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Latin American
Women, Children at Risk |
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Sexual Exploitation in the Workplace
Across the Americas
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Last Updated April 28,
2008 |
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"Traditions" of Workplace Rape Across the United
States and Latin America |
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A crisis of rape with impunity in the workplace
severely impacts the lives of Latin American
immigrant women and girls across the United States |
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Plaintiffs & EEOC staff attorneys involved in a
$1,855,000 voluntary settlement resulting from a
class action suit brought on behalf of lettuce
giant Tanimura & Antle
female employees subjected to sexual harassment and
retaliation in California & Arizona.
Full story. |
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EEOC Reveals Rise in Cases Involving Blue-Collar
Women
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Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court clarified
employer liability in sexual harassment cases,
experts say the problem remains persistent even
while the nature of complaints shifts.
An examination of the caseload at the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission reveals that
companies are facing a changing and growing roster
of complaints. The EEOC, under its first Latina
chair, Ida Castro, cites an " alarming" rise in
cases involving the most vulnerable women in the
workplace: those filling blue-collar and factory
jobs, especially immigrants. |
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NEWS
Florida, USA
Tampa -
More than anything, the young mother wanted
her children in a permanent home so they
could succeed in elementary school. They
must not end up like her and their father,
hunched over rows of crops all day...
When the owner
of the farm began sexually assaulting her,
she kept it a secret. If her hot-headed
husband learned of it, he might take matters
into his own hands. If he went to prison,
she and her children would be destitute...
...Lourdes
Villanueva... with the Redlands Christian
Migrant Association in Plant City tried to
help. But the woman was ashamed and
terrified - of immi-gration officials, of
deportation, of her husband's wrath, of the
boss, of getting her family blackballed from
working again. No, she would handle it. No
policia, no. When Villanueva visited her
trailer this month, the family was gone...
Mary Bauer,
director of the Immigrant Justice Project at
the SPLC, testified April 15 about
farmworker exploitation before the Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions... Bauer told the senators that of
the estimated 70,000 female farmworkers in
Florida, hundreds if not thousands face
chronic sexual harassment on the job. They
often are forced to have sex with
supervisors to get or keep jobs, she said,
and they put up with a "constant barrage of
grabbing, touching and propositions for sex
by their supervisors."
...Ramirez says
the few studies that have been done on
sexual exploitation reveal a pattern.
"It's like a
Catch-22," she says. "The women know the
abusers won't get in trouble, and the
abusers know it, too. They'll use threats
against the woman's family or say, 'I'll
have your husband and children deported.'
"If they're
undocumented, they are certain no one will
believe them..."
- Donna Koehn
The Tampa
Tribune
April 27,
2008
LibertadLatina
note:
The above tragic story of severe sexual
harassment and 'legalized' (because nobody
gets prosecuted) serial rape is repeated in
thousands of farmworker communities, and in
tens of thousands of low-wage jobs in
restaurants, office cleaning jobs and
hotels, for example, across the United
States. In my 25+ years of advocacy
work for this population in the Washington,
DC region, I have seen little improvement in
conditions for women and underage girl
immigrants who came to the U.S. largely to
escape the impunity of 'legalized' sexual
assault across all of Latin America.
Latin American community leaders within the
U.S. have a responsibility to change course
from the past pattern of ignoring this
issue, and stand-up to fight for the dignity
and basic human rights of women and
children.
Silence is also
violence!
End impunity now!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
April 19,
2008
See also:
LibertadLatina
The sexual Exploitation of Women and Children in
the Washington, DC Region
LibertadLatina
The Workplace Rape
of Latina and Indigneous Women in the U.S. and
Latin America
Added
Jan.
24,
2006
Mexico
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Deputy
Angélica
de
la
Peña
Photo:
La Cronica
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99% Of
Domestic
Workers In
Mexico Are
Adolescents
And Girls -
40,000 Are
Under Age
14.
El 99 por
ciento de
las
trabajadoras
domésticas
del país son
adolescentes
y niñas; 40
mil tienen
menos de 14
años.
