On April 30, 2012, Jei Fong, representative of the Justice Will Be Served! Campaign spoke on Building Bridges, a program of WBAI Pacifica. Jei’s segment begins at (50:00 – 57:28) Click here to download the April 30, 2012 show & listen in!
April 14, 2012: La Voz Latina Radio: Click here to listen to interview of Carlos Rodriguez Herrera and Adolfo Lopez, representatives of Justice Will Be Served Campaign.
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Saying Court Win Helps, Nail Salon Workers Rally
De Ping Song, with paper, appeared before reporters Tuesday. He was a plaintiff in a suit against the owners of Babi Nails salons.
By SARAH MASLIN NIR
Published: April 10, 2012
For legions of New York’s glossiest women, for whom a trip to the nail salon is a weekly must, “square shape or round?” is often the most they will ever hear from their manicurist.
But six long-suffering nail lacquerers were rewarded when they raised their voices against the owners of a chain of Long Island nail salons, saying they were paid below minimum wage and forced to toil in an abusive environment. Ignored by their bosses, who they said sometimes went so far as to kick the stools on which they sat as they sloughed off calluses and buffed toes, they took their complaints to federal court. And last month, the workers — all Chinese immigrants — were awarded nearly $250,000 after a weeklong jury trial.
The victory coincides with a push to organize by salon workers across the city, a group largely made up of thousands of immigrants from China, Korea, Nepal and countries in South America, who work long hours painting nails Ballet Slipper pink or Jelly Apple red. Advocates said the movement suggested that this historically docile labor force was growing more assertive.
“Organizing within the nail salon industry has been very difficult,” said Sarah Ahn, an organizer with a coalition of service workers advocacy groups — they call their campaign “Justice Will Be Served!” — that fought for the salon employees. “Victories show there is a way that if you come forward, you can fight and win.”
De Ping Song, one of the workers, said he expected more of his peers to join in. “We all are facing the same conditions,” he said through a translator at a news conference on Tuesday. “Because all the workers have had enough of these sweatshop conditions, I believe workers will stand up with us to fight for everybody.”
At the three Babi Nails salons in the suit, which are in Greenvale, Glen Head and Carle Place, workers answering the phone on Tuesday said the owners could not be located.
The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Central Islip in December 2009, claimed that the workers were paid far less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Work weeks of more than 40 hours were standard, the workers said, but they were never paid overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York labor law.
For the past year, the workers — four of whom were fired shortly after filing the suit — picketed the salons weekly, joined by other workers who rallied to their cause. Aaron Halegua, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society who represented the workers in court, said three of the four fired workers were reinstated through a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board after the workers claimed the dismissals were in retaliation.
The verdict was delivered on March 22 after a trial before Judge Leonard D. Wexler. The jury found the workers were owed a total of about $160,000 in unpaid wages and about $80,000 in overtime. The jury did not find the workers’ claims of abuse and discrimination by the owners, who are Korean, to be substantiated.
Advocates for the workers in the lawsuit said that though the fear of losing jobs had silenced some workers, they were hoping the verdict in the Long Island case, as well as past successes, like in 2009 when workers rallied against Simply Nails, an Upper West Side salon, would embolden others seeking higher pay or better working conditions.
“I think more and more we see groups of employees” fighting back, said Wing Lam, the executive director of the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, where the salon employees first sought help several years ago.
“In the past, they probably quit the jobs,” he said, “not because people don’t want to fight, but they see the law as weak.”
