Workforce Language Services

An article posted back in December on this blog showcased some of the strides that Chicago-based grassroots organizations are making in uniting Latino and Black workers as well as some of the struggles these two groups are facing as they are pitted against each other for jobs.  The organizations highlighted in the article are doing such important work: transforming the us vs. them mentality into an understanding that each group faces the same struggles.

In San Francisco, exactly the opposite is taking place at a low-income housing site.  An extremely ugly, racist, and discriminatory battle is being waged as Latinos and Blacks are being pitted against each other.  The litany of complaints against the employer is long and depressing and includes Latinos having to pay kickbacks and bribes to their supervisors, segregation of work crews, and the hiding of non-union workers when the carpenters’ union reps visited.

The display of anger and hatred that was allegedly orchestrated by the employer has had an interesting outcome:

But in San Francisco, even with the unemployment rate of African-American men hovering at three times that of Latino men, the alleged efforts at the AIMCO site to divide the two races instead had the opposite effect. The two groups have joined in a perhaps a uniquely American display of solidarity — suing their common enemy, the employer, as one.

To read the entire story, click here.

On a side note, also read the comments about the article.  The author incorrectly translated a phrase in Spanish into something in English that is much more incendiary than originally intended in Spanish and was severely taken to task.  This is a good example of the importance of translators truly understanding cultural context and the subtle nuances of both source and target language.