Mexico City
- Deputy
Angélica de
la Peña of
the
Democratic
Revolutionary
Party (PRD),
president of
the Special
Commission
on
Childhood,
Adolescents
and Families
in the
Chamber of
Deputies
(Lower
House),
indicated in
a press
conference
that
99% Of all
domestic
workers In
Mexico are
adolescents
and girls
who do not
study in
school, and
who are
vulnerable
to sexual
abuse in
their
work-places.
Deputy de la
Peña stated
that 40,000
of these
workers are
under
14-years-of-age,
children who
depend upon
their
employers
for shelter
and food.
They have no
set list of
work tasks,
and no work
schedule.
Domestic
work is
considered
to be the
least
respected,
the most
poorly paid
and the
least
regulated
form of
work.
Although the
Mexican
Constitution
states that
children
must be
provided
with food,
healthcare,
education
and
recreation
for their
integral
development,
and
prohibits
youth under
age 14 from
working, the
reality is
that Mexican
society is
violating
that sacred
concept.
Mexico is
also a
signatory to
the
International
Labor
Organization's
Convention
182,
prohibiting
the worst
forms of
child labor.
Faced with
these
realities,
Deputy de la
Peña is
proposing
that the
Mexican
Congress
modify
Article 175
of Mexico's
employment
Law, to
completely
eliminate
child
domestic
work.
In addition,
the Deputy
would like
to add an
Article 21
to the Law
for Child
and
Adolescent
Protection,
to
specifically
defend
children
from forms
of work that
subject them
to sexual,
physical or
psycho-logical
harm.
- La Cronica
de Hoy
Jan. 22,
2006
See Also:
Web
Site / Sitio
Web -
Diputado
Angélica
de la Peña
Added
Dec. 10,
2005
México
Minimizan
violencia hacia mujeres en el ámbito
laboral.
Women labor leaders in Mexico held a press
conference to announce that, despite the
fact that violence against women in the
workplace is a constant reality, official
action against these aggressions are few,
and that employers and government
institutions still see workplace sexual
violence as ‘natural.’
Organizers of
the event are promoting their Women’s
Political Agenda in Relation to Political
Power, which emphasizes the importance
of creating environments free of workplace
violence, particularly sexual harassment and
assault.
Daisy Hernandez, member of National Union of
Education Workers (SNTE)…
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“Violence against women in the
workplace has not been seriously
investigated, and when there are
investigations, it is apparent that
money corrupts the companies and
government agencies involved, since
there are never any results.”
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Marcelina Bautista, founder of the Center of
Support and Training for Domestic Employees…
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Without legislation to protect them,
domestics, who are typically
children, are subject to violence by
homeowners who force them to work up
to 16 hours a day and who subject
them to sexual harass-ment.
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Maria Salazar, also of the SNTE…
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This is violence that really is a
form of terrorism, although it is
not viewed as such [by society].
"We have all lived through workplace
violence in flesh and blood, or
through assisting our sisters who
have been." |
- CIMAC Noticias
Dec. 09, 2005
Added
Oct.
29,
2005
Nicaragua
Domésticas en mira de patrones abusivos.
According to a legal
investigation done by the International
Labor Organization (ILO) domestic work done
by adolescent girls between the ages of 12
and 16 is an open door to the sexual
exploitation.
The majority of male
homeowners sexually abuse these workers.
In addition to being subjected to workplace
rape, these girl workers are often denied
pay for their work.
-
ElNuevoDiario.com.ni
Oct. 28,
2005
LibertadLatina
Note:
The sexual and economic
exploitation of girls, youth and women in
the workplace is common across Latina
America and also affects many thousands of
low- wage workers in the U.S. Our work
started out in advocacy for this abused
population.
Added July 03 2005
Selected U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunities Commission
(EEOC) actions in the first half of 2005:
United States
EEOC
Launches Spanish-language Youth@work Web
Site.
06/29/2005
Rivera
Vineyards in California to Pay 1.05 Million
to Latina Women Subjected to Severe Sexual
Harassment, Rape, Retaliatory Firings & Job
Segregation.
06/15/2005
Aerospace
Leader
Hamilton
Sundstrand to Pay 1.25 Million to Latino
Workers in olorado Subjected to Hostile Work
Environment.