Click here for coverage on New York Radio Korea
기사입력 2012.04.10 오후 7:31:32
| 한인 네일살롱 업주 25만 달러 배상 평결 |
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| <앵커멘트> 한인 네일살롱 업주 2명이 종업원들로부터 소송을 당해 25만 달러를 배상하게 됐습니다. 네일업계의 노동법 준수와 근무환경 개선에 더 신경을 써야 한다는 지적입니다. 황길재 기자의 보도입니다. ===롱아일랜드의 한인 네일살롱 업주가 최저임금과 시간외 근무수당을 주지 않았다는 이유로 25만 달러 지급 평결을 받은 것으로 알려졌습니다.노동자 권익보호단체인 The Justice Will Be Served 캠페인 측은 10일 오후, 기자회견을 열어 이 같은 사실을 전하고, 네일업소 종사자들과 업주들의 각성을 촉구했습니다.{현장 사운드}이들은 한인 조모씨와 김모씨가 운영하는 바비 네일스에 근무하던 중국계 종업원 6명이 지난 2009년 12월 업주를 상대로 소송을 제기했고, 이후 업주로부터의 폐업 협박과 부당한 해고를 당했다고 밝혔습니다. 이후 노동관계위원회의 명령으로 일부는 복직한 상탭니다. 한인 업주들은 소송을 피하기 위해 가게를 다른 사람에게 팔기도 했습니다.3년에 걸친 소송 끝에, 동부 법원 배심원들은 7일 동안의 심리를 거쳐 지난달 22일 두 한인업주에게 노동법 위반 혐의로 유죄 평결을 내렸습니다. 앞으로 판사는 이 25만 달러에다 청산에 따른 손실금, 변호사 비용 등을 더해 최종 액수를 확정하게 됩니다. 저스티스 윌비 서브드의 한인 자원봉사자 이수영 씨는 식당과 네일살롱 등 서비스 업소에서 부당한 대우를 당한 한인들이 있다면 플러싱 워커스 센터로 제보해 줄 것을 당부했습니다. {이수영 씨} 이번 사건은 최저 임금 미준수 및 오버타임 페이 미지급 등 네일업계에 만연한 노동법 위반 행태에 경종을 울릴 전망입니다. KRB뉴스 황길재입니다. |
La Voz Latina (WBAI):
Click to listen to interview on Yes Car and Employer Sanctions slave law – April 7, 2012 (first segment of show):
http://archive.wbai.org/show1.php?showid=lvlatina#anchorhelp
EL DIARIO LA PRENSA
Friday, March 2, 2012
Manifestantes protestan en el Bajo Manhattan contra las agencias del gobierno. Foto: José A. Rivera / EDLP
Nueva York.- Trabajadores, organizaciones comunitarias y activistas se dieron cita ayer frente al edificio de Inmigración, ubicado en el 26 de Federal Plaza del Bajo Manhattan, donde pidieron al fiscal general de la Nación, Eric Holder, poner un alto a los ataques a los trabajadores que se quejan ante agencias gubernamentales.
La protesta surgió a raíz de las quejas presentadas por los conductores de la empresa Yes Car Service, quienes se querellaron por las prácticas ilícitas de su empleador, y en lugar de recibir apoyo, se vieron atacados y hostigados por los agentes federales que se supone han debido escuchar y procesar sus quejas, indicó el activista Adolfo López, de Justice Will be Served.
“En el 2010, empleados de Yes Car Service, hicieron un reclamo ante el Departamento de Trabajo del Estado de Nueva York (DOL), por el no pago de salarios y horas extras que les adeudaba el dueño de la estación de taxi, Tony Lou. Después de la investigación el DOL, falló a favor de los trabajadores y Lou apeló la decisión.
Después, los agentes han hostigado a los tres extrabajadores que testificaron, amenazándolos con llevarlos a prisión y deportación, a fin de forzarlos a retractarse de sus denuncias”, comentó López.
“Los tres exconductores fueron arrestados, uno de los taxistas estuvo en la cárcel durante un día, mientras que el tercer conductor permanece en prisión”, agregó López.
“Me detuvieron por 16 días, los agentes federales querían que me retractara de mis declaraciones”, afirmó Gino Lim, el único conductor que estuvo presente en la protesta.
Entre los manifestantes, en su mayoría asiáticos, se encontraba la costarricense Mayra Pérez, de 68 años, quien expresó que estaba apoyando a los trabajadores sin importar su raza ni su estatus migratorio.
“Hay que denunciar a los empleadores abusadores porque nadie va a decir lo que está pasando en su trabajo por temor”, señaló Pérez.
Por otro lado el activista David Galarza, miembro de la organización Congreso Nacional Pro Derechos Puertorriqueños manifestó que es importante “que todas las comunidades estén unidas”.
El Diario/La Prensa trató comunicarse con el propietario de la estación de taxi Yes Car Service en Flushing, pero el empresario no devolvió las llamadas. Al cierre de la edición el procurador general de la Nación, Eric Holder, tampoco había respondido.
