Tuesday’s paean in praise of Jacob Riis’ photography (google images of his work here , wiki article here)and 1880’s discovery of How The Other Half Lives, was given contemporary life by the report of NYS’s Labor Department which has discovered that employers are unlawfully exploiting their workers by not paying them, by paying less than minimum wage, by not paying disability and unemployment compensation etc. Ms.M. Patricia Smith, the Labor Commissioner, who set a bold course as chief of the AG’s Labor Bureau, continues to light fires. “I wouldn’t doubt that 10 percent of the state’s workers are either misclassified as independent contractors or work off the books,” Ms. Smith said. (Jonathon Tasini’s take here )

I see illegal employment everywhere: construction workers, off-the-books domestic workers, delivery people and supermarket baggers. They are working without fair pay in every neighborhood. Have you ever seen any? Will it come as a shock to you that many of those victimized are men and women of color?

Labor investigators, working with labor and community activists find violations, begin enforcement proceedings which take, essentially, forever. They often result in great victories for the employees concerned. For example, coalition of trade unionists from the Retail, Wholesale & Department Story Workers Unions (RWDSU) and community activists organized as the Retail Action Project of the Good Old Lower East Side has been struggling with “Yellow Rat Bastard” a network of retail stores mostly on lower Broadway for years.

They worked with Pat Smith when she was at the AG’s office, they picketed, marched with community members and Rev. Billy’s Stop Shopping Chorus. The AG sued and, years later, Henry Ishay the owner of the chain has agreed to pay approximately 1,000 workers a total of $1.4 million. He admits no wrongdoing, many of the workers, long fired, have scattered and their movement weakened. Nonetheless, this is a great victory. A great many mistreated workers will get something. Congratulations are due to Mr. Spitzer and Ms. Smith under whom the case started and to Mr. Cuomo and Ms Jennifer S. Brand, (his Labor Chief) for finishing it.

You can celebrate with RAP workers and Community Activists who will be marching up Broadway in celebration Tuesday afternoon and partying at St. Mark’s In The Bowery Church, 10th Street & 2nd Ave., beginning at 2:00 PM.

You can read the press coverage of the Yellow Rat Bastard settlement here and here. The AG’s press release is here

Interesting to me, none of the reports pick up on the unusual labor-community alliance which has worked this struggle from the beginning. This under the radar trend is reflected also in the labor union support for the struggles of Domestic Workers United to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights – which would get them classified as employees under NYS’s labor law (At present, domestic workers are exempt from most labor protections and abusive employers are out of the reach of Commissioner Smith and AAG Brand). (For another example, try this report by Tasini ).

As I see it, these are all stop-gap measures; important, essential, but stop-gap. The long term measure requires re-shifting the balance between workers and employers so as to facilitate lard scale re-unionization of the private-sector labor force. The Employee Free Choice Act, vetoed by our Decider-in-Chief, will, when enacted under a Democratic president, begin the process of righting the balance. Defeat Republicans, is my conclusion.

In the meanwhile, what can you do? Call your elected Assembly Member and State Senator. Ask them, or their staff, whether they've endorsed the Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, A00628, yet. My Assembly Member has! Thank you Brian Kavanaugh! Has yours? Why have they not?

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