Laborers

The Other Victims of California’s Fires: Workers Inhaling Toxic Fumes

With the death toll now standing at 42 and with some 7,200 structures destroyed, officials are now calling the wildfire in Paradise, CA (dubbed the “Camp Fire”) the deadliest and most destructive in California’s recent history. Two other massive fires—dubbed the Hill Fire and Woolsey Fire are simultaneously scorching Southern California. As frontline firefighters—including many prison laborers—continue to …

The Other Victims of California’s Fires: Workers Inhaling Toxic Fumes Read More »

N.M. Field and Dairy Laborers Win Right To Workers’ Comp—Court Calls Exemption ‘Absurd’

The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled in June that excluding field and ranch workers from workers’ comp protection is unconstitutional. It was the second victory for New Mexico’s farmworkers in less than a year—and that’s big news in a low-wage sector made up primarily of immigrant workers, where victories tend to be few and …

N.M. Field and Dairy Laborers Win Right To Workers’ Comp—Court Calls Exemption ‘Absurd’ Read More »

Fear of Anti-Immigration Law Leaves Empty Classrooms, Idle Farms

More from Alabama, where a delegation of African American labor and civil rights leaders is  investigating the state’s recently passed anti-immigrant law. Follow the delegation here. A grade school child is there one day and gone the next. Dependable laborers don’t show up to pick crops on a farm. “It’s incredible,” said local AFT president Vi Parramore. I …

Fear of Anti-Immigration Law Leaves Empty Classrooms, Idle Farms Read More »

Scroll to Top

Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.