HispanicTrending

Latina To Become One of the Highest Ranking Social Media Executives

July 16, 2009
Press Release
 
BabySpot.com announced today that Jessie Nuez has been selected to be the Executive Director of BabySpotNewYork.com.  Jessie, who is a resident of New York City and a mom to her six-month-old son, Matthew, will be responsible for leading, building, and growing the BabySpot New York online community.  Having spent over 10 years in the customer service/retail industry, Jessie has held positions in human resources, operations and visual merchandising at various fortune 500 companies. In these roles, Jessie was responsible for building and leading teams that helped grow and expand company operations and initiatives.

Zameer Upadhya, Co-Founder and Chairman of BabySpot, Inc. states, “As the site is by New York Parents for New York Parents it was imperative that we identify a local parent who knows the city and can help drive relevant, specific, localized information for parents of infants in New York City.  Jessie is that dynamic executive, who also happens to be a local mom, that can thrive in a market that is as diverse as New York City.  Her selection as Executive Director establishes her as one of the highest-ranking Latinas in Social Media.  We are proud to have her as a member of our team.”

Jessie Nuez, Executive Director of BabySpot New York states, “As a first time mom I found that it was very important to seek reviews and recommendations from family and friends locally on the doctors, hospitals, and other products and services that were best suited for my son.  As the Executive Director of BabySpot New York I am excited to be able to bring this information to other parents in New York and help build an online community where the members are truly there for one another.  To be one of the highest-ranking Latina executives in Social Media is an honor and I hope that my selection paves the way for others as well.  I believe that my selection is a testimony to the forward thinking efforts  and support of diversity by the Co-Founders of BabySpot, Inc.”

Minority unemployment almost double white joblessness

July 7, 2009
Source: Sacramento Business Journal

More than 12 percent of Latino workers and nearly 15 percent of Black workers are unemployed, almost double the 8.7 percent of white workers who are without jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The National Council of La Raza on Tuesday reported June unemployment figures, noting minority workers have been disproportionately affected by the recession.

“Latino and African American workers have seen the worst of this recession,” said Janet Murguia, president and chief executive officer of NCLR. “Though the outlook may seem bleak, minority communities are invested in the promising deceleration of unemployment.”

“While families everywhere struggle with higher unemployment and fewer hours, African American and Hispanic families continue to see higher unemployment than White families, alongside large losses in equity from the nationwide decline in home prices and record rates of foreclosure. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Acti is pumping billions of dollars into communities nationwide and we are beginning to see the fruits of that effort as the pace of job losses slows,” said Heather Boushey, senior economist for American Progress.

Reviving Latino Workforce Key to Rebuilding America

Jun 19, 2009
by James Parks

The recession has hurt all America’s workers, especially Latino workers. Despite their growing political power, Latinos are still at the bottom of the economic ladder. Until the nation enacts policies that help lift Latinos and other communities of color, the economy cannot fully recover, according to a new report. 

“Reviving the Latino Workforce: Complex Problems Demand Comprehensive Solutions,” released June 17 by the AFL-CIO constituency group, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), points out the interconnections fueling this economic hardship, and the need for comprehensive solutions.

For example, the unemployment rate for all Latinos has been steadily increasing since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. Latino joblessness reached 12.7 percent in May, almost three percentage points higher than the national average. Also, Latinos are paid low wages—Latino households earn just over 50 cents for every dollar earned by a white household, the report says.

It is clear that simply creating new jobs will not be enough to save the Latino workforce, says Gabriela Lemus, LCLAA’s executive director.

    An economic stimulus plan alone will not suffice. It is also important to engage in progressive policy reform in the areas of health care and immigration, and to target adult workforce retraining and efforts such as the Employee Free Choice Act so as to better empower the community in its social, economic and political aspirations.

The nation cannot afford to ignore the needs of the Latino workers, the report says. Not only are Latinos the fastest growing segment of the workforce, they are younger than most Americans with an average age of 25.8 years. The Latino population is expected to reach 47.8 million by 2010. Already, Latinos make up more than 14 percent of the nation’s labor force. Yet Latinos generally are clustered in low-wage jobs and lack access to quality health care and benefits. Employers often exploit the immigrant workers and use them as pawns to lower wages for all workers.

For the United States to remain competitive in the global economy, it must engage all its workers in rebuilding the economy, the report adds. That cannot happen if a large segment of workers are denied the basic necessities, the report adds.

