Workforce Profiles

Workers from different industries work together for legalization.

Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles involved with MIWON

General Overview

Immigrants come to this country seeking a better life for their children. Many who arrive here find themselves working in an underground economy where they contribute the most to the State’s economy, but receive virtually nothing in terms of living wages and health care benefits. From the garment industry to the car wash industry, from looking for work in street corners as day laborers to working in private homes as a domestic worker, immigrant workers endure much hard work and sacrifice daily, but they fail to earn enough to raise themselves out of poverty. Many suffer daily exploitation at the hands of their employers – unpaid wages, discrimination, long working hours without overtime, and sexual harassment – with little or no resource that they can use to protect themselves. Those who do stand up and exercise their rights under the law become victims of retaliation, termination and blacklisting. The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement of the Department of Industrial Relations, the state agency that enforces the wage and hour laws, is so overburdened with cases and lacking in resources that it is unable to address the needs of the workers.

Garment Workers

California is the nation’s largest garment center raking in $30 billion each year, also making garment one of the state’s most important manufacturing industries. There are more than 6,000 sewing shops in the state. Approximately 5,000 are concentrated in the greater Los Angeles area alone, employing upwards of 140,000 men, women and children. Of these, an estimated 4,500 are classified as sweatshops – characterized by sub-minimum wages and working conditions hazardous to workers’ health and safety. The dark, cluttered factory lofts of the Los Angeles garment district recall the tenement hovels of turn of the century New York – the one clear difference being that Eastern European seamstresses have given way to immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Because the large majority of garment workers do not speak English and fall below the poverty line, they are often ill informed about labor laws, and hesitate to inquire after their rights at all. Violations of labor laws in the garment industry are rampant in part because:

manufacturers and retailers set contract prices so low that many contractors simply cannot afford to pay minimum wage and still make a profit,
these laws are chronically under-enforced by under-funded and under-staffed government agencies, and
the scarce availability of legal assistance for low-wage workers in Los Angeles leaves garment workers with few tools for asserting their labor rights.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2000 Southern California Survey has found that only one in three garment manufacturing shops in the Los Angeles area are in compliance with the Federal minimum wage and overtime laws. The survey found nearly $900,000 in minimum wage and overtime back wages due to more than 1400 employees for the time periods covered by the investigations. According to the California State Labor Commissioner of the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, garment workers in California are owed on an average $ 70 million annually in back wages.

Day Laborers

With a population size numbering about 22,000, no group of persons in Los Angeles County is more vulnerable to civil rights abuses and discrimination than day laborers. Since day laborers are so highly visible, they have become the scapegoats for the ongoing deterioration of our communities. The strong demand for day laborers and the need for employment, though mutually beneficial in an economic sense, have often been a source of conflict in Los Angeles. Day laborers seeking work have raised concerns among residents, businesses, and law enforcement in several communities. Recent local laws have limited their ability to look for work and made them subject to harassment from law enforcement officers, employers, merchants, private business owners and residents. Day laborers have become one of the most exploited and abused sector of the workforce. Today, day laborers find themselves in the struggle, not only to feed their families, but also to protect their fundamental right to look for work on street corners. A recent study by the UCLA Center for the Study of Urban Poverty made the following findings:

Average monthly wages vary for day laborers depending on seasonal periods and demand. During a good month, day laborers on average earn a little over $1,000. During a bad month, they earn on average about $350.
Day labor work is a full-time endeavor. Ninety percent of all day laborers work in this market full time; the other ten percent hold a part time job that on average occupies about 20 hours of their workweek (Monday-Sunday).
Day laborers are routinely abused at the work place. About half of all day laborers report at least one instance of non-payment of wages. Other types of employer abuses include paying less than the agreed upon amount, bad checks in the form of payment, no breaks or water at the work site, robbery, and threats.

Domestic Workers

Domestic workers work from as early as six in the morning until nine or ten at night. Their responsibilities are numerous--sweeping, mopping and waxing all floors, preparing and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner; dusting and vacuuming; cleaning bathrooms; doing laundry; and cleaning windows. Many of them care for the children of others, and sometimes, the household pet. Oftentimes, they have to work holidays and special family events -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, weddings, banquets etc.; -- where they serve and cater their employers’ families. Holidays basically mean more work with no extra pay. For performing all this work, they are paid a weekly average of $150. If they get hurt on the job or become pregnant, their employers fire them.

Southern California is the nation’s capital of “in-home worker employment”, on the books and off. According to the most recent figures from the state Employment Development Department, nearly 82,300 people were employed as “private household workers” in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties in the second quarter of 1999. This number represents only those domestic workers whose employers pay unemployment insurance. There may be as many as three times as many people who are not reported.

Domestic workers are the most economically and socially marginalized group in the immigrant community. By working directly in their employer’s home, they are particularly susceptible to low wages, physical abuse and sexual harassment. Because of their sense of isolation – and sometimes their legal immigration status – many feel they are not able to exercise their rights and confront their employer.

Koreatown Restaurant Workers

In Koreatown, approximately 2,000 Korean and Latino workers work in 200 Korean owned restaurants. The working conditions in many restaurants are deplorable as Korean Waitresses and cooks and Latino dishwashers and bussers work 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week for wages as low as $2 an hour and no overtime pay. Workers are often verbally abused by the employer and in some cases are they are even battered for not working fast enough. Up to 80% of the restaurants do not carry the required workers’ compensation insurance, and health and safety laws are routinely violated. Workers who are injured on the job are often forced to pay for their own medical treatment. The employer often illegally fire workers who demand better pay or file for workers’ compensation. Workers who stand up for their rights are fired without back pay by their employer and often blacklisted by the well-organized Korean Restaurant Owners Association. Korean and Latino restaurant workers in Koreatown have never had an unorganized voice.