Long Island Jobs with Justice is partnering with St. John of God to organize a vigil to end the annual deportation of 400,000 undocumented immigrants in the United States. We have already noted that our immigration system is broken, but we continue to deport innocent people and tear new American families apart. Join us for our April 9th vigil at St. John of God in Central Islip.
Working But Still Poor Conference on Friday, May 3rd, 2013! 8:30am-2:30pm at Touro Law Center in Central Islip.
Our upcoming “Working But Still Poor Conference” program is now online here:
View full descriptions and register for your workshop today before time runs out! Remember that early bird registration is just $25, which includes breakfast, lunch, and both workshop sessions.
Also, feel free to distribute our flyer, which is online here, and has a manual registration for people who like to mail in their registration (and support the U.S. postal service)!
Fire Island, NY—Long Island Jobs with Justice joined Assemblyman Phil Ramos, Parish Outreach Center at St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Brentwood, and community members from Make the Road New York, in supporting workers from Superstorm Sandy who have experienced a wide array of workers’ rights abuses on their job site. Workers were tasked with cleaning up 9,000 tons of debris on Fire Island in preparation for warmer weather.
The contractor, Environmental Chemical Corporation was awarded $10.1 million dollars by FEMA, and they hired two subcontractors: DS3 and the Coastal Environmental Group.
The main contractor, the Environmental Chemical Corporation out of California has been doing environmental cleanup for 20 years, but they have had a number of lawsuits against them, culminating in their company being investigated by the F.B.I. and other federal agencies for its billing practices during Hurricane Katrina.[1] Workers on Long Island have had similar problems, being underpaid for hours worked, or being paid with checks that bounced, or being forced to sign an employment agreement without a specified wage amount.
Long Island Jobs with Justice organized a press conference outside of the Coastal Environmental Group in Central Islip (covered by News 12 and Newsday) on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the Department of Labor began a full investigation of the job site. We will continue to monitor the situation on this job site and ensure that workers are being paid for the hours they work, but this points to a much bigger problem: the exploitation of disaster recovery workers.
Long Island Jobs with Justice is a member of the Downstate Alliance for a Just Rebuilding, which brings together labor unions, workers centers and community, faith-based, environmental justice and policy organizations to address immediate relief and long-term rebuilding issues in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. View our goals and mission statement online here:
[1] Mattera, Phillip. “Profiles of 12 Companies That Have Received Large Contracts… Related to Hurricane Katrina.” Wagetheft.org. N.p., Mar. 2006. http://www.wagetheft.org/moreinfo/archive/profiles12.pdf
We finalized our speakers and details for our upcoming Working But Still Poor Conference, which will be held on Friday, May 3rd at Touro Law Center in Islip. Please register today for the conference, and take a look at our online brochure.
Keynote speaker will be Sister Simone Campbell, of the Nuns on the Bus, who was also a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Our opening speaker will be Sister Margaret Smyth of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate.
Brochure online here.
Join Long Island Jobs with Justice in Albany on Tuesday, April 23rd as we lobby in Albany for the passage of the New York State DREAM Act! We will leave around 6AM that morning and have stops in Riverhead, central Suffolk, and Nassau County, returning to Long Island late in the evening. If you’d like to join us, register online here.
Spread the word with our flyer here:
Join Long Island Jobs with Justice for our Business Leaders Press Conference on Tuesday, March 19th. It’s not just workers and progressives who want to see a minimum wage increase: many businesses understand the importance of raising the minimum wage for their own businesses and for the economy at large.
As Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco said, “Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business.”
Immigration reform means different things to different people. But here at Long Island Jobs with Justice, we are committed to ensuring that all families benefit from immigration reform proposals as they roll out. Please join us in signing this petition for real immigration reform. For a recent analysis of what ought to be included in progressive immigration reform, check out Charlene Obernauer’s recent Huffington Post article online here.
Long Island Jobs with Justice 