APALA Releases Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Malcolm Amado Uno
Phone: 202-508-3733
Email: muno@apalanet.org

Washington DC - APALA, in partnership with the UCLA Labor Center, released a report that documents the challenges that Asian Pacific American workers face in exercising their right to organize, and work place abuses endured by low-wage immigrant workers.  The report, Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence, profiles Asian Pacific American workers who testified at the first national Asian Pacific American Workers’ Rights Hearing in November 2009 at the AFL-CIO national headquarters in Washington DC.

"This ground breaking report is the first national publication focused on Asian Pacific American workers’ rights," said Luisa Blue, APALA First Vice President.  "Contrary to the model minority myth, Asian Pacific American workers continue to face exploitation and abuse in the workplace."

"I have worked for three years and make $9.50 an hour but the company pays me half compared to the American workers," said Aung Oo, a Karen refugee from Burma who currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  "We believe that we should be paid equal to them.  We do the same work."

In the Bay Area, employees of NBC Contractors were forced to fill out two time cards.  "We would not get paid unless we signed the fake time card, the one with lesser hours," said Ricky Lau, a Taiwanese immigrant living in the Bay Area.

"Asian Pacific American workers are breaking silence to ensure that their stories are brought out of the shadows and into the light," said Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center.  "These stories include wage theft, dangerous working conditions and threats to workers trying to organize unions."

The report represents an unprecedented expose of the work place violations impacting Asian Pacific American workers throughout the country.  The report also identifies specific recommendations presented by labor scholars and labor leaders to strengthen workers' rights.  

"Our hope is that policy makers, educational institutions, labor unions and advocates will use this document to advocate for the interests and advancement of Asian Pacific American workers," said Amado Uno, APALA Executive Director.

The release of the report coincides with APALA’s launch of a national campaign to engage Asian Pacific American workers in public hearings across the country.  The first hearing was held in New York on June 5, 2010.  Subsequent hearings are planned for Las Vegas, Nevada, Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, California and Detroit, Michigan.