Link to article: http://www.eldiariony.com/article/20120302/NEWS/303029941
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Arrest of Chinese livery drivers has industry on edge: Department of Labor charges whistleblowers with conspiring to defraud government
by Juan Gonzalez
Three immigrant Chinese livery drivers who blew the whistle last year on a Queens car service that was bilking its workers have ended up in jail themselves.
And the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, a well-known nonprofit group that came to the aid of the workers, suddenly finds itself in the cross-hairs of a federal criminal probe.
In a startling turnaround, the U.S. Department of Labor last week charged the three whistleblowers with conspiring to defraud the government. Federal agents picked up the three, Hong Xian Liu, Bi Sheng Liu, and Lin Guo on Jan. 23.
They were charged with giving false testimony at a state hearing so one of them could collect unemployment benefits.
The date chosen for their arrests — the start of the Chinese New Year — sent an eerie signal to New York’s Chinese community, which has watched for years the bitter battle unfold between Tony Luo, influential chief of a small empire of van and limousine companies, and his workers.
Back in 2009, more than 20 of Luo’s nearly 200 drivers at Yes Car Service in Flushing held an angry protest. They accused their boss of beating, extorting and harassing them. Other workers claimed they had been cheated of wages and workmen’s compensation. The men arrested last week spearheaded that initial protest.
They quickly garnered the support of the Chinese and Staff Workers Association, a group founded in 1979 by longtime labor activist Wing Lam. The group repeatedly has won multi-million-dollar back-pay awards for immigrant workers against sweatshop and restaurant owners who violated state and federal labor laws.
Its success has made Lam’s group many enemies. Its Chinatown offices were firebombed twice, and a Brooklyn satellite office was once ransacked by thugs.
But now, according to court papers and law enforcement sources, federal agents are seeking evidence that the association coached workers to make fraudulent claims so it could then demand a chunk of the settlements the workers received.
Last year, a state unemployment insurance hearing officer reached a major decision in favor of whistlebower Hong Xian Liu — one that could cost the Yes Car Service millions of dollars.
Owner Luo had challenged his former driver’s application for unemployment benefits, claiming Liu was an “independent contractor.” But Liu brought the other two men as witnesses. They testified that they were required to work set shifts for seven days a week, and that the company controlled everything they did.
They even produced an employee manual in Chinese, with English translation. The manual spells out in detail all the duties of drivers. The company’s defense was that the manual is fraudulent.
The hearing officer immediately declared in the driver’s favor. The same ruling, of course, would apply to Luo’s 200 drivers. So would their right to back overtime and to years of payroll tax deductions.
Hong Xian Liu and Bi Sheng Liu both claim in sworn statements that they were picked up by federal agents last year.
They say agents pressured them to say the association’s staff coached them to lie and fabricated the manual, but they refused to do so.
Bi Sheng Liu says agents picked him up in Kansas City, where he was living last year, and forced him to record a telephone call with the third driver, Lin Guo, in an effort to collect evidence that the three conspired to lie. He claims he was threatened with deportation unless he cooperated.
Neither Tony Luo, nor his attorney Joel Cohen responded to calls for comment.
You can bet immigrant livery drivers all over this city will follow closely what evidence the government produces in the case of the Chinese New Year bust.
Queens Tribune News
February 9, 2012
Drivers Arrested In Fraud Conspiracy
By ROSS BARKAN
Last April, Hong Xian Liu, a taxi driver for the Flushing-based Yes Car Service, alleged federal agents detained him for 12 hours and ordered him to say that the abuse he suffered at the taxi company was a lie. They said that if he did not lie, he would be imprisoned or deported.
The first day of this Lunar New Year, Jan. 23, Liu and two other drivers, Bi Sheng Liu and Lin Guo, were arrested and charged with conspiring to defraud the federal government, an ironic twist to a story that was once about how Yes Car Service whistleblowers came forward to accuse their boss, Tony Luo, of beating, harassing, and exhorting money from them. A total of eight Yes Car Service drivers have been arrested so far.
A federal agent from the U.S. Dept. of Labor, Kenneth W. Jacoutot, said in a court affidavit that Liu improperly collected unemployment insurance after the three men gave false testimonies at a State hearing. One of the drivers has been released on bail. Advocates for the drivers view this as dangerously skewed justice.
