Protecting Supply Chain Workers during COVID-19: Rural Community Workers Alliance, et al v. Smithfield Foods, Inc., et al

April 28, 2020 Agricultural Workers' Rights, COVID-19, Essential Workers, Immigrant Rights, Nationwide, News, Restaurant Workers' Rights, Supply Chain, Workplace Safety Comments Off on Protecting Supply Chain Workers during COVID-19: Rural Community Workers Alliance, et al v. Smithfield Foods, Inc., et al

Working on a supply chain is an essential task during this pandemic.It is also essential that corporations engaged in the supply chain production take basic steps to protect their workers from the spread of COVID-19. Some employers are doing things right. Unfortunately, many workers in supply chain work —farmworkers, slaughterhouse workers, warehouse workers, grocery workers, delivery drivers, restaurant workers, and many others—continue to be required to report to work under conditions that directly conflict with CDC guidance and state and local public health orders. These conditions include failing to restructure the workplace to allow for social distancing at work, failing to encourage sick leave for workers who fall ill, and failing to provide protective equipment or sufficient hand-washing opportunities.

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Recovering Wages for All Hours Worked: Avendano et. al v. Averus Inc. and Michael Shank

May 1, 2019 Federal Court, Immigrant Rights, Restaurant Workers' Rights, The American West, Wage & Hour Comments Off on Recovering Wages for All Hours Worked: Avendano et. al v. Averus Inc. and Michael Shank

Towards Justice represented a group of workers dedicated to cleaning commercial kitchen exhaust hoods who were dramatically underpaid for their hours worked.

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Fighting Wage Suppression in the Fast Food Industry: Bautista et al v. Carl Karcher Enterprises LLC

May 1, 2019 Antitrust, Restaurant Workers' Rights, State Court, The American West Comments Off on Fighting Wage Suppression in the Fast Food Industry: Bautista et al v. Carl Karcher Enterprises LLC

Towards Justice combats anticompetitive practices that undermine worker power. In 2017, Towards Justice filed a lawsuit in California on behalf of current and former employees of Carl’s Jr. restaurants alleging that Carl’s Jr. and its franchisor CKE engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the wages and working conditions of the restaurant-based managers who run hundreds of Carl’s Jr. restaurants across the state

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Fighting Injustice in Guest-Worker Programs: Douglas et. al v. Yellowstone Club Operations, LLC; and Hospitality Staffing Solutions LLC:

April 30, 2019 Federal Court, Immigrant Rights, Restaurant Workers' Rights, The American West, Wage & Hour Comments Off on Fighting Injustice in Guest-Worker Programs: Douglas et. al v. Yellowstone Club Operations, LLC; and Hospitality Staffing Solutions LLC:

Several of Towards Justice’s cases focus on systemic injustices in nonimmigrant guestworker programs where visas indenture workers to specific employers that far too frequently exploit their employees and defraud them with false promises of the American Dream.

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In The Courtroom

Our litigators help workers advance legal claims that address systemic injustice. We use antitrust, anti-slavery, fraud, wage-and-hour, and common-law challenges to address the wide variety of practices that nickel-and-dime low-wage workers out of their hard-earned wages. We have represented a hundred thousand childcare workers alleging wage suppression, tens of thousands of immigrant detainees alleging forced labor, and hundreds of construction workers, shepherds, manicurists, janitors, and kitchen hood cleaners. We are leaders in challenging anti-competitive practices that reduce worker bargaining power and support marginalized people who challenge structural impediments to their advancement.

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