Want to Work at WIN? We Need a Bilingual Administrator

Are you passionate about social justice, and want to see every worker treated fairly? Consider joining the staff of WIN. We currently have an opening for a half-time bilingual administrator. This is a new position, because as we've grown, so has the need for a staff person who can handle a variety of administrative areas, along with a few organizing and fundraising tasks.

Some of the things this person will be doing will be handling calls from workers in Spanish and English, and doing an initial intake process with workers whose wages have been stolen; recruiting and managing volunteers; managing the database; and assisting workers at our weekly worker rights meeting.

I'm looking for someone who is fluent in English and Spanish; cares about social justice; is organized, friendly, and professional; and has skills using a database, Microsoft software, and email. Find out more about the position and how to apply at WIN's website.

IRS Tips for Making Charitable Donations

The end of the tax year is rapidly approaching, and lots of donors are making their final charitable gifts to their favorite charities. So many of you have shown such generosity to WIN this year, and I'm so grateful to each of you.

I thought it was a good time for a few reminders:

It's not too late to make a year end gift to Workers Interfaith Network. You can donate online through Dec. 31 and it will still be counted for this tax year. If you give by check, the check must be mailed no later than Dec. 31 (send to WIN, 3035 Directors Row, B - 1207, Memphis, TN 38131.

Your generous gift of any size will enable WIN to do the following in 2010:

• partner with the growing number of workers to recover stolen wages from their employers.
• press government agencies and elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels to do more to protect workers from dangerous working conditions and wage theft.
• offer more training opportunities to low-wage workers, including safety training classes for construction workers and English as a Second Language classes.

Also, I thought folks might want to know a few things that the IRS wants you to know about making charitable contributions:

• To be deductible, charitable contributions must be made to qualified organizations. Most organizations can tell you whether they are qualified. As a 501(c)(3) organization, WIN is a qualified organization.
• In order to deduct your charitable contributions, you must itemize deductions, using Form 1040, Schedule A.
• Generally, monetary donations are deductible, as well as the fair market value of most property donated to a qualified organization. Special rules apply for several types of donated property, including clothing, household items, cars, and boats.
• If your contribution entitles you to receive merchandise, goods, or services in return - such as admission to a charity banquet or sporting event - you can only deduct the amount that is more than the fair market value of the benefit you received. Small items that have only a token value do not affect the deductibility of your contribution.
• Regardless of the amount your donate, it is important to keep good records of contributions made. Cash contributions require a receipt. Keep cancelled checks or a bank or credit card statement, a payroll deduction record, or a written record from the charity that contains the date and amount of the contribution alsong with your name. (For donations to WIN, the thank you letter we send you contains all the necessary information you'll need, so be sure to keep it.)
• Only contributions actually made during the tax year can be deducted. So if you pledged to give $500 to a charity during the year, but only gave $200 by Dec. 31, only the $200 is deductible.
• Include credit card charges and payments by check in the year they are given to the charity, even if you do not actually pay the credit card bill or have your bank account debited until the next year.
• For any contribution of $250 or more, you must have a written acknoweldgement from the organization to validate your donation. It must include the amount given or a description of property donated, and whether the organization provided any goods or services in exchnage for the gift. (Again, thank you letters from WIN provide all this information.)
• To deduct charitable contributions of noncash items that are valued at $500 or more, you must complete Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions, and attach the form to your tax return.
• If you are donating a noncash item worth more than $5,000, generally you must obtain an appraisal.

More information is available from the IRS in Publication 526, Charitable Contributions.

Hope this helps as you finish your year-end giving!

Worker Friendly Gift Ideas

Exciting news! Workers Interfaith Network has just updated our Worker Friendly Shopping Guide, and posted it online for the first time ever. The guide has listings of union-made and fair trade goods and services, including gifts, food, books, candy, cars, hotels, sports, games, and more, as well as lots of everyday items you need year-round.

Here's a few ideas of how you can make your holiday more worker-friendly:

- Look for the union label. Buy goods made by workers who have union representation, who are much more likely to work under safe and fair working conditions than other workers. We  have lots of listings of union made items in our worker friendly guide. Some of our favorites from our shopping guide are cards and posters from Syracuse Cultural Workers, and jackets and scarfs from Justice Clothing Company. If you're travelling this season, be sure to find out which hotels have unionized workers, and which hotels workers are asking you to boycott.

- Buy items that are fair trade certified. There are several places in Memphis mentioned in our worker friendly guide that sell fair trade items, including the Global Goods Store at First Congregational Church and the Episcopal Book Shop. You can also visit the Fair Trade Federation for a list of their member stores, many of which have online stores.

- Consider making a gift to Workers Interfaith Network in honor of a loved one. We'll send a holiday card to your friend, family member, or co-worker, letting them know about your gift.

- If you cannot find the gift you need through a worker friendly source, consider using GoodShop for Workers Interfaith Network. GoodShop allows you to shop with most major online companies, with a percentage of the proceeds going to your favorite charity. Visit Goodshop and type "Workers Interfaith Network" into the box that says "Who Do you Goodshop for?" before selecting your online retailer to visit.

I hope these ideas help you celebrate with conscience this season.

National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft

Today, November the 19th is a National Day of Action to Stop Wage Theft. Thousands of workers in our city, and millions of workers across the country, face the theft of their wages by employers who pay below minimum wage, don't pay overtime, steal workers' tips, or don't pay workers at all.

Here's what you can do to take part in the national day of action:

1) See the results of our new wage theft survey. Today Workers Interfaith Network is releasing the results of our local wage theft survey of 141 low-wage workers in the Memphis area. We found that 2 out of 3 workers reported some form of wage theft. Some people assume that wage theft is only happening to Latino workers. What did our survey find out about whether race made a difference in rates of wage theft? Check out the results on WIN's website to find out.

