Vol. 71/No. 22      June 4, 2007

Workers Carlos Simaj Morente and Flor Chah at May 15 press conference in New Bedford, Massachusetts, announcing class-action lawsuit against Michael Bianco Inc.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided the leather plant March 6 and arrested 361 workers for alleged immigration violations. The workers hail from Brazil, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Portugal.

The suit charges the bosses with setting up a fake company, Front Line Defense, to avoid paying time-and-a-half for overtime shifts.

At a May 15 press conference here announcing the suit, Audrey Richardson of Greater Boston Legal Services, which filed the suit on behalf of the workers, said many Bianco employees worked double shifts—80 hours per week—for straight-time pay.

“I worked two shifts,” Flor Chach told the press. “I started at 7:30 in the morning and worked until 5:00 in the afternoon, then I started my second shift at 5:15 and finished at 11:15 at night.

“And I was paid with two different checks,” she continued. “In the day shift I was paid with a check in the name of Michael Bianco, and in the evening I was paid with Front Line.” Chach, 23, worked for Michael Bianco from August 2005 until March 2007.

Attorneys representing the workers explained that Front Line Defense uses the same address as Michael Bianco Inc. and its officers are relatives of Bianco’s owner, Francesco Insolia. His wife, Suzanne Thompson, is Front Line’s president, and she and the owner’s daughter, Marguerite Insolia, are its directors.

The lawsuit seeks back wages for all current and former workers, about 500 in all, including those arrested in the recent ICE raid. “Even those who have been deported are due back wages because fair wage laws do not distinguish between legal and illegal workers,” Richardson said.

The day after the March 6 raid, 60 workers were released on “humanitarian” grounds due to pressure from relatives and others in the community. On March 17, some 700 people rallied at Bedford high school to demand release of the detained workers.

Aníbal Lucas, director of Organización Maya K’iché, a Guatemalan cultural group here that has been organizing support for the Bianco workers, said that as of now about 150 of the arrested workers have been released. But 200 remain in jail in Texas, since a federal judge denied a motion that they be returned to Massachusetts, where their legal help, families, and social support network are based.

According to the Boston Globe, Michael Bianco is still in business, has hired 150 workers since the raid, and is continuing the make backpacks for the military.

“Help is still very much needed for families who have a parent in jail, and also those who are released, but cannot go back to work,” said Lucas. “Expenses mount up for food, rent, transportation to legal hearings, and more.” Contributions, he said, can be sent to The Michael Bianco Disaster Fund, c/o Sovereign Bank, 1 Sovereign Place, New Bedford, MA 02746.
 
 
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