Worker Exploitation Suit Against Federal Contractor Terra Universal, Inc.

On August 31, the ACLU of Southern California and its coalition partners filed suit against Terra Universal, Inc., charging the multi-million dollar federal government contractor with violations of federal wage and hour laws for requiring employees to work long hours without overtime pay and systematically discriminating against Latino workers based on their race and immigration status.

Terra Universal routinely required its largely immigrant workforce – documented and undocumented alike – to work overtime hours without overtime pay. To evade government scrutiny, it created a fraudulent time system, requiring workers to clock out at the end of an 8-hour workshift and clock back in as a “second job.” Workers who complained about workplace issues or who suffered injuries were fired, had their pay deducted or their hours reduced and were verbally abused.

“Our employment laws provide everyone equal workplace rights regardless of what country you came from, how you got here and your immigration status,” said Jennie Pasquarella, ACLU/SC staff attorney. "A fair day's pay for a fair day's work is a basic American rule, with no exceptions."

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Pictured: Hugo Alncantar, a six-year Terra Universal employee.

ACLU/SC School Fees Investigation Featured on Public Radio Documentary

The crippling impact on public education of California's recent state budget cuts is the subject of an in-depth documentary on public radio station KCLU from Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. K-12: On The Edge provides one of the clearest and most accessible explanations of why California's public education system, once the envy of the nation, is currently in crisis. The program provides valuable insight into why the state's public schools are failing to serve large numbers of students, particularly low-income and students of color.

ACLU/SC staff attorney David Sapp is heard on K-12: On the Edge discussing our investigation of the widespread public school district practice of charging fees to students to participate in educational programming, despite a 1984 California Supreme Court decision, Hartzell v. Connell, that clearly states such fees violate the California state constitution's guarantee of a free public education.

The radio documentary provides an important context for this practice as a symptom of the broader dysfunction of California's finance and governance system for public education. With an ever-shrinking allocation of funding from the state - an annual drop of almost $1,500 per student, according to the documentary - and restrictions on how they can use much of the state funding they do receive, school districts are clearly in a financial bind. They view fees - though clearly illegal - as a way to offer the educational programming that California's citizenry have a right to expect the public schools to provide.

The documentary will be rebroadcast on Saturday, August 28, 2010, at 1:00 pm on KCLU livestream and is currently available as a podcast.

Information about the ACLU/SC's efforts to combat the unequal impact the state's budget cuts have had on students at the state's lowest performing schools is available here. Information about efforts to ensure that all students have access to adequate facilities and textbooks is available here

ACLU/SC Denounces Proposed use of "Inhumane" Heat Ray Device against Inmates

Recently, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced its intention to begin using an “Assault Intervention Device” that fires an invisible heat beam capable of causing unbearable pain on inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center‟s North County Correctional Facility.

On August 26, the ACLU of Southern California and the ACLU National Prison Project sent a letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca demanding that he not employ this high-technology device, built for the military, against prisoners at the Los Angeles County jails.

The ACLU letter highlights the fact that the military incarnation of the device was briefly fielded in Afghanistan in June and then withdrawn in July without ever being used. While the device was being tested by the Air Force, a miscalibration of the device's power settings caused five airmen in its path to suffer lasting burns, including one whose injuries were so severe that he was airlifted to an off-base burn treatment center.

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