1st Q&A – The Authority: Carmen Gonzales

Carmen Gonzales is the Director of Collective Bargaining at Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste or PCUN.  Her role is to document cases of wage theft and contact the employer to require him or her to fulfill the contract and obtain the stolen wages.  If the wages are too large or the employer poses any difficulties, she passes the case on to associated lawyers at the Oregon Law Center.

How is wage theft occurring in Oregon?

The end of the month comes and the contractor doesn’t pay them for all the work they’ve done so they say, “Look next month they will pay me.” We’ve had clients who have worked six months without getting paid.  They’ll just give them $150 or $50.  What are they going to do with $50? The workers have this mentality of “Oh my money is there.”  They keep track of what they should be earning. Then contractors will loan their license to another person and that person robs his or her workers.  The two end up winning.  So when we talk with the owner of the license he says,  “I don’t know who you are talking about.”  He just washes his hands and says, “Talk to the person on the license. I do not know.”  It’s that easy .

 

Why aren’t the workers reporting this?

Now there is so much fear in the community to not collect wages because of fear of deportation and so it continues.  Or they are injured on the job and the contractor will says “Don’t say anything about how you hurt yourself. Say you fell or your hurt yourself at home. I don’t want problems with anyone. And if you talk I will look into you and your family.”  Recently I received a young , a very young boy, looking for help because he was fired from his job and his contractor didn’t pay him. I thought he had just hurt at work, but he told me he has been injured from work for a year and a half.  He went to the hospital, but the contractor declined to pay the payments because he didn’t have insurance.  This young man is now hurt and can no longer live like he used to, but he still has to pay the bills, but the contractor no longer answers the phone.

 

Is it hard to see cases like that day after day?

Yes. For example when we are denouncing subcontractors with the state. Logically we can’t get their information off of their license because they are working under another name. That is the hardest for us.  They disconnect their phone and change their number and address. It’s a shame because it’s lost money that will never be recuperated.  As much as we would like to help the victims we can’t if the contractor no longer exists.  They are very difficult to locate. Those cases just get left in the dark. We will fight a lot for the victims, but sometimes we can’t do anything.  We worked on one case for three years investigating, searching, looking everywhere to see if the contractor existed until sometimes the victim sees the contractor himself and then sometimes we can help and sometimes no.  It’s very difficult to see that everyday.

Three years is a long time.  Does that wear you down?

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have the energy to negotiate with the contractors and ask for the wages. Sometimes they insult me . I just simply say don’t insult me, I’m just doing my job. It’s just my client has lost his rent, his home. We’ve had people who have lost their home because they have not been paid and the contractor  just tells them they will get paid the next month. Don’t worry about your money, it will be there.  They just  believe them and then they lose their income. There’s a case where a man’s wife had recently had a baby and he had no money to buy diapers, to buy milk or to buy food for his family. These cases are very sad .

 

What is the emotional effect on the workers?

That’s when it gets sad because then they have problems with their families.   They ask them, “Look at how much you are working but they don’t give you money!  There’s no milk for the baby or for the nephews.  What’s going on?” Sometimes there are conflicts between family friends too.  This is when people get the most depressed.  We’ve had people who have lost their partners because for those who live here, they are seeing their husbands go off to work and pack them a lunch of beans and tortillas, but they are seeing that they aren’t receiving any pay.  But what happens to those whose wives are in Mexico? The wife says, “What are you doing?  Why aren’t you sending money? It’s already been two months.”  If the poor victim receives some money he has to use it to eat, but then what is he going to send to Mexico?  We’ve had people lose their wife or husband.  That is very sad because it’s from just one individual who doesn’t respect basic human rights or think about the the traumatic emotional harm he is inflicting on the victim. That is the reality that many people live.

Carmen Gonzales

Director of Collective Bargaining Work at PCUN

carmeng@pcun.org

503-984-6815

300 Young St, Woodburn, OR 97071