Local 79 has joined the New York Coalition to End Wage Theft, a coalition that seeks to put an end to the scourge of wage theft through the strengthening and the stricter enforcement of New York’s landmark Wage Theft Prevention Act. Other groups in the Coalition include Make the Road New York, the Center for Popular Democracy, Laborers’ Local 78 and 108, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Workers’ Union (RWDSU), and the Labor-Religion Coalition. Local 79 Business Manager Mike Prohaska, when asked about the importance of joining the Coalition and fighting against wage theft, answered as follows: “Local 79’s interest in strengthening the Wage Theft Prevention Act and ensuring that it has stricter enforcement is both principled and practical. As a matter of principle, we believe there are few things more shameful than robbing workers of what they are owed for their labor. On a practical level, employers that do not comply with minimum wage, overtime, and prevailing wage regulations (to name the most common forms of wage theft), provide unfair competition for companies that abide by the laws. This hurts workers at all ends of the wage spectrum.”
Local 79 and LEROF played a large role in this wage theft victory.
