Employment | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘employment’

Waiting for the State of the Union. Waiting for Connections between Jobs & Immigration

9:27 am By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Politics · 2 Comments

25 Jan 2011

Tonight is President Obama’s State of the Union Address. I haven’t decided if I am going to live blog/tweet it from VivirLatino’s twitter account, but what I have decided on is that I will likely be disappointed in the messaging and it’s failure to connect the dots for communities of color, especially immigrant communities.

You will have to excuse me for losing faith in the administration to do anything on immigration remotely looking like reform, this is including the alleged new push to pressure employers instead of the employed (more on that later). Instead of how continued raids and increased enforcement have broken more families apart than ever before, we have a President who waves the enforcement first flag along with the best among the GOP. Additionally, we have Latinos in the media saying that advocates and activists have a messaging problem, not a humanity problem, not a compassion problem, but a marketing issue, since we as Latinos, as immigrants, are commodities, bargaining chips.
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Uruguaya Sues Boss Because She Doesn’t Have Any Work to Do

11:11 am By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro|Justice|Labor|Uruguay · 1 Comment

18 Aug 2008

Has lawsuit abuse spread to Latin America as well? An Uruguyan woman is suing her employer because she has no work to do. Spain’s 20 Minutos reports that a city government worker in Rio Negro, Uruguay, Emilia Colman, spends her entire day doing nothing except “looking at the ceiling” from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Colman claims she’s asked her boss to give her work but her pleas have gone unanswered, so she’s suing her employer for the equivalent of 25,000 euros for “morale damage”. She is also asking for a 3,000 euro per year raise.

While on the surface this might sound silly, it seems that Emilia might have been getting the boot from her employer in a roundabout way. There are many cases where an employer has made working conditions so miserable that the employee has no choice but to leave (remember Milton from Office Space?). And that’s what Colman believes is happening here. She’s been working for the city since 1999, and 3 years ago they changed her from one area to another. First she lost her office, then she lost her computer. Now she has nothing to do.

Nothing to do without a computer is brutal. As my office worker friends can attest to, having nothing to do at work can be fun. As long as you have the Internet.

Via / 20 Minutos

To Steal a Line From Shakira: Don’t Bother (Looking for Latinos Working in Federal Jobs)

1:44 pm By Maegan La Mala · Careers|Politics · 1 Comment

10 Jan 2006

Just because Latinos are the fastest growing “minority” in the U.S. doesn’t mean those numbers are reflected in the jobs held by Latinos, especially Federal Government jobs. While Latinos are at least 40 million strong, we only hold seven percent of Federal Government jobs according to a coalition of Latino watchdog organizations. The private sector employs 13 percent of Latinos and that statistic does not take into account undocumented workers. Why the discrepancy? Discrimination (especially since Federal jobs are only available to U.S. citizens) and poor recruitment campaigns to Latinos are part of the problem. Another problem is the lack of qualified Latino candidates, traced back to poor educational training.

Via / Terra

Pew: Unemployment not causing immigration

6:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|mexico|society · 2 Comments

6 Dec 2005

Contrary to the old racist wives tale of “They can’t find a job in their country so they come here to take ours”, the Pew Hispanic Center has released a report which points to factors other than unemployment as catalysts for immigration northward:

The vast majority of undocumented migrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they left for the United States, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released today. The report suggests that failure to find work at home does not seem to be the primary reason that the estimated 6.3 million undocumented migrants from Mexico have
come to the U.S.

How to Really Respect Veterans: Hook Them Up When They Come Back Home

1:47 pm By Maegan La Mala · Politics · Comments Off

11 Nov 2005

Today is a day filled with memorial services and speeches in the name and for those who have served and continue to serve in the armed forces of the United States. While it is great to offer words and moments of silence, actions really do speak louder than words. As efforts to recruit young people of color and the numbers of Latinos in the military rise, many veterans return asking the U.S., what have you done for me lately?

After serving in foreign wars, many young soldiers return to the United States injured emotionally and physically and unable to find a job. According to a DiversityInc article, nearly 15 percent of veterans between the ages of 20-24 were unemployed in 2005. Compare that to the general civilian unemployment rate of 9 percent.

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