Posted on 07/29/2005 5:40:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
VERNON, Calif. (AP) - Touring a jeans factory that was caught last year underpaying some workers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Friday a new multiagency effort to enforce state labor and tax laws.
The governor praised the factory for improving its compliance and said the new enforcement unit will target workplaces in an attempt "to shut down the underground economy." The new unit will not focus on workers' immigration status - which Schwarzenegger called a "different issue" - even as one employee at the factory said in an interview that many of her co-workers were illegal immigrants.
The new state budget provides $5.5 million to add 62 new enforcement and audit positions to state agencies including the division of labor standards enforcement and the division of occupational health and safety.
Schwarzenegger said he hopes the various agencies will work together under the new initiative, dubbed the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition.
"It's the first time that we are trying to put all the agencies together," the governor said. He likened the unit to the federal Department of Homeland Security, created to improve communication and cooperation between agencies doing similar work.
Advocates for garment workers said the new effort was unlikely to make a difference because the state doesn't have enough money or resources devoted to enforcing current laws.
"Even if you dress it up and give it a new hat, you still can't do the work that needs to be done," said Kimi Lee, director of the Garment Workers Center, a nonprofit group in Los Angeles that works to organize and educate workers.
Schwarzenegger said the new unit will focus solely on state laws, not immigration rules enforced by the federal government.
"Those are two different issues. We are not concentrating here on immigration at all," he told reporters after touring the Blue Cop jeans factory.
One Blue Cop employee, pattern-maker Josephine Rubio, said a number of co-workers are illegal immigrants and the employer didn't ask for citizenship documents when she was hired about six months ago.
"This company has many people with no papers, right now," said Rubio, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Mexico more than three decades ago. Asked who didn't have immigration documents, she swept her hand across the airy factory filled with sewing machines and jeans stacked higher than a person.
"All over," she said, adding that she thought highly of the company and didn't want to lose her $14-per-hour job - high-paying for Los Angeles' garment industry.
Two other workers interviewed at the factory said they were also U.S. citizens.
One, Armando Pateno, said a friend, an undocumented immigrant, works at a smaller jeans factory in the city of Commerce and had complained of a lack of safety and minimum wage pay. Pateno said other garment businesses exploit illegal immigrants.
"They get people without papers, they don't have insurance. They pay minimum," said Pateno, who works in the shipping department at Blue Cop and said he likes his $9-per-hour job.
Lee estimated that about half of all employees in the Los Angeles garment industry are illegal immigrants.
"It's not necessarily the labor laws or the factories," she said. "It's really the industry itself, where it's dependent on this underground economy, and therefore doesn't look to see what's going on."
Operators of the Blue Cop factory in this industrial Los Angeles suburb were caught by state investigators late last year underpaying workers who are paid per garment produced.
The company was "very eager" to cooperate and comply with state laws, company chief operating officer Peyman Dadmehr said. He said workers were given back-pay this year following an internal audit, but declined to say how much they were paid. State investigators also suggested other changes, he said, and the company has moved to improve its safety conditions.
Rick Rice, undersecretary of the state labor and work force development agency, said state officials were not interested in the immigration status of workers at the factory.
"We enforce labor laws across the board regardless of labor status," he said. "Because if we didn't enforce across the board it would be an incentive for certain employers to hire illegals rather than ordinary citizens."
"Those are two different issues. We are not concentrating here on immigration at all," he told reporters after touring the Blue Cop jeans factory.
One Blue Cop employee, pattern-maker Josephine Rubio, said a number of co-workers are illegal immigrants and the employer didn't ask for citizenship documents when she was hired about six months ago.
"This company has many people with no papers, right now," said Rubio, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Mexico more than three decades ago. Asked who didn't have immigration documents, she swept her hand across the airy factory filled with sewing machines and jeans stacked higher than a person.
"All over," she said, adding that she thought highly of the company and didn't want to lose her $14-per-hour job - high-paying for Los Angeles' garment industry.
Incredibly, This has nothing to do wth illegal immigration and workers. It's all about enforcing state laws, per the Gub.
ping
Paging ICE ,, Paging ICE..
Do you copy???
