Workers Interfaith Network
If you can be sure that you’ll get a paycheck for the work you do, give thanks.
Workers like Delmar Vasquez can never be sure that their bosses won’t rip them off. Delmar is a young worker originally from Guatemala. He went to work for a janitorial company cleaning car dealerships around Memphis. But after a month of work, Delmar still hadn’t been paid a dime for it. Then his boss fired him. Suddenly he had no way to pay his rent, buy food, or send money home to his family. Like tens of thousands of Mid-South workers, he had become the victim of a shocking crime: wage theft. “When they would not pay me, they would give me excuses,” Delmar said. “I didn’t know what to do until I got to Workers Interfaith Network.” At Workers Interfaith Network (WIN), we trained Delmar on his rights. Now he knew that just because he was an immigrant didn’t mean his boss could get away with not paying him. His employer had broken the law.WIN members like you joined Delmar in confronting the management of the cleaning company. Delmar filed a complaint with the Department of Labor with WIN’s help.
The result?
The company that said they wouldn’t pay Delmar sent him a check for $1,437 – the full amount he earned for his month of work. But Delmar’s story doesn’t end there.
He’s become an active member of WIN. He has become a leader in WIN’s Workers’ Center, inspiring other workers to speak up for their rights. Delmar says that he’s seen through WIN that “together we can do things.”It’s true. You and I and workers like Delmar can do so much more to stop injustice together than we can do alone. That’s why I hope you will consider making a generous gift to WIN through your payroll deduction this year.
Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee
When we first met Tasha she was living in her car, pregnant and alone. Through the support of our Healthy Families TN home visitation program a family support worker has walked beside her these 5 years, supporting her in how she parented her children and providing her the tools she needed to build a strong family. Today Tasha is the parent of two healthy, happy children. She continued to work on finding adequate housing and lives in safe and stable housing. She has taken a leadership role with other parents in our program, serving on our local and state parent leadership council and was featured in last year’s “The State of Home Visitation in Tennessee” video.
She is engaged, planning a wedding and looking forward to a new house in the country! Ask her and she will say that having a home visitor changed her future and that of her children. These services would not have been possible without the support of Tennesseans that care. In October 2010 she graduated the Healthy Families TN program and continues as an inspiration and mentor to other families in the program. A hand to pull her up instead of a hand out is what Prevent Child Abuse TN is about.