05/20/2005
Las Vegas Hotel/Casino
Caesars Palace is Sued Alleging that for
Years, Five Managers in Kitchen Forced Oral
Sex Acts, Bodily Touching, Unfavorable
Treatment for Resisting and
Retaliation on Women Workers, Including a
Pregnant Employee.
04/04/2005
McDonalds
in New Mexico & Arizona Sued for Managerial
Sex Harassment of Young Workers.
02/24/2005
California's
Agriculture Giant Harris Farms Ordered
by Jury to Pay $994,000 to a Married Mother
of 5, Repeatedly Raped at Work by Her Boss,
Who Threatened Her and Other Women, Bragged
of His Impunity, and Carried a Gun and
Knife.
01/21/2005
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1 - Sexual Exploitation of Latin American Women
& Girls in the Workplace - Montgomery
County, MD |
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Working To Make
a Difference
The work of
LibertadLatina.org
grew out of 2 decades of effort focused on
providing Latina and Latina Indigenous women and girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland (a suburb just north of
Washington, DC)... with advocacy against rape and
retaliatory firings (for not giving in to rape) that were
and are the daily reality in the low-wage workplace.
The abuses commonly encountered include those described
outrages in the Laurel, MD EEOC case (see below), and
included actual cases of rape and coerced sexual
exploitation. Latina and Indigenous women and girls in
the U.S. face an epidemic of rape in their workplaces and
communities. The legal system does not now
effectively protect these women and children from criminal
sexual assault.
LibertadLatina.org's
work within the Washington, DC region has
documented the fact that the dynamics of historic patterns of
anti-female exploitation with impunity that target Latina and
Indigenous women and girls are merging with other, existing
forms of local criminal sexual predation in the U.S.,
subjecting immigrant women and children to open sexual assault
with impunity in low-wage workplaces and on the streets of their
communities.
The below employment abuse
cases document the sexual assault, coercion and severe
sexual harassment events that the author has witnessed
firsthand, second-hand and through third-hand stories from
dozens of immigrant women and girls since the 1980's.
Convincing abused
victims to come forward and pursue long-term
legal actions (cases typically take two years to
resolve) is difficult. Case duration
combines with justified immigrant women's
fear of the judicial system's possible
prejudices and fear of the known terror tactics
of their supervisors to often convince victims
to either keep quiet and submit to rape in the
workplace, or to face retaliatory reprimands,
demotions, shift changes and firings for not
submitting to the sexual demands of their
supervisors and managers. These events
occur every day in the U.S.
Latina immigrant women and
girl workers are typically unaware of the laws against
sexual harassment and sexual coercion on the books.
When the author distributed the translated version of the
Montgomery County Women's Commission's Sexual Harassment
brochure to Latina women workers in the mid 1990's, for
example, it was read with astonished surprise that such laws
existed in the United States. When the author noted to
the Montgomery County Women's Commission during a May, 1994
presentation to them on these issues that... more brochures
needed to be printed, and that I could effectively
distribute them (I did Latin event promotions at the time),
several commission members shook their heads in disbelief
and my request was denied. That simple action still,
nine years later in 2003, needs to be taken in Montgomery
County, MD and across the U.S.
The effective communication
by advocates to Latina victims of their rights and abilities
to pursue criminal, civil and EEOC legal cases will be a
critical part of the education process needed to break the
code of silence surrounding these acts of blatant impunity
in the U.S. workplace.
Presentation to
the Commission for Women
A Letter from the Montgomery County, MD Women's
Commission
responds positively to Charles Goolsby, Jr.'s May
27, 1994 presentation before the Commission that
detailed many of of the abuse cases listed on
the
LibertadLatina.org
web
site and specifically on this page).
Despite over a decade of effort, both the abuse
with impunity faced by working Latina women and
girls and the apathy and inaction of police and
judicial authorities continue to be an ongoing
horror in this county.
True Cases from
the Frontlines of Impunity
The below three
workplace sexual and physical abuse cases are
all 100% factual. The case narratives
speak for the victims, and they document the
voiceless cries of tens if not hundreds of
thousands of working women and girls across the
United States who face rape and coercion with
impunity largely because anti-immigrant
hostility and apathy from government
agencies allows it to happen,
That must change!
