@janicefinewjl
Professor and Director Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers -Immigration Reform for Low Wage Essential Workers -Labor Protections for the Other 94% of Private Sector Workers Who Don't Have Collective Bargaining -Scaling Organizing
Wanted to share the Workplace Justice Lab's latest piece on the story behind the story of the Minneapolis occupation through the eyes of our close partners in organizing, government and small business.
conta.cc/3O8RFvL
This is how it’s done! Oregon’s labor agency is sending a clear message: immigration-related threats won’t be tolerated. A great example of how state and local agencies can use comms to protect immigrant workers:
content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd...
And the protections that remain? They’re barely enforced. As of November 2024, Missouri had just one wage and hour investigator for the entire state. Those in power aren’t just blocking new rights, they’re gutting the systems meant to uphold existing ones.
Repealing paid sick leave and higher wages strips workers of the income and time off they need to care for themselves and their families. It’s a direct attack on people’s health, stability and dignity.
One lawmaker said this about voters:
“Of course the people voted for it. It’d be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook. You know, they’re going to vote for it every time.”
That’s what they think about working people and democracy itself.
This isn’t just anti-worker, it’s anti-democratic. The people of Missouri spoke directly at the ballot box. They voted for basic fairness on the job. And lawmakers turned around and erased it with open contempt for the very people they supposedly represent.
Last year, Missouri voters passed a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage and guarantee paid sick leave. This week, the governor signed a bill to undo these wins. 🧵
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...
And the protections that remain? They’re barely enforced. As of November 2024, Missouri had just one wage and hour investigator for the entire state. Those in power aren’t just blocking new rights, they’re gutting the systems meant to uphold existing ones.
Repealing paid sick leave and higher wages strips workers of the income and time off they need to care for themselves and their families. It’s a direct attack on people’s health, stability and dignity.
One lawmaker said this about voters:
“Of course the people voted for it. It’d be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook. You know, they’re going to vote for it every time.”
That’s what they think about working people and democracy itself.
This isn’t just anti-worker, it’s anti-democratic. The people of Missouri spoke directly at the ballot box. They voted for basic fairness on the job. And lawmakers turned around and erased it with open contempt for the very people they supposedly represent.
Judge ruled that the governor is prohibited from directing DLSS staff to turn over personal information to federal authorities. Win for workers & for the principle that labor agencies serve the public, not immigration enforcement or political superiors. Thank you Colorado Labor and Scott Moss.
Despite pressure from Colorado’s governor, Scott Moss and his team upheld both the law and their mission: ensuring workers, regardless of immigration status, are safe to come forward about wage theft and exploitation. Moss even filed a whistleblower lawsuit to stop the disclosure
When ICE issued a subpoena seeking employment records of 35 sponsors of unaccompanied minors, DLSS refused to betray workers’ trust or violate Colorado law that bars state officials from sharing personal information with ICE unless it’s part of a criminal investigation.
Huge respect to Scott Moss and the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics at Colorado Labor for standing firm in the face of ICE pressure and political interference. Their integrity and commitment to immigrant workers’ rights set a national example.
Wage theft, already a big problem, is poised to worsen under the reduction of investigators at the U.S. Dept. of Labor, finds a study coauthored by @ipratnu.bsky.social @polisciatnu.bsky.social prof Dan Galvin for the Workplace Justice Lab@Northwestern and @Rutgers.
www.yahoo.com/news/rutgers...
Rounding up immigrant workers is not only wrong, it will do nothing to fix our broken labor markets or help US workers or consumers.
What will? Raising wages, improving working conditions and enforcing labor laws.
Our new study: smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...
5/ In sum: mass deportations won’t fix job degradation. If WHD and its state counterparts had the funding and tools to keep up with a growing workforce and widespread violations, millions of workers would benefit.
4/ WHD investigators are unevenly employed throughout the 50 states. In Delaware, Montana, Vermont, and Wyoming, WHD investigators must travel from out of state for investigations, as not a single WHD investigator lives within state lines.
3/ Despite the inadequate size of its staff, WHD recovered $273M in back wages & damages for nearly 152K workers in 2024. If the federal budget funded WHD operations on the scale it does immigration enforcement, the agency could recover more than $4 billion for workers each year.
2/ Between 1939-2025, the ratio of investigators at the Wage & Hour Division went from 1 per 18k workers... to 1 per 278k workers. Just 611 WHD investigators today cover 165M US workers. It’s impossible for the federal government to effectively enforce W&H protections like this!
1/ Want to help US workers? Enforce labor law, not deportation orders. Undocumented immigrants are not the problem. The problem is the govt’s inadequate response to structural shifts in the economy that undermine worker power. NEW REPORT: smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...
5/ The crisis is here. The response must be just as urgent. This isn't just about immigration. It’s about the future of democracy in the U.S. If we don’t act now, we know where this road leads.
4/ This is not a hypothetical. The infrastructure for American fascism is being built right now. The question is: How will we fight back? What happens when a government openly disregards the judiciary, due process, and constitutional rights?
3/ And this won’t stop here. We’ve already seen the administration disregard the constitutional rights of legal permanent residents (LPR), as in the case of Mahmoud Khalil. If they’ll ignore LPR rights, what’s stopping them from targeting citizens next?
action.aclu.org/send-message...
2/ This isn’t just cruelty—it’s lawlessness. The administration is openly defying judicial rulings. The constitutional crisis isn’t coming. It’s here. The rule of law is under attack on multiple fronts.
1/ The Trump administration is disappearing people. Using an obscure wartime law, ICE is deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s mega-prison—one of the world’s most notorious human rights hellholes—with little proof beyond tattoos. t.co/yKoiNQO7RJ
Thanks to massive wage theft, 40,000 Nevada workers are being underpaid an average of $3,132 a year. And the rate is much higher in occupations dominated by women, especially domestic and service industry jobs.
Read our new study with Northwestern: smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...
Spanish version: smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...
Great day at Arriba Las Vegas highlighting new report for International Women's Day with @aijenpoo.bsky.social Domestic workers in Nevada 5x more likely to be paid below the minimum wage than the average worker.
. smlr.rutgers.edu/sites/defaul...