Pataki blamed for failed state Workers’ Comp system
Mexican officials reported yesterday that its Department of Labor
& Social Welfare found the United States in violation of the
labor agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
for failing to protect workers from dangerous work conditions and
to ensure that workers hurt on the job receive timely and adequate
compensation and medical treatment for their injuries and illnesses.
The finding was in response to NAFTA-based lawsuit against Governor
George Pataki, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board and
the U.S. Government, filed by injured workers of the It’s About
TIME! Campaign for Workers’ Health & Safety in 2001. Before
suing under NAFTA, workers had made repeated efforts to hold New
York Governor Pataki accountable for widespread sweatshop conditions
and a ruinous state Workers’ Comp system. Mexican labor investigators
discovered significant evidence in N.Y. of “serious obstacles [that]
impede workers’ rights [to] compensation for occupational injuries
and illnesses.”
Injured workers enthusiastically praised the Mexican government’s
findings. “I feel happy because these findings confirm what we injured
workers have been raising all these past years,” stated an exuberant
Cornetta McNeal, injured after years of long, grueling hours as
a home care worker. “We have always known that Pataki is guilty
of allowing hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to get hurt at
work every year. His treatment of disabled workers seeking Workers’
Comp benefits is even worse. It would be a shame if the U.S. were
to continue to violate our human rights.” Ms. McNeal has been forced
to wait more than 10 years without any workers’ comp benefits or
medical treatment.
"The Pataki Administration's stunning disregard for injured
workers made New York the first state to be the exclusive target
of a challenge under the NAFTA labor side agreement, and now New
York is the first whose labor practices have been referred for Ministerial
Consultations in such a case," said Professor Michael Wishnie,
co-director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law
and counsel for the petitioners. As one remedy, Mexico recommended
that U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao meet with her Mexican counterpart
as a first step toward resolving these violations.
PRESS CONFERENCE:
Wed. November 24, 2004 – 2 p.m.
NMASS Brooklyn Workers Center
30 Third Avenue, 1st floor YWCA bldg. (@ Atlantic Ave.) Brooklyn,
NY
Subway: 2/3/4/5/D/Q to Atlantic Ave. or B/N/R/W to Pacific St.
It’s About TIME! Campaign for Workers’ Health & Safety
c/o NMASS
P.O. Box 130293
New York, NY 10013
Tel (718) 625-9092
Fax (718) 625-8950
(partial list of Endorsers) Chinese Staff & Workers Association,
National Mobilization Against SweatShops, Workers Awaaz, Catholic
Charities, Council of Churches of the City of New York, Interreligious
Foundation for Community Organization, New York State Catholic Conference,
Rev. James Fitzgerald, Minister for Mission and Social Justice at
the Riverside Church, Rev. N.J. L'Heureux Jr. - Queens Federation
of Churches, Rev. Margaret Shafer - The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian
Church, Rev. Kooperkamp, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Arch Deacon
Michael S. Kendall, Episcopal Diocese of NY, Greater New York Labor
Religion Coalition, The Civic Committee for the Baptist Ministers
Conference of Greater-NY & Vicinity, Chinese United Methodist
Church, Local 375 of District Council 37, 318 Restaurant Workers
Union, Asociación Tepeyac de New York, Bellevue Occupational
and Environmental Health Clinic, Beyond Ground Zero, Brennan Center
for Justice at NYU Law School, Cabrini Immigrant Services, Center
for Economic and Social Rights, Chinese American Arts Council, Church
of St. Teresa, DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association, Dominican Women's
Development Center, Harlem Fightback!, Jews for Racial and Economic
Justice, Judson Memorial Church, MADRE, An International Women's
Human Rights Organization, Make the Road by Walking, Metropolitan
Council on Housing, National Employment Law Project, New Immigrant
Community Empowerment, New York Taxi Workers' Alliance, New York
Unemployment Project, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Polish National
Catholic Church, Polonians Organized to Minister to Our Community,
Inc., Ramon Nieves, UMCOR Disaster Relief Response Program, Rev.
Cannon Carmen R. Guerrero, The Episcopal Church
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