The traditional Spanish empowerment chant "Si, se puede!" ("Yes, we can!") rung a little truer Friday as New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow told a crowd on the steps of City Hall that he would push for an ordinance criminalizing wage theft.
New Orleans has become ground zero in a national effort to protect mostly Hispanic day laborers after recent surveys found about 80 percent of them have been stiffed on promised wages in the New Orleans area, mostly after finishing jobs rebuilding homes and other buildings destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
According to a survey by the Southern Poverty Law Center, New Orleans has by far the highest incidence of wage theft in the region, and the workers, who are often in the U.S. illegally, have had little success bringing complaints to authorities. READ FULL STORY
Comments