Worker’s Justice Project Leads Road to Justice Caravan to Confront Employers Across the City Over $100,000 in Unpaid Wages for Immigrant Workers

Elected officials, advocates, members of Worker’s Justice Project, and Laborers Locals 79 and 1010 LiUNA conducted a multi-stop Road to Justice caravan on Wednesday, July 17th to confront employers who have refused to pay immigrant workers what they are owed. Caravan participants demanded $100,000 in unpaid wages from these companies in an effort to combat rampant wage theft and exploitation of immigrant workers on the part of unscrupulous employers in New York City’s construction industry. The majority of the workers owed wages are recently arrived migrant women, predominantly from Guatemala, Mexico and Ecuador, and nearly half were working on construction sites in Brooklyn, with the remainder involved in sites in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.

All the workers involved in Wednesday’s Road to Justice event have submitted wage theft cases to the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL). Through Wednesday’s action, WJP is also calling on the NYS Department of Labor to intensify its efforts to combat the exploitation of migrant workers in New York City, accelerate its review of these cases, and provide these workers with the justice and relief they deserve. That includes exploring the use of deferred action to provide temporary stays and possible work authorization to these victims of labor exploitation.

Wednesday’s event was the first in a series of “On the Road to Justice” campaign events conducted by WJP throughout the summer to demand justice for victims of labor exploitation and to build solidarity among migrants across industries to ensure they collectively and fearlessly lift their voices in demand of their rights. Follow the Worker's Justice Project here.