MAS Freedom Joins National Call to End Wage Theft in America
On Thursday, November 18th one week before the
traditional Thanksgiving holiday in the United States MAS Freedom
joins with Interfaith Workers Justice and numerous worker rights and
human rights organizations throughout the nation in calling attention to
the ongoing tragedy of the pandemic of wage theft in America.
Many activists have noted that while many of us celebrate Thanksgiving as a time for connecting with our families and our loved ones, there is an ongoing injustice of the theft of workers' wages that is rarely discussed, but that has a devastating impact on literally millions of working people and their families in this nation. In 2010, for example, it is estimated by the Interfaith Workers Justice organization that workers in America are collectively owed some 19 billion dollars in overtime pay that managers and bosses refuse to give them. The majority of these workers are Latinos, Latinas, African American and immigrant workers who earn very modest hourly wages, and in many cases, are among the working poor in this society.
But wage theft is much more pervasive that simply the refusal of posses to pay for overtime work. It is estimated that some three million workers in the United States are paid less than the legal minimum wage for their labor, and another three million workers are intentionally "misclassified" and placed into lower-wage occupational categories by bosses so that they are, in effect, cheated out of money that they should be paid for the work that they actually do.
Ibrahim Ramey, who represents MAS Freedom as a member of the national board of Interfaith Workers Justice and the Washington, DC area Interfaith Workers Rights Board, stated that "As Muslims, we are called by Prophet Muhammad to "Pay the worker while the sweat is still on his(or her) brow.' We salute Interfaith Workers Justice and join with them, and with all people of conscience, to demand that the theft of wages from those people who do essential work in our society must end. And we should especially remember and honor the work of all the people who bring food to out dinner tables on Thanksgiving, and on every day."
MAS Freedom is committed to supporting the national movement against wage theft in America, and we will be informing our constituents of relevant action items and legislation to help end this injustice.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=qta9hbcab&v=001pbUA9HXeQV9JflyyRdiusOt30ktXV3oDpnxMHbseynJQVe7k_iNL8EPwWIFHcyZ7X2RhS1i3rUa5UTkDuOp-qgHFcPVwN0IDwMq4CHCJuIqRpb5wcpGMaRpmk1edTNNV
http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com/my_weblog/
http://www.iwj.org/doc/FaithWorks-Sum08.pdf
http://www.greenamerica.org/PDF/WalMartCAQ68.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29233372/Industrial-Worker-April-2010
