Take Action: Laborers Local 79 and Mason Tenders' District Council Launch Laborers Fight Back

Mass incarceration of Black and brown communities has led to an ever growing labor pool of vulnerable, disadvantaged and discriminated-against workers. Labor brokers known as body shops prey on people returning home and leverage workers' parole mandates of maintaining employment as a condition of their release. These body shops take advantage of the scarcity of job opportunities available to formerly incarcerated New Yorkers. No contractor or developer should be allowed to condemn Black and brown construction workers to economic imprisonment and bodily harm. That’s re-sentencing, not Real Re-Entry.

Laborers Local 79 and the Mason Tenders’ District Council have launched Laborers Fight Back to address the rampant exploitation of justice affected laborers in the New York City construction industry.

Formerly incarcerated New Yorkers are told that in order to survive life after prison, they must accept dangerous, low-wage construction jobs. Local 79 is fighting against exploitation, and to increase career opportunities in the union construction industry for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers. New York City must regulate and license body shops to stop the exploitation of formerly incarcerated workers. Real re-entry means real economic security. Click here to learn more, sign up for updates, and tell the City Council to #EndBodyShopsNow!