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Aug. 17th, 2011 10:19 amYesterday, I gave a settlement check to a former slave.
Some of the things that come through our door at work, I swear, I don't understand how people can be so evil to each other. A man came in who had worked for $100 a week for years; a woman who had been fired for leaving the factory floor to go to the hospital to have a baby; people who have been denied workers' comp unjustly and lost their houses; people who haven't been paid at all. Dozens of low-wage workers, every single week.
This particular woman came to our Workers' Rights Clinic and told us her story. Her "employers" held her captive for over a year in their house, took her passport and threatened to call ICE if she said anything. She was told horror stories of jail and deportation, and feared for her life. She worked for them for more than a year and never saw a cent.
Her employer has a cushy job on K Street.
She escaped to a neighbor's house one day, and somehow ended up in our Clinic. We advise on employment law, and clearly she needed much more extensive help, so we found her that help through other area nonprofits. Once she'd gotten housing and a visa, we filed a lawsuit against her employers.
We see hundreds of workers every year, and in most cases we give them legal advice to file suits on their own. We help them through every stage of the process, but it's rare that we have the capacity to file a lawsuit on behalf of a client. This was one of those times.
We have five lawyers on staff, and we help more than 1300 people every year. It's so frustrating to think what we could do if we didn't have to worry about our phones being cut off and salvaging printers from Freecycle; what could happen if we could hire another lawyer -- or two, or three -- on staff. Everyone here is paid far less than we would make anywhere else, but we come to work so that we can win cases like this one.
This was an extreme case, but we see people who have not been paid for their work every day. Most people in this country are a paycheck or two away from losing everything; the people we see often are in the process of losing everything because their employers cheated them. Sometimes we can keep them from losing their homes or having to rely on food banks to feed their families, but the law works slowly. As with this woman, sometimes we can only help them find delayed justice.
We're in a budget crunch and I'm asking for help. Donations are down, grant money is down, and the number of people who need our help is exploding.
or mail a check to
DC Employment Justice Center
727 15th St NW, 2nd floor
Washington, DC 20005
Some of the things that come through our door at work, I swear, I don't understand how people can be so evil to each other. A man came in who had worked for $100 a week for years; a woman who had been fired for leaving the factory floor to go to the hospital to have a baby; people who have been denied workers' comp unjustly and lost their houses; people who haven't been paid at all. Dozens of low-wage workers, every single week.
This particular woman came to our Workers' Rights Clinic and told us her story. Her "employers" held her captive for over a year in their house, took her passport and threatened to call ICE if she said anything. She was told horror stories of jail and deportation, and feared for her life. She worked for them for more than a year and never saw a cent.
Her employer has a cushy job on K Street.
She escaped to a neighbor's house one day, and somehow ended up in our Clinic. We advise on employment law, and clearly she needed much more extensive help, so we found her that help through other area nonprofits. Once she'd gotten housing and a visa, we filed a lawsuit against her employers.
We see hundreds of workers every year, and in most cases we give them legal advice to file suits on their own. We help them through every stage of the process, but it's rare that we have the capacity to file a lawsuit on behalf of a client. This was one of those times.
We have five lawyers on staff, and we help more than 1300 people every year. It's so frustrating to think what we could do if we didn't have to worry about our phones being cut off and salvaging printers from Freecycle; what could happen if we could hire another lawyer -- or two, or three -- on staff. Everyone here is paid far less than we would make anywhere else, but we come to work so that we can win cases like this one.
This was an extreme case, but we see people who have not been paid for their work every day. Most people in this country are a paycheck or two away from losing everything; the people we see often are in the process of losing everything because their employers cheated them. Sometimes we can keep them from losing their homes or having to rely on food banks to feed their families, but the law works slowly. As with this woman, sometimes we can only help them find delayed justice.
We're in a budget crunch and I'm asking for help. Donations are down, grant money is down, and the number of people who need our help is exploding.
or mail a check to
DC Employment Justice Center
727 15th St NW, 2nd floor
Washington, DC 20005