Labor rights

Another one of ASJ's projects relates to labor rights. As stated on the ASJ website, this particular equipo educates and provides legal aid for impoverished workers--fast-food workers, security guards, and cleaning women--whose most basic labor rights are abused, and advocates for changes in government and business policies oriented towards improving working conditions.

My first exposure to this particular ASJ focus was Monday when Abe was delivering the presentation on all of ASJ's projects. What I picked up on during the presentation was that ASJ has now shifted its focus from the three kinds of businesses mentioned above--fast food, security, and cleaning--to just the latter two. This shift is not necessarily purposeful; it just so happens that because of their international image, fast food companies do not want to deal with the backlash that comes from publicized abuses in countries like Honduras. Hence, after various protests in the United States and after ASJ's online publication revealed labor rights issues within the fast food industry aqui, such issues have now disappeared for the most part. Some of the attention-grabbing issues that remain within the other two groups of trabajadores are mandatory pregnancy tests for women (even for those who are too old to bear children), paying security guards for fewer hours than they work (receiving pay for 8 hours after a 12-24 hour day), and denying seniority status and retirement benefits to workers by making them sign multiple contracts that essentially start their employment period over.

(By the way, esta cayendo un macanazo de agua right now)

Although the issues themselves are heinous enough (do people who are already making next to nothing and doing difficult work deserve to have their rights ignored?), it is the response of the companies to accusations that they are violating rights that makes me cringe. Some companies--almost like the big drug companies in the US--will opt to pay the multa rather than change their policies. Others will change their names to avoid bad publicity or affiliations with past abuses. And others even will retaliate against the organizations that are calling them out. For instance, one of the empresas that has continually denied their workers the treatment they deserve--SETECH--has responded in a threatening manner to ASJ's investigations in various ways, including baseless accusations that the organization has refused to pay taxes or that the organization is not treating its employees with respect. Moreover, since the two individuals who murdered one of ASJ's lawyers (Dionisio Diaz) were former mid-level SETECH employees, suspicions on that front have arisen...

Even so, ASJ presses on. This is a resilient and brave group of people, folks. Incluso their mission statement states that the group is made up of BRAVE Christians, but you do not need their John (or Herbie) Hancock on a line to prove that. Facing personal threats (some members have admitted receiving phone calls or messages via the internet that declare that they are being followed or that someone knows where they live, etc.), these ASJ troopers continue doing their risky work because they know that what they are doing is incredibly valuable and helpful. As one of the staff members here put it, "we are being threatened because we are being truthful, but why would we want to be anything else?" This corrupt system seems to need all the verdad it can get!

Back to derechos laborales. The specific process that is involved in investigating and eliminating abuses in the workplace seems to begin with a worker from one of the companies belonging to the three sectors who feels the need to communicate his/her problems at work. This person (Carlos, por ejemplo) either talks to an ASJ investigator who happens to be visiting his workplace that day and conducting mini-consultations, contacts ASJ to explain his situation, or mentions it to a companero who has had prior experience with ASJ. The issue is investigated (THOROUGHLY) by the ASJ labor rights team, and if it can be proved that the law is being violated, the ASJ team acts accordingly. Usually this information is shared with the company involved (and/or the contracting company) to apply pressure and most times the victim remains employed. However, Abe did tell me that sometimes the company will find cause for firing an individual like Carlos when it is found that he complained, which is why it can be difficult to receive the information that ASJ needs to investigate a case properly. But when you think about it, if Carlos is not treated properly in the first place and gets fired from a position in which his rights are not honored, it might be best for him to leave that situation. On the other side of the coin, though, jobs are hard to come by here...

We should stop for a second and think about this. There are people in this country who want nothing more than to provide for themselves and their families, and they are being exploited so that the people on top can further enjoy their excessive lifestyles. Undoubtedly this happens in the US, but you can bet that the authorities alla are quick to pounce on an employer who is denying his employees their basic rights. But here we are also talking about an employee with a fourth-grade education who doesn't know any better than to accept the treatment he/she is given, regardless of how fair it seems. If a paycheck comes (and maybe it doesn't come for three months after it was due...), at least you are getting paid.

As part of my lesson on ASJ's labor rights project, I rode along with Claudia (la alta) to the Hospital Escuela, a chaotic public health facility where numerous cleaning women and security guards trabajan. I followed her through the cramped hallways of the hospital looking for someone to talk to, dodging stretchers and overhearing angry family members complain about the treatment their children, cousins, or grandparents were receiving. We made our way outside with hopes of locating at least one employee, and although the first woman--a cleaning woman who had just started eating her almuerzo--was willing to speak with us, she had only been employed with the company for a few days and did not have much to say about her working conditions. We walked over to the porton where a security guard was stationed to see what he might say about his treatment. Like another employee that we spoke to after him, this guard was more than willing to talk about his mistreatment. He revealed that he didn't think he was really receiving the insurance he was supposedly paying for and that there were occasions where he would be paid for fewer hours than he actually worked. The next guy added that the company he worked for (SETECH) had not paid him or his companeros for three months (this prompted an impromptu strike by a few of the SETECH-employed guards a few months ago) and that he didn't think he was being treated fairly by his employer. Both of the guards we spoke to had never met their employer and did not seem to understand the process they would go through to register a complaint.

There was one additional guard... This tipo told Claudia that he had only been employed for 6 months and did not want to comment for fear of repercussions. I repeat: he did not want to speak about his work conditions for fear of not having work afterward. We spend countless hours complaining about our places of employment and know pretty confidently that if we are not receiving the treatment we deserve, we can tell someone about it without serious repercussions. Aca no.

Claudia and I left the Hospital Escuela after speaking with multiple people, her feeling satisfied with a taped interview and me feeling stupefied by the need for people like Claudia to ensure that all workers' rights are respected.

But ASJ is not entirely focused on the individual, mis amigos. Their investigations are equally focused on the higher tier--the company that is contracting the services of businesses like SETECH. The intention is to pressure these companies into either losing these damaging contracts or pressuring the companies they contract to change their practices in order to receive their money. No matter how you look at it, ASJ is protecting those who need protection (ironically, some of these individuals are in the "protection" line of work themselves...) and making the bad guys pay...literally.