United Workers Committee wins Labor Dept. change

United Workers Committee leaders demand that the state Labor Department enforce laws that protect undocumented workers.

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. – The United Workers Committee at Progreso Latino won policy changes that bring greater justice to undocumented workers during a public meeting with a top official in the state Labor Department.

The accountability session between the United Workers Committee and Adelita Orefice, director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, was called to convince Orefice to change the department’s unjust practice of refusing to investigate wage claims from undocumented workers.

Employers had used the Labor Department practice to trample on the most basic right of immigrant workers – the right to be fully paid for their labor.

Adelita Orefice, director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, listens to demands from the United Workers Committee during a packed public meeting. She agreed to the group's two demands and added two of her own.

Adelita Orefice

Nearly 200 people attended the Nov. 9 meeting conducted by the United Workers Committee that included personal testimonies of abuses suffered at the hands of their employers and a series of demands on Orefice.

The demands included investigations of wage claims from all workers, regardless of immigration status; communication of this policy change to the owner of a temp agency that used the practice as an excuse to not pay workers; and employment of at least two Spanish-speaking investigators within the Labor Standards Division.

Ms. Orefice agreed to all of the demands.

She also volunteered to reach out to employers — especially temporary agencies — to make them aware of the policy change and to reopen investigation on any wage claim dismissed in the previous 12 months because of a Social Security number mismatch.

She also promised to meet again with the United Workers Committee to ensure that commitments were being fulfilled.

The United Workers Committee wishes to thank NTIC for its training, support, and guidance — especially Jobs and Economic Justice Organizer Kelley Ford who came to Rhode Island for the public meeting and worked late into the night to contribute to its success.

 This was a powerful step in advancing the rights of immigrant workers in Rhode Island, but much more needs to be done, and will be done!