2) Read Wendi Thomas's excellent column on wage theft that she wrote for The Commercial Appeal today.

3) Call your Congressional Representative and urge him/her to co-sponsor HR 3303, the Wage Theft Prevention Act. This legislation does away with a statute of limitation that only gives the Department of Labor 2 years to investigate a wage theft claim, and it lets workers file private wage theft lawsuits against employers while the Department of Labor is conducting its investigation. Right now too many workers' wage theft cases are being closed because the Department of Labor couldn't investigate them in time. This legislation would help change that.

Congressman Cohen can be reached at (202) 225-3265. Live in a different district, or aren't sure who your Representative is? Click here and enter your zip code to find out.

4) Make a donation to Workers Interfaith Network so that we can expand our wage theft work in the coming year.

The Wild West of Wage Theft

First, please accept my apologies for not posting for a whole month. At Workers Interfaith Network, we've been so busy getting ready for an exciting new statewide collaboration kicking off next week that I let my blogging slide!

You don't want to miss the community hearing on wage theft and hazardous working conditions that are happening across Tennessee next week on Nov. 5 - 7th. We're calling it "Reining in the Wild West Economy: Bringing Back Tennessee's Labor Standards."

Why the reference to the wild west? Because for lots of workers in Memphis and throughout the state, there's fear all around. Fear that they won't be paid for all the work they do. Fear that they'll fall off a scaffold because their contractor hasn't provided a safety harness. Fear that if they complain, they'll be fired. Fear that when they do face wage theft or a job that makes them risk their lives, no one else will have their back.

The state of Tennessee's workplaces reminds us of the wild west because there's not many consequences for employers who cheat workers out of their pay and refuse to keep workers safe. Laws that protect workers rights in our state are weak. At both the federal and state levels, there's not enough investigators at government agencies to follow up on all the safety and wage complaints that workers file. And government agencies need to do a better job at cooperating with community organizations who have earned the trust of low-wage workers.

That's why WIN helped form the Tennessee Worker Justice Network, a new coalition of worker rights groups across the state. Together, we'll be campaigning to get the Tennesseee legislature and the Tennessee Department of Labor to do more to protect worker rights.

The first step is a series of community hearings next week. The Memphis hearing will be held Saturday, Nov. 7th at 1:00 p.m. at Gifts of Life Ministries, 1542 Jackson Ave. The Knoxville hearing in on Thursday Nov. 5th and the Nashville hearing is on Friday Nov. 6th (find details on all three events on our website.)

You'll hear first hand testimony about wage theft and hazardous working conditions from workers, union leaders, a pastor, and an attorney. You'll also learn what we'll be calling on our government agencies and the legislature to do specifically to uphold workers rights. And, most importantly, you'll learn how you can make a difference for workers who are facing a wild west economy.

Wage Theft Repeat Offenders All Too Common

This Thursday, WIN invites you to join in a picket at Ranger Construction Company. WIN members are gathering at 9:00 a.m. on October 1st outside the company offices at 6058 Raleigh LaGrange Rd.

Why? Because Juan Diaz and Juan De Dios Cano worked at Ranger and were not paid for the 29 hours they worked. This was in April, but it's not our first contact with Ranger. Last year, 3 Ranger workers also contacted WIN because they hadn't been paid. Pressure on the company caused them to pay up last year.

When my co-worker, Alfredo Pena, called up Ranger this time, a supervisor said "we're not in the habit of not paying our workers." The evidence suggests this isn't true. Like a lot of companies, Ranger seems to be using wage theft as one of its business practices.

Even as someone who works daily on wage theft, I was shocked at the level of wage theft a new study found. "Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers" surveyed more than 4,000 low-wage workers in the three largest cities in America - New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Here's just a few things that they found:

• 1 in 4 workers had been paid less than the legal minimum wage in the past week. The minimum wage violations were serious. 60% of those who had been victimized were underpaid by more than $1 an hour.
• Of those who had worked overtime (more than 40 hours in a workweek), a shocking 3 out of 4 were not paid legally required overtime wages.

And this is in cities where local and state governments take stronger action against wage theft than in Memphis! 

Wage theft is clearly not just a few bad apples ruining the bunch. It's a widespread problem that's happening at the systemic level. And it's causing the suffering of millions of workers who can't make ends meet despite their hard work. 

If you're ready to tackle the problem, here are a few ideas:

• sign up for WIN's action alert email list so you can make your voice heard when wage theft happens in the Mid-South. 
• fight wage theft at the systemic level by becoming a member of WIN. Your membership will be used to advocate for better enforcement of wage laws at the local, state, and national levels. And, now through Dec. 15th, your new membership gift will be matched dollar for dollar by another WIN member!
• speak up when wage theft happens to you. If you've been a victim of not getting paid overtime, pay below the minimum wage, not being paid for all your hours, or not being paid at all, contact WIN.

In Memory of Glenn Booth: A Photo Slideshow

I am mourning the loss of my dear friend Glenn Booth, who died on Labor Day weekend. Glenn and I became friends at church. It was clear from the start that even though Glenn was big on jokes and liked to have fun, he was very serious about the need for justice for people who were taken advantage of.

Glenn had an extradionary gift for photography, and carried his camera with his almost everywhere. Over WIN's seven year history, Glenn took hundreds of photographs of our prayer vigils, Labor Day picnics, rallies, and actions at City Hall. To honor the wonderful gift Glenn offered of his talents, I've created a slideshow of just a few of my favorite pictures that he took over the years.