MoPress

Author: mopress

  • Wage Theft in the Rio Grande Valley, a Short Interview with Elliott Tucker of STCRP

    By Nick Braune

    Last summer I interviewed an attorney for the South Texas Civil Rights Project (STCRP), Elliott Tucker, who is working on the issue of “wage theft.” He described plans to meet labor lawyers throughout Hidalgo and Cameron Counties and to initiate community workshops helping workers to know their rights.

    Over the last year STCRP’s work has proceeded apace, with a Valley coalition being formed, Fuerza del Valle. Fuerza unites various groups concerned about wage theft: STCRP, La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the Start Center in San Benito, ARISE, and Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Have there been successes? Yes, with employers finally paying up and others facing lawsuits. The big success is that more workers are learning they can fight unscrupulous bosses.

    Last week Tucker sent me a press release, “STCRP Stands up for Hotel Cleaning Employees in Weslaco: Workers file suit to protect their fundamental right to fair pay.” The suit charges that a local inn employed workers (regularly vacuuming and sweeping) but didn’t bother to pay hourly wages in accordance with federal law. Apparently the workers complained and the employer chuckled, until someone had the sense to contact Fuerza.

    The press release states: “STCRP has filed a lawsuit on behalf of these three workers to demand fair payment for a fair day’s work. The lawsuit also includes claims for illegal and insidious debt collection practices — the hotel lured the cleaning ladies into living there for a time, only to hold the debt over their heads and force them to work even longer hours.”

    I contacted Elliott Tucker.

    Braune: A question: Maybe employers start out innocently enough by feeling they’re doing a quick favor to people who are out of work. Am I right? Last year someone knocked on my door, said he needed money and would trim my hedges for $20 — should I have said no?

    Tucker: Good people sometimes offer work to help somebody out, we can all understand that. However, the allegations in our complaint — debt labor — show that this was oppressive exploitation, the work of a malevolent mind with a firm grip on employees, not a helping hand. Also, several individuals have joined the suit and corroborated the awful threats and harassment.

    Braune: What response has the owner made?

    Tucker: It was twisted — he first denied they were employees, then complained that they lacked legal documents, and then said the lawsuit was a “shakedown.” Sadly, among employers in the RGV, there are some wolves dressed as lambs.

    Braune: I would think that honest businesses would hate the businesses which cheat.

    Tucker: Yes, when dishonest employers operate with impunity and exploit poorly educated low-wage workers, we all suffer. The many respectable businesses that form part of the Chamber of Commerce struggle in price wars with unscrupulous competitors who disregard the law. And poorly paid workers often depend on the social safety net more than if they were paid $7.25 per hour in accordance with the law.

    Braune: Should undocumented workers feel nervous about contacting your group?

    Tucker: No worker, regardless of immigration status, should feel nervous about contacting my group. [STCRP: 956-787-8171] As non-profits we have no affiliation with the government and exist to serve the people, not divide them with unjust immigration laws or policies. Federal and state labor law protects all employees in the United States, regardless of immigration status.

    [“Reflection and Change” in the Mid-Valley Town Crier, August 8, 2011]

  • Falling Back Another Hour in the State of Hate: Texans Ban Gay Marriage

    By Greg Moses

    OpEdNews / DissidentVoice

    Did you ever smell catfish bait? It’s like something died under the house and they mixed it into a doughball. It is that sweet and it competes real well with other smells you get down in the muck of a stagnant river.

    Anyway, that’s the smell of politics down here in Texas right after our voters landslided onto a baited amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman, the better to keep other kinds of couples in their closets. As a work of language the marriage amendment is very impressive evidence of the multiple illiteracies of our elected leadership. They obviously don’t understand the concept of liberty, since they have crafted a definition of marriage that prevents some adults from choosing marriage even when they would be hurting nobody by that choice. But they also don’t know much grammar either since the bare language of the thing seems to prevent the practice of marriage altogether (which is only bad grammar if it’s the opposite of what you meant to legislate.)

    So if you thought Bush was the worst leadership that Texas could throw up to the world (bad pun intended) and you’ve taken comfort that his Presidential years are constitutionally numbered then think again. We’ve got a hundred more like him down here all fighting for power.

    I don’t mean to say that Texas people are way more hateful than your average state. There’s plenty of mean shit in this world to go around. But if Texans were way more hateful and you could prove it, most wouldn’t care too much. They’d just say, well we’re not that much more hateful. And they’d go right on thinking less of you.

    Neither does it seem that we have a leadership that much worse than say California, but we do have leadership that cannot lead and will therefore use hateful means to hateful ends in the fattest, laziest pretense of problem solving, which that’s a dangerous thing if the surrounding crowd has no pride whatsoever in their capacity to love.

    So, the clocks in Texas have all been turned back an hour or two and the darkness will be arriving a little earlier each day, purely in consideration of the extra hours needed by night riders to take advantage of this new season of hate.

    In fact, eight members of the Klan got so excited about the smell of politics that last Saturday they drove half a day to Austin to proclaim their love for the chance to practice real Christian morality in the aftermath of a landslide. I don’t know how much gas they used along the way, or how much they thought about the meaning of those gas prices, but like I said, catfish bait politics does really well in a muck that’s already stinkin.

    So if you woke up early Tuesday and heard Amy Goodman tell you about the phosphorus bombs that burned the people of Falluja to death, and you stayed up late Tuesday night to find out that among freedom loving people, gay adults need to be told what not to do, then you could hardly go to bed thinking anything but revolution, because if you didn’t wake up pushing for some kind of revolution Wednesday morning, there is no question that you would just be begging to be pushed around one more time.

