Latin@s Most Likely To Die on Job

That's a harsh title to jolt you out of your Labor Day holiday reprieve, I know.  Courtesy of Poverty & Policy, I see that the National Council of La Raza has released a report on Latin@s in the low-wage job market.  Like the National Employment Law Project study we covered last Wednesday, NCLR's research reveals a dangerous and highly unequal workplace for low-wage Latino workers, many of them immigrants.  The report shows that smart, ethical immigration reform is the "first step" towards reducing worker exploitation and improving the job market for all low-wage workers.

NCLR's key findings (using 2007 data) include:

• Latin@s have had the highest occupational fatality rate for the last 15 years.
• Over 40% of Latin@s earn poverty-level wages, compared to one-third of African-Americans and 22% of white workers.
• Almost half of Latin@ workers lack employer-based health insurance, compared to one-third of African-Americans and one-quarter of white workers.
• Latin@s comprise 37.5% and 45% of the domestic and agricultural workforce, sectors exempted from many labor laws (due to Southern white antipathy towards black workers at the time of the New Deal).
• About one-third of employers legally misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid providing benefits.
• Caseloads for government workplace safety inspectors (OSHA employees) have quadrupled since 1975.

NCLR takes recommendations to enforce labor law and promote unionization a step further, seeking penalties for labor violations that "fit the crime" and actually encourage deterrence, and pursuing community-based worker organizing that is culturally relevant and sensitive to Latin@ workers.  NCLR also calls for modernization of labor laws that exclude domestic and agricultural workers, and for the closure of loopholes that leave day laborers and temp workers without adequate worker protections.

NCLR concludes, "More than ten million American workers, 81% of whom are from Latin American countries, work without legal authorization because our immigration system does not offer sufficient legal channels for immigrants."  The report closes with a plea for sensible, humane immigration reform to shut down the "culture of fear" that empowers worker exploitation.  as the "first step" to equalizing job markets and improving job quality for all workers.

On this Labor Day weekend, consider taking action to protect and empower Latin@ and all low-wage workers.  Stop the hate today.  Ask Congress to prioritize comprehensive immigration reform now.

(Photo of Cesar Chavez March, Colorado Springs, CO, March 2009, from AFL-CIO's photostream.  Photo by Chuck Bader, Jr.)