Immigrant Workers Rights Awareness Weekend

The Workers’ Center participated in the Immigrant Workers Rights Awareness Weekend event organized by the NYS Department of Labor and hosted by Assemblyman Sam Roberts at the CNY Regional Market. Also present were the Occupational Health Clinical Center, CNYCOSH and the Spanish Action League. Paul Welch, from the Syracuse Catholic Diocese brought signs that reminded people of the hard work that immigrant farmworkers do in our region so that we can have fresh fruits and vegetables at our table.

According to the NYS Bureau of Immigrants Workers Rights  New York ranks second in the nation for both number of foreign-born workers and share of all workers who are foreign born.

In 2006, immigrants were:

  • 2.47 million, or 26%, of the state’s workforce, and
  • 1.76 million, or 47%, of New York City’s workforce.

Immigrant workers are less likely to approach government agencies for many reasons, including:

  • language barriers,
  • not knowing what they can do for them,
  • fear of government (based on life in their home country), and
  • trouble getting to government agencies during office hours.

Here are some pictures of the event. Thanks to Debra Gonzales, Director of  CNYCOSH for the pictures.

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