Specifically, the report calls for:

    * Spending federal stimulus funds where they are most needed, providing jobs for low-income workers and communities.
    * Passing comprehensive health care reform to provide care to those currently uninsured or unable to get quality care because of low income, which include primarily people of color.
    * Enacting a realistic immigration policy that meets the country’s economic needs. LCLAA recommends using the framework developed by former Labor Secretary Ray Marshall and adopted by the AFL-CIO to begin discussions on a fair immigration plan.
    * Enforcing workers’ rights provisions in trade agreements to help raise wages in other countries to lower the need for workers to migrate to the United States to seek a better life.
    * Restoring the freedom to join unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act and educating all workers, especially Latinos, about their rights under the law.

Lemus says now is the time to make the changes needed to help Latinos to become fully integrated into the U.S. economy. She points out that two-thirds of the nearly 12 million Latino voters backed Barack Obama, allowing him to carry key states such as California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico.  

    Latinos contribute much to the United States. They are part of the engine that drives the economy. They are trying to adapt to the changed economy, but they are so disadvantaged relative to other cultural groups that more comprehensive assistance is needed in order for them to better and more fully participate.

    The data are clear: The gap between rich and poor is widening, and certain communities—including Latinos—have been placed on the margins. If ever there was a time when private interests and social interests can be converged and harmful market forces can be corrected by public policy, this is it.

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Study Identifies Aging Hispanic Workers as “Invisible Boomers”

Jun 16, 2009
By Eduardo A. de Oliveira

When Jacob Lozada was 13, a neighbor came knocking on his door in San Jose, Puerto Rico, to tell his family that his grandfather had fainted at work.

“My father said, ‘Son, this is a blessing.’ I didn’t understand why,” Lozada recalled.

When the elder Lozada came home, Jacob’s father told him it was time to retire.

“And what I did not understand, until later in my life, was why a 60-year-old man would want to get up at 5:00 in the morning to go to work cutting sugar cane, which was one of the worst jobs anybody could have in the tropics, especially in Puerto Rico,” Jacob Lozada added.

Lozada, a board member of AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons), was a panelist at a seminar called “Older Hispanic American Workers: Current Status and Future Prospects.” The panel was one of many at the AARP Diversity Conference in Chicago last week with the theme, “The Power of Inclusion.”

According to the latest U.S. Census data, Hispanics grew from 6.5 percent of the total U.S. population in 1980, to 15 percent today. Of the estimated 45 million Hispanics, 6 million are 50 to 69 years old.

A survey presented by Richard W. Johnson, PhD, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute research organization in Washington, D.C., showed that by 2030, an estimated one in every five people ages 50 to 69 in the United States will be of Hispanic origin.

Johnson called the Hispanic aging population “the invisible boomers.” To get a count of the Hispanic population in the U.S., he combined the numbers of three sources: the 2007 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census, the Health and Retirement Survey of the University of Michigan, and a self-assessment by migrant workers living in Illinois, which was conducted by the Urban Institute.

Johnson’s AARP study, “50+ Hispanic Workers: A Growing Segment of the U.S. Workforce,” which he coauthored with the Urban Institute’s Mauricio Soto, looked at why Hispanic American workers ages 50 and older, such as Lozada’s 60-year-old grandfather, tend to continue working. One possible explanation is that fewer Latino immigrant workers had health benefits in their homeland (43 percent) compared to U.S.-born Latinos (49 percent).

Of the older Hispanic workers surveyed by Johnson and Soto, more of them (95 percent) responded that they “enjoy their jobs” than did African Americans (86.3 percent) and whites (87 percent).

“We found the Latino health paradox. Healthier people migrate here, because workers overseas have better dieting and exercising habits, but as time progresses in America, they acquire the local practices and their health is affected,” said Johnson, who added that the paradox also is true among Asians and other ethnic groups.

In Johnson’s research, nearly the same percentages of Hispanics and whites responded that health problems have limited them at work: 15 percent of Hispanics, and 14 percent of whites.

However, when asked about their absences at work in the past year, white workers reported more missed days than Latinos did.

About 45 percent of the white workers – compared to 32% of the Hispanic workers – said they missed at least one work day in the past 12 months.

“Yes, yes, yes. This is exactly what’s going on. Many [Latino] workers have come from the construction industry and are losing their jobs, while they were dedicated to their employers,” said panelist Elba Aranda-Suh, executive director of the National Latino Education Institute, a nonprofit in Chicago.

Aranda-Suh also said her organization has seen an increase in the number of foreign-born Latino workers who come to the U.S. with college degrees.

“It’s been a challenge helping older workers with degrees from their homelands, assimilate [in] the U.S. market,” she said.