“It’s absurd,” said Tracy Kwon, a representative from the Justice Will Be Served! Campaign, an advocacy group sponsored by the Chinese Staff & Workers Association and National Mobilization Against Sweatshops. “At most, when a driver is found he shouldn’t be collecting unemployment, the State would say you should payback the unemployment.”
Robert Nardoza, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, said he could not comment on the case. The arrests came after several years of court battles and protests. In 2009, Yes Car Service drivers urged the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the taxi and van company for failure to pay wages, workers’ compensation insurance, and unemployment insurance. They also petitioned the New York Dept. of Labor, which was more responsive — the NYSDOL undertook an investigation and determined that despite Luo’s claim, Liu was an employee of the company and not an independent contractor.
He was awarded unemployment insurance. To make his case, Liu brought in the other two drivers as witnesses and showed the court a Yes Car Service employee manual detailing the seven-day shifts they had to work.
Luo appealed the decision, arguing the manual was fabricated. It was during the time of the hearings, in April 2011, when several of the drivers allege federal agents pressured them to say the Chinese Staff & Workers Association told them to lie in court. Luo did not return requests for comment as of press time. The appeal is ongoing.
“This is only possible because Flushing is a labor disaster zone,” said Sarah Ahn, an organizer of the newly-emergent Flushing Workers’ Center. “The U.S. Attorney General should investigate this and see the clues behind the arrest. It just doesn’t add up. Where are these agents coming from? It looks like they’re trying to protect Tony Luo.”
Ahn said many immigrant workers in Flushing are subject to harsh and illegal working conditions that go unreported; they are often unaware of their labor rights and fear retribution for calling attention to abuse. Drivers at Yes Car Service have said they were forced to work 16 hour days with no overtime pay and hand over a “protection fee” to Luo, which could be as much as $400 a week, according to Kwon.
Petitions to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the circumstances of the arrest have so far gone unanswered. The Justice Will Be Served! Campaign is planning a rally for Mar. 1. The location has yet to be determined.
Reach Reporter Ross Barkan at rbarkan@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 127.
http://www.queenstribune.com/news/News_020912_DriversArrestedInFraudConspiracy.html
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, September 22, 2009,
Drivers blast hell on wheels: Say limo-taxi firms run by thug
by Brendan Brosh
HUNDREDS OF protesters in Flushing are vowing to shut down a Chinese businessman’s transportation company that they claim is taking advantage of undocumented workers.
Former employees accused Tony Luo at a heated rally last Thursday of regularly beating, harassing and extorting workers at several of Luo’s companies that operate commuter buses, limousines and taxi cabs.
Luo is already facing misdemeanor assault charges in Queens for allegedly assaulting Guoqiang He with a walkie-talkie, according to court papers. But protest organizers said it’s only the tip of the iceberg with Luo’s criminal activity.
“Luo and his associates extort the drivers and threaten to assault drivers unless they pay a fee,” said Josephine Lee, who helped organize the protest in front of Luo’s business in Flushing. “Drivers have been beaten up again and again by Luo and his associates.”
Luo’s lawyer said the protesters’ claims were baseless.
“Tony is a legitimate businessman,” said attorney Joel Cohen. “We don’t know who these [protesters] are or what they’re aiming for.”
“There’s a lot of law enforcement attention on the bus industry now,” Cohen said. “If he had done any of this stuff, they should have reported it to the police.”
One driver said he paid $20,000 to get a job as a bus driver and was regularly harassed by members of Luo’s inner circle to pay “protection fees.”
“They know a lot of drivers are undocumented and take advantage of them,” said Hundang Chen, 39, a father of four who said he was victimized by Luo.
“I want to have fairness, equality and to put Tony Luo into jail,” Chen said through a translator.
Lin Guo, speaking through a translator, said he had to poach customers from competing bus operators.
In addition, “all of the money we had to pay in cash, and he would never give us a receipt for it,” Guo said.
Protesters who said they were past employees of Luo charged they were also had to use fraudulent papers to get insurance for a number of undocumented workers.
Drivers who failed to follow orders were beaten up by gangs, protesters said.
“I had to pay $150 in so-called protection fees,” said Chiyi Zhang, who said he worked for Luo for five years. “These protection fees kept on increasing up to $275 a week.”
“I want him to go to jail and pay back all of the money he took from me,” he added.
Luo is expected back in court on Oct. 1, court records show.
