LA Times: Speaking up for exploited workers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-sunprofile2mar02,1,1330673.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Lilia Garcia and her squad of investigators make sure janitorial services operating outside the law pay.
By Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 2, 2008

Don't be fooled by the colorfully framed family photos on Lilia Garcia's bookshelves, or the volume of Maya Angelou's poetry, or the collection of coffee mugs with cheery sayings.

Garcia is no mushy, stuffed-animal-loving softie.

Her tiny, windowless office is the command center for a long-running battle against outlaw cleaning companies that prey on low-wage janitors.


Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times
ON THE WATCH: Lilia Garcia, 34, is executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, which goes after outlaw cleaning companies that take advantage of their employees.


A butcher-paper matrix that covers an entire wall diagrams the web of contractors and subcontractors whose janitors mop the aisles and clean bathrooms for major retailers such as IKEA and Food 4 Less.

In this battle, Garcia is the jeans-attired general. The 34-year-old is executive director of the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a watchdog agency modeled after labor compliance programs in the construction industry. Her investigators -- often former janitors -- visit the mostly immigrant cleaners in their homes, or secretly in the stores and restaurants where they work nights, to document abuses by their bosses.

Many of the fly-by-night firms that operate up and down the state pay workers $3 or less an hour, often in cash, skirting tax laws, workers' compensation insurance rules and other required benefits. Janitors who complain frequently get fired.

Trust fund staffers find those workers brave enough to come forward, collecting evidence used to wring back pay from illegal contractors and often working with state and local officials to bring complaints against offenders for labor code violations that carry fines of up to $10,000 per employee.

FULL story at link.