More than 80 members of the Austin community attended the community forum on Workers Rights as Human Rights hosted by the Religion and Labor Network of Austin at the University Presbyterian Church.  Working men and women from widely diverse parts of the area's economy told their personal stories about suffering violations of their fundamental human rights at work.  They presented their testimonies to a panel of distinguished labor and human rights experts, who helped clarify the connections between the local stories told by the worker witnesses and developments in workplace justice across the U.S. and around the globe.   The various Austin tour events were also co-sponsored by EJC's Central Texas Immigrant Workers' Rights Center (CityWork), the Austin Central Labor Council, and American Rights at Work.

Reverend Tom VandeStadt, chair of the Religion and Labor Network of Austin,

introduces the worker witnesses and expert panelists at the forum.

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A central theme that emerged from the worker testimonies and the expert commentary was that much of the unfair treatment that workers in the U.S. now face routinely is in fact a violation of basic international human rights standards.  have now become commonplace in the U.S. many violations of workers' rights that have become commonplace in the U.S.

Maria Quiroz, a leader in the Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center, talks

about the struggle she and other immigrant workers have faced just trying to get

paid for their work.  She told the forum how she found the strength to successfully

defend her right to be paid through the support of other workers at the workers'

center.  Translating for Ms. Quiroz is workers' center coordinator, Julien Ross.

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The forum also highlighted a number of innovative local and national initiatives that are beginning to empower working people with new tools and allies as they seek to establish fairness in the workplace and defend their basic human rights on the job.  Among the key local examples cited were the Religion and Labor Network of Austin and the Central Texas Immigrant Workers' Rights Center ("City Work"), both projects of the Equal Justice Center. 

A truck driver for the Austin area Pepsi distribution center, tells the forum how

he and other drivers won a union election to be represented by the Teamsters union

and to bargain collectively with Pepsi - only to have Pepsi thwart the workers'

democratic right to union representation by repeatedly refusing to bargain in good

faith, committing multiple unfair labor practices, and failing to comply with rulings

against Pepsi by the National Labor Relations Board. The Religion and Labor Network

of Austin has supported the Pepsi drivers in their basic right to freely choose to be

represented by a union.

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Expert panelists on hand to hear and respond to the workers' testimonies, listen

to a reaction from panelist Reverend Cyndy Layton, a pastor at the Memorial United

Methodist Church and a member of the Steering Committee member of the Religion

and Labor Network of Austin.  Other panelist shown (left to right), include: Texas

State Representative Dawna Dukes, International Labor Organization consultant

Veronique Marleau, former U.S. Labor Secretary Ray Marshall, former Congressional

leader David Bonior, University of California Latin Americanist and global labor expert

Harley Shaiken, and Central American labor leader Maria Adela Mejia Perez. 

Click here for more about these experts. 

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Austin was one of three stops on the fall Workers Rights are Human Rights Tour, along with Atlanta and Boston.  The testimonies and insights gathered in these cities and at other stops during the Spring of 2006 will be compiled into a major report on labor and human rights in the U.S. and are expected to serve as the springboard for further action in U.S. and international human rights forums.