A group of local organizations and workers came together to call on President Joe Biden and Congress to pass an infrastructure plan with action to expand job access and protection for workers at ‘The Build Back Better Town Hall’ meeting at the headquarters for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) on Labor Day, September 6.
The meeting also streamed on the Workers’ Dignity Facebook page. The town hall, coordinated by local and national labor organizations, called on the president to update an executive order that would create a program protecting immigrant workers from deportation and create good-paying jobs. The first demand from the worker and labor groups called for the creation of an affirmative program to eliminate threats of deportation and grant authorization for workers. The second demand from worker and labor advocates, according to a press release, would be more job access and training for African American workers and other ethnic groups who have faced the highest rates of unemployment and underemployment due to racism and discrimination.
According to Cecilia Prado, executive director for Workers’ Dignity, immigrant workers face challenges every day in the workplace in the construction business due to outsourcing and lack of accountability. Prado also said employers were using the immigration status of these workers as a form of intimidation. Prado also said Nashville was becoming a city that could be dangerous for people to work, especially in the construction industry. She called for workers to have a decent living wage and safety in the workplace.
“Our people deserve good-paying and safe jobs where they are treated with respect,” said Prado. “The workers are the people who have built this city from the ground up, and they deserve to live with dignity in their own city.”
Rich Lucks, director of organizing of IUPAT District 58, discussed wage theft and the effect it had on workers. Lucks said there were workers working between 16 and 17 hours a week without overtime, also citing numerous OSHA violations. He said he wants the city of Nashville to thrive as a city, but not at the expense of workers. Lucks called on Biden to address this problem as a point of emphasis in his Build Back Better Legislation.
“Organizing and collective action is necessary to foster and adopt ways and means for the continuous improvement of working and living standards for all workers,” said Lucks. “Our workers must be protected as they fight for better conditions in their workplace and be free from retaliation by their employers. If Biden intends to truly ‘Build Back Better’ jobs for all, this must be prioritized.”
The town hall also included testimony from the workers themselves who worked at low-paying jobs in Nashville. Armando Santi, a Workers’ Dignity member, talked about his experiences with wage theft to send a message to President Biden. He said he went to Workers’ Dignity because of the wage theft he experienced from his employer Orion Building Materials while doing a construction job for Metro Nashville Public Schools and Vanderbilt University. He was hired by a subcontractor under Orion to do a concrete job for McMurray Middle School and was told he would be paid for the work. However, he was never paid. Santi said with help from Workers’ Dignity and Vanderbilt University Divinity School students, he was able to complete the construction job and eventually was paid. He called on President Biden to enforce penalties for employers who financially steal from their employees.
Better for All town halls took place in Nashville and other cities across the country, including: Phoenix, Az.; Denver, Col.; southern cities in Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida; Los Angeles, Calif.; and Las Vegas, Nev.
