Immigrant guest workers employed by vendors at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, N.Y., have filed complaints of rampant wage theft and abuse. Workers legally brought into the country on guest visas have been consistently denied wages and horribly mistreated and overworked. With the promise of an hourly wage of $10.71, some workers found themselves earning a mere $1-3 per hour for 16-24 hour shifts.
A class-action lawsuit was filed against Pantelis Karageorgis and his company, Peter’s Fine Greek Food, one company that subjected workers to such inhumane conditions. On Nov. 18 the Central New York Labor-Religion Coalition held a meeting and press conference to demand that contractors for the State Fair follow the state’s labor laws. Additionally, they are demanding that workers be given information regarding their rights in English, Spanish and other languages.
Rebecca Fuentes, a labor rights advocate and director of the Workers Center in Syracuse, commented that the guest worker program “creates perfect conditions for almost slave-like situations.” Immigrant workers coming to the U.S. to provide for their families and themselves are promised fair wages and work, but the guest worker visa program ties each worker to a specific employer, which basically institutionalizes the exploitation.
Of course, exploitation of labor is not confined to the immigrant community in Syracuse. Millions of workers, immigrant and non-immigrant, are subjected to demeaning labor conditions across the country. But in the drive for maximizing profits, immigrant workers make an easy target for capitalists to extract super-profits—even beyond the profits they can make by exploiting non-immigrant workers.
All progressive people should stand in solidarity with the courageous immigrant workers in Syracuse who are fighting back against wage theft.
