the hold up on this confirmation for a little while now.
• Here’s a good summary post about the latest and greatest from Mayor Villaraigosa. Just yesterday, he responded to some questions from the LA Times about his plans. You might want to check it out. Yesterday, he was also in DC lobbying for stimulus funds.