Last month, Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (CCT) invited MIC to join them to support a group of their members at the July 6th hearing for their case, Diaz Perez et. al. v. Marder et. al. The plaintiffs are Central American immigrants, current and former workers at a major seafood company in New Bedford, where they experienced extortion and other abuses. CCT and its legal partner, Justice at Work, helped the workers file a legal complaint last October. Shortly afterward, the company retaliated by firing six workers. On July 6, Judge Leo T. Sorokin heard arguments about whether the workers’ case could be forced out of court and into arbitration.
The workers were not called to testify, but they wanted to be present for the hearing, and MIC was proud to accompany them, along with reps from MassCOSH and the Hyams Foundation.
The judge acted swiftly; a few days later, he rejected the companies’ attempt to send the case to arbitration. According to Dr. Lisa Maya Knauer, of CCT, “We think the workers’ presence in court made an impact on the judge.” She added, “Businesses and employers increasingly use binding arbitration agreements, which take away workers’ and consumers’ day in court, forcing them into a secretive and often biased alternative tribunal. Additionally, these agreements often contain class action bans that prevent consumers and workers from banding together to bring collective claims.”
We’re relieved that the judge threw out the move to compel arbitration, though wary about the door being left open for the companies to seek arbitration again. The workers alleged that the General Manager had extorted weekly cash payments, as a condition of employment. Workers from Rhode Island were required to use, and pay an additional fee for transportation in, vans owned by the General Manager. This kind of extortion, and money stolen from them in other ways, such as unpaid overtime, is unacceptable, and we hope that the workers, their legal team – which also includes Grassroots Law and Organizing for Workers (GLOW) and the Workers’ Law Office – and CCT will prevail in the end, and receive unpaid overtime, damages, and legal fees, funds which they need now more than ever.