Only public awareness and public expressions of
outrage to elected officials, police
administrators and local prosecutors will lead
to improvement. Nothing else seems to
motivate change.
Deliberate
Inaction was the official government and
corporate response in all of
these cases. |
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Using the Pen to Fight Back Against
Impunity
In response to repeated failures to get
the legal and press establishment of
Montgomery County and the greater
Washington, DC area to respond
positively to the urgent needs of Latina
victims of workplace and community
sexual assault, the author wrote the
below report and has distributed it to
many local police, press and advocacy
organizations during the past 9 years.
The organizations that have received
this report in-person from the author
have included the Montgomery County
Police Department, the U.S. Department
of Labor, Women's Bureau staff and
attendees at their 1995 Low Wage Workers
Conference, and the Montgomery County
Commission for Women (1994). The
report was sent by mail to the U.S.
Department of Justice, Worker
Exploitation Task Force in 1999.
LibertadLatina.org
is the evolution of that 1994 report
over time. The issues remain the
same, and the severity of this crisis is
now worse than it was in 1994.
Public pressure is still needed to
change the environment of sexual
exploitation with impunity facing U.S.
immigrant women and girls every day.
-
Chuck Goolsby - September, 2003
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Montgomery County, MD
-- 1994
Charles M. Goolsby, Jr.'s
1994 Report on the Sexual Exploitation
of Latina immigrant Women and Girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland
EXCERPT
...All of
my work in Latin-American immigrant
victim-advocacy has resulted from
victims having approached me seeking
help. Repeatedly, the official reaction
of cleaning contract companies working
within Montgomery County to my polite
raising of these issues has been to do
the following: 1) silence any discussion
of these issues by the use of gross
intimidation against the victims and
myself, 2) fire or force the victims
out, and 3) back-up the actions of the
perpetrators, protecting them from legal
trouble.
Latin-American immigrant women have thus
gotten the message loud and clear on
many occasions that they have become a
cheap, disposable resource in the
American work-place, underpaid,
overworked, and often forced into sexual
submission while government and commerce
knowingly turn their backs.
At this
time I have found it necessary to write
this report. Since 1988 I have formally
presented this information to many
persons-in-authority. Time after time,
these well-educated, well-paid officials
of public and commercial organizations
have said "SO WHAT!" This report is a
substitute for the muffled CRY OF
RAPE from victims who are tired of
having become the sexual 'cannon-fodder'
of America...
- Charles M. Goolsby, Jr. - February,
1994
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Additional Cases
Laurel, Maryland
-- June, 2002
The below case from
Laurel, Maryland, a city on the Route !-95
corridor in Prince Georges County, just East of
Montgomery County, has defined in a formal legal
setting exactly the types of sexual coercion and
severe sexual harassment that the author has
fought against in neighboring Montgomery County,
Maryland since the 1980s. Even pregnant
Latina women and girls are routinely pressured
for sexual favors by their managers and
supervisors in the low-wage workplace.
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"One of the complainants, having been fired
after putting up with daily unwanted
fondling, was, at the time, pregnant. She
was told to come back after the pregnancy
(when she could be exploited sexually)."
Workplace Rape:
Rockville, Maryland - Case 3
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The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today
announced a $1 million settlement of a class
action lawsuit against Grace Culinary Systems,
Inc. and Townsend Culinary, Inc. alleging
egregious sexual harassment of 22 Hispanic women
at a food processing plant in Laurel, Maryland.
The suit charged the companies with routinely
subjecting the female workers, all recent
immigrants from Central America who spoke
limited English, to unwanted groping and
explicit requests for sexual favors by male
managers and co-workers over several years.
...The sexual harassment was
widespread with managers routinely subjecting women to groping and
crude and explicit requests for sexual favors over a period of
years. The harassers were managers and male co-workers...
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...One woman was locked in a freezer by her
supervisor after she turned down his sexual
request. Two other women who were pregnant
at the time were pressured for sex and
subsequently demoted and fired following
their refusal to comply with the adva | | | | | |
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