  • Following LULAC Resolution, Ramsey Muniz Seeks Youth Support for Prison Release

    LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS

    RESOLUTION

    Introduced by:

    Rosa Rosales, Past LULAC National President and President, LULAC Council #4811 and
    Irma Mufriz. LULAC Council #4811

    Resolution in support of the humanitarian release of Ramsey Muniz

    WHEREAS, Ramiro “Ramsey” Muniz, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, received a Juris Doctor Degree from Baylor School of Law; and

    WHEREAS, Ramsey Muniz, a leader during the Civil Rights Movement, fought for justice and equality for Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Hispanics, and Latinos; and

    WHEREAS, Ramsey Muniz was a Texas gubernatorial candidate in 1972 and 1974 for La Raza Unida Party, an independent political party; and

    WHEREAS, Ramsey Muniz gave Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Hispanics, and Latinos a voice in the political arena and his contributions are recognized and noted as part of Texas history; and

    WHEREAS, key information was withheld in the Ramsey Mufriz trial and he was denied his constitutional rights granted by the sth Amendment – Due Process of the Law, and the 14th Amendment – Equal Protection Under the Law; and

    WHEREAS, Ramsey Mufriz is serving a sentence of life without parole, which constitutes cruel and unusual punishment; and

    WHEREAS, Ramsey Mufriz, who is 68 years of age, and others who are wrongly incarcerated endure great suffering as well as their families; and

    WHEREAS, LULAC is the oldest and largest Latino organization that supports civil rights for all citizens including those who are unjustly incarcerated; and

    THEREFORE BE lT RESOLVED, that the League of United Latin American Citizens supports all efforts to free Ramsey Mufriz and requests the support of President Barack Obama in granting him an immediate Commutation of Sentence.

    Executed this 1″ day of July, 2011, at the 82no LULAC National Convention, in Cincinnati. Ohio.
    Rosa Rosales
    President. LULAC Council #481 1

    Dear Friends:

    The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was founded in 1929. It is the oldest and most respected Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States which defends civil and human rights.

    The National Committee to Free Ramsey Muñiz, represented at the 82nd LULAC National Convention, spoke with LULAC members throughout the country and gained support for the humanitarian release of Ramsey Muñiz, who is remembered as a leader during the civil rights movement.

    National LULAC supports all efforts to free Ramsey Muñiz, as stated in the resolution passed at the national convention. ( the attached). We request his immediate freedom, and seek assistance from congress, organizations, and Washington D.C.

    We thank LULAC for supporting the humanitarian release of Ramsey Muñiz, and we extend our deepest gratitude to Rosa Rosales, past president of National LULAC, for her assistance in this effort. We also thank Margaret Moran, National LULAC President, and all LULAC officers and members for their continued support in obtaining the freedom of Ramsey Muñiz.

    For more information, contact the National Committee to Free Ramsey Muñiz at imuniz1310@earthlink.net or (409) 363-1878.

    –Irma Muniz

    Dear Friends:

    The National Committee to Free Ramsey Muniz seeks the assistance of others, especially the youth and young adults, in the case of Ramsey Muniz. The young are most proficient with technology, and we ask for their involvement by forwarding messages (such as the three paragraphs below) through Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of electronic communications.

    Ramsey is a graduate of Baylor School of Law. At the age of 30 he ran for governor of Texas. His activism during the civil rights movement made a positive impact in that improved the quality of life for Mexican Americans, Hispanics, and Latinos throughout the Southwest who now hold prominent positions as a result of his efforts. The contributions that he made are profound.

    Today Ramsey Muniz is incarcerated for life without parole for a crime he did not commit. Errors were made during his arrest and in trial. We will continue to publish information about this case until an investigation can be made about his conviction in order to obtain his freedom!

    For additional information go to http://www.freeramsey.com. Contact the National Committee to Free Ramsey Muniz (imuniz1310@earthlink.net)if you are able to take an active role in forwarding our information to others.

    Thank you for your assistance!

    –Irma Muniz

  • july twenty first two thousand and six–poem from a deportee

    The following presentation was made by Dave Kalloor at the Austin, TX action in support of World Refugee Day, June 20, 2011–gm

    In my hands, I have a poem written by one of my closest friends, who was detained and deported by ICE nearly five years ago.

    july twenty first two thousand and six

    I spell these words out for a reason
    not to dramatize the meanin’
    but to show you what I’m feelin’
    am I dreamin’
    or does my life really have me reelin’?

    Is my religion such a cause for concern?
    or is it my race that makes you spurn?
    why do you hate me?
    weren’t you supposedly built on unity?

    I know I’m not an aboriginal,
    but does that mean you should treat me like a criminal?

    They took me away as I looked in my mom’s crying eyes
    not giving me an opportunity to say my goodbyes
    They tell me my appeal has been refused
    but my ego cannot be bruised.

    As they take me away to my new place,
    They cuff my hands putting me through more disgrace
    But remember my face
    Because this smile you’ll never erase.

    As I arrive in my cell,
    I remind myself this isn’t a place for me to dwell
    I don’t belong in this man made hell.

    I know this game is just a business
    For ICE I’m just another purchase

    I go to my bunk as I realize the reality
    And try to sleep before I lose my sanity

    As the murky shadows start to clear
    I realize I have nothing to fear

    Rest assured that I won’t stop
    This is my way out

    I’m not doing this for some widespread acclaim
    Because in the end we’re all the same.

    Written by A079 005 390

    These letters and numbers identify someone who has been caught up in the cruel and unjust machine of ICE. But it did not, and will never have the power to bring down the heart and spirit of one of my brother and closest friends.