Workers' Dignity Project / Dignidad Obrera
Programs
Budget
$350,000.00
Description
Our wage theft process is driven by public action - workers supporting workers to lead their own fight for dignity and pay. The process begins with Defend Your Rights workshops, taught by member leaders who have already led their own campaigns to recover wages. From there, workers are paired up with advocate teams involving members and ally volunteers who accompany them throughout the process of their campaign. Through this experience, every person who sees their wage theft campaign through to the end learns the basics of building worker power: best practices for recruiting co-workers, power mapping, research, creating a campaign escalation plan and timeline, and creating enough public pressure to win.
Program Successes
Cases from Workers Dignity- worker nights have won back thousands of dollars back in wages over the years. Some examples include a worker at TJ maxx paid over $2000, $17,468 won back from construction work done at Trinity Heights Luxury; Hilton Garden Inn wages won back $1500.
Beneficiaries
Economically disadvantaged people
Migrant Workers
Undocumented immigrants
Long-term Success
Despite Nashville's billion dollar development boom, thousands of people responsible for Nashville's growth are locked out of its benefits by greedy employers, subcontracting schemes by large corporations, and mis-classification of employees as "subcontractors." This has fostered a culture of rampant wage theft, especially in the construction and hospitality industries. Since 2010, Workers' Dignity has served as a space where workers can band together to recover stolen wages and demand that companies take responsibility for everyone under their roofs and on their work sites. Each Thursday night for the last 14 years, Workers Dignity has met with its members to provide workers nights and focus on experiences of wage theft.
Short-term Success
Each workers nights brings its own levels of success. From workers becoming active members involved in the leadership of the organization to members becoming leaders serving on the board. The short term success also involves members with active wage theft cases winning back their wages through community organizing and advocacy.
Program Success Monitored By
Worker Nights success is monitored by the amount of low wage workers who become members and monthly donors to the organization. Additionally, volunteers make up a portion of our program success by being available to support on active wage theft cases' delegations, guidance, and next steps.
Program Areas Served
Davidson County
$350,000.00
Description
Our wage theft process is driven by public action - workers supporting workers to lead their own fight for dignity and pay. The process begins with Defend Your Rights workshops, taught by member leaders who have already led their own campaigns to recover wages. From there, workers are paired up with advocate teams involving members and ally volunteers who accompany them throughout the process of their campaign. Through this experience, every person who sees their wage theft campaign through to the end learns the basics of building worker power: best practices for recruiting co-workers, power mapping, research, creating a campaign escalation plan and timeline, and creating enough public pressure to win.
Program Successes
Cases from Workers Dignity- worker nights have won back thousands of dollars back in wages over the years. Some examples include a worker at TJ maxx paid over $2000, $17,468 won back from construction work done at Trinity Heights Luxury; Hilton Garden Inn wages won back $1500.
Beneficiaries
Economically disadvantaged people
Migrant Workers
Undocumented immigrants
Long-term Success
Despite Nashville's billion dollar development boom, thousands of people responsible for Nashville's growth are locked out of its benefits by greedy employers, subcontracting schemes by large corporations, and mis-classification of employees as "subcontractors." This has fostered a culture of rampant wage theft, especially in the construction and hospitality industries. Since 2010, Workers' Dignity has served as a space where workers can band together to recover stolen wages and demand that companies take responsibility for everyone under their roofs and on their work sites. Each Thursday night for the last 14 years, Workers Dignity has met with its members to provide workers nights and focus on experiences of wage theft.
Short-term Success
Each workers nights brings its own levels of success. From workers becoming active members involved in the leadership of the organization to members becoming leaders serving on the board. The short term success also involves members with active wage theft cases winning back their wages through community organizing and advocacy.
Program Success Monitored By
Worker Nights success is monitored by the amount of low wage workers who become members and monthly donors to the organization. Additionally, volunteers make up a portion of our program success by being available to support on active wage theft cases' delegations, guidance, and next steps.
Program Areas Served
Davidson County
CEO/Executive Director/Board Comments
| According to the Migration Policy Institute, between 2000 and 2010, the overall immigrant population in Tennessee grew faster than in any other state in the nation. The 2010 Census reports that during this same period, Nashville's Latino population increased by approximately 134 percent, with about 63,000 Latinos in Davidson County (Nashville) and over 110,000 in the Middle Tennessee area, where our work in centered. Caught between a deeply flawed federal immigration system and a generally hostile state and local policymaking environment, low-wage immigrant families are among the most economically vulnerable Tennesseans. They do some of the most undervalued and lowest paid jobs across industries, some of which are construction, cleaning, landscaping, and food service. According to a 2008 study by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), wage theft is a national epidemic. The NELP reports: 26% of low-wage workers, on average, were paid less than the required minimum wage in any given week; 76% of those who worked more than 40 hours per week were not paid the legally required overtime pay; and 12% of tipped workers experienced theft of tips by their employer or supervisor. Our members in Middle Tennessee report many of the same problems. Commercial and retail cleaning employees are misclassified as sub-contractors, permitting the employer to deny overtime, workers compensation, and other legal entitlements. Restaurant workers are often paid below the minimum wage. Half of wage theft complaints have come from groups of workers in the same workplace, suggesting that unscrupulous employers systematically steal from their employees. In one third of wage theft complaints addressed by Workers' Dignity, employers threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement or police. In dozens of cases, employees were threatened with physical violence. Since January 2014, after intensive outreach to African American and white workers, several have reported threats of retaliation by employers. Those with a felony record fear losing job as a violation of probation or parole. We empower low-wage workers to overcome threats and intimidation, see themselves as leaders, and take action to improve their situations. According to our exploratory research survey of cleaning workers, housekeepers confront dangerous working conditions, lack health and safety training, and often are denied emergency medical care. Worker-led monitoring of wages, health, and safety provides the only remedy to the rampant abuses low-wage workers face in Nashville's hospitality industry. |