I had hoped this was a back door, but evidently the Gub has slammed that sucker in my face.
His new stealth approach to re-building his image is a lost mission, imo, before it even started.
Yes, I'd have to agree.
I'm not sure a lot of people are going to be very impressed by the Gub making sure illegal immigrants in sweat-shops are getting a fair shake.
I don't think sweat shop owners should benefit by mistreating illegal immigrants, but this seems to be an example of getting your priorities bass ackwards.
I hope you weren't expecting anything different.
No, I think he's done a dismal job and will continue to do so.
You never know what some people will do, but I would have been surprised if he had taken a firm stand on illegal immigrants.
OK, given that, I pose the following question, If you knew two years ago how badly Arnold was going to do and could go back to the recall which would it be:
Three years of a disabled Davis averaging his usual 6% annual spending growth, fighting for tax increases against the Republicans in the legislature,
OR
Eight years of Arnold, an average 9% increase in spending with no Republican resistance, and a 40% increase in bond debt?
Let's hear it.
not to mention rescinding drivers license for illegal immigrants, which has saved more money than all the other arguable decisions combined thus far...
Arnold's tour ensures that the illegal alien's employment, state tax, SSDI and other deductions will contribute to California's economy. Arnold's forthright concern regarding the employer's exemplary adherence to state labor law was alleviated.
/sarcasm
Carrie, your guy lost. He couldn't win and neither you or I can or could do anything about it. The Republican leadership pushed a popular figure forward and there's nothing we couldn't do about that either. Non Republican vote is something we couldn't be certain about how much would fall in Schwarzenegger's direction, vs Cruz Bustamante's.
My choices were to vote for Tom McClintock, Cruz Bustamante or Arnold Schwarzenegger. I did not want Cruz in there, and I voted for Schwarzenegger. I'd do the same damned thing if the vote were today, and I was presented with the same damn choices. We've been through this before and you're never happy with what my answer is. You never will be. Frankly, I don't care.
It would have been nice if Tom could have won. That wasn't and still isn't a reality based pipe dream.
Given that a referendum against SB-60 was on its way at the time of the recall, the recision afterward was a non-achievment. Then there's this...
Schwarzenegger on Driver Licenses for illegal aliens during a January Interview with Univision:
Interviewer: How would you deal with more conservative members of the legislature...?
Schwarzenegger: Again, it's one of those things where we all have to get together and see that this is a good idea and this is the way to move forward. So, I am talking to my Republican friends all the time about it, and also to my Democratic friends. We will do it.
"Our staffs have met, and they're working on this together,"
said Vincent Salido, spokesman for the Republican governor
When you learn the reality of Arnold, you'll learn that the man speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He's the most talented liar in politics after Bill Clinton.
Bud, when Arnold became Governor the bill had already been passed to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses. You're aware of that.
That wasn't my question, which didn't even mention Tom McClintock. It was about the choice between Davis and Arnold. Sure it's hypothetical, but what it's really about is the NEXT election and whether you'll fall for the same crap. The question was meant to determine if you are capable of admitting that Arnold has been far worse than you believed he would be, even though you were warned and denied it, believing that what you were being told was merely rhetorical advocacy.
It wasn't. As soon as it looked like Arnold was going to win, I voted against the recall.
Answer the question or look like a coward.
The only leverage against SB60 and the only reason the legislature rescinded it, was the over 500,000 signatures already collected by SaveOurLicense.org.
Yours is a meaningless argument. Answer the question.
Why don't you have someone read that article to you. It's obvious you can't.
In it, it states that the California Legislature had passed a bill giving illegal immigrants access to California driver's licenses and the sitting Governor Gray Davis had signed the bill. It was a done deal. That's reality.
Illegal immigrants were set to get access to those licenses just weeks after Schwarzenegger was sworn in. That is reality.
Your comments about signatures implies that the DL situation would have been remedied, but Schwarzengger pushed the Legislature to rescind the bill and they did. That is reality, and you're signature comment is wishful thinking. It may have worked out, and it may not have.
That is also reality.
Oh yeah! Schwarzenegger. I was wondering whatever happened to that guy.
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