Aranda-Suh pointed out that resources available to train older workers in the past, such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, established in 1965, have been cut because of the current economic downturn. Although resources are scarce today, she said she could still recall when there was a lack of information about the Latino workforce.

Half jokingly, Jacob Lozada urged Latinos to leave differences aside and participate more in the political decisions of their communities.

“How difficult it is sometimes to get anything done in your Latino community. We say we are going to have dinner, then Mexicans want tortillas, Puerto Ricans want rice and beans, Venezuelans want something else. Look, you have to get involved. That’s why I joined AARP,” he said.

As more studies and surveys about Hispanics come about, Lozada said it is easier to say that the federal government is not doing enough to help Latinos. But, he said, Latinos should ask themselves, “What am I doing?”

The aging of all ethnic populations is a real problem that foreign workers need to deal with. But hopes are still high for a long and prosperous life in this country, Aranda-Suh said. She added that migrant leaders need to work closely with legislators and the private sector to address issues like retirement, long-term care and health insurance.

In their survey, Johnson and Soto asked workers aged 50 and older to rate their health status. Of the Hispanic respondents, 27 percent admitted their health is fair or poor, compared to 18 percent for whites, and 27 percent for African Americans.

Despite those findings, Latinos have reason to be optimistic about their expectations for long life. At age 50, says the AARP report, Hispanics can expect to live three years longer than non-Hispanic white men and women, five or six years longer than non-Hispanic African Americans.

The “50+ Hispanic Workers” report is posted online at http://www.aarp.org/research/work/employment/hispanic_workers_09.html.

Source: New America Media

Hispanic Workers Ages 50+ May Help Employers Solve Potential Future Labor Shortages

June 8, 2008
Via  PRNewswire-USNewswire

Older Hispanic workers can play a dynamic role in helping solve long-term challenges for many employers, as the traditional labor pool of workers ages 25-54 stagnates, according to a new AARP report, being released today at AARP's Diversity and Aging conference in Chicago.

That is a key finding of the AARP study that focuses on the so-called "invisible" Boomers - Hispanics - as a growing segment of the U.S. workforce. Despite their growing importance, there has been little public and media attention given so far to older Hispanics.

"Once the recession ends, employers may face a scarcity of working age adults with the necessary skills and experience," said Deborah Russell, AARP's Director of Workforce Issues. "Hispanics are one of the fastest growing segments of the older population, and they can help in a big way in filling the void."

The AARP study was prepared by the Urban Institute, using Institute data and drawing on information from the Census Bureau, the Department of Labor and the University of Michigan as well. The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California provided recommendations for the report.

Some of the major statistical findings of the study that are relevant to Hispanics' work careers are:

    * In 2006-2008, 15 percent of Hispanics ages 50-69 reported work disabilities, compared with 24 percent of non-Hispanic blacks and 14 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
    * Approximately 3.2 million Hispanics ages 50-69 were employed in 2007, earning a total of $126 billion.
    * At age 65, Hispanic men and women can expect to live three years longer than non-Hispanic whites and four years longer than non-Hispanic blacks.

Noting that the number of Hispanics ages 50-69 is expected to nearly quadruple by 2050, AARP focused on employer practices to increase the employment prospects of older Hispanics. They include:

    * Develop recruiting materials in English and Spanish if an employer is open to hiring workers who are not fluent in English.
    * Use media outlets and other recruiting channels that serve the Hispanic community.
    * Implement retraining programs to help older workers in physically demanding jobs transition into positions that require less physical exertion.
    * Consider offering educational opportunities to workers and job seekers who are good matches for certain career opportunities but who lack a few skills. Such training could include English-as-a-Second language and skill training, the report suggested.
    * Consider training for managers that encourages them to embrace workplace diversity and stresses the value that diverse viewpoints can provide an employer.

For more findings on the older Hispanic workforce, including differing statistics on foreign-born and U.S.-born Hispanic workers, please see the full report at http://www.aarp.org/research/work/employment/hispanic_workers_09.html.

The AARP conference, Diversity and Aging in the 21st Century: The Power of Inclusion, brings together experts in the fields of diversity and aging to examine the challenges facing our diverse aging society. The conference offers hands-on experience, in-depth discussion, networking opportunities and continuing education credits for counselors, social workers, nursing home administrators and other professionals. Details are available at www.aarp.org/diversityandaging.

Day Laborers on Long Island, Left at the Curb

May 10, 2009
By LAWRENCE DOWNES

Just south of the commuter train tracks in Huntington Station, Long Island, a weary pileup of streets forms a little district of desperation.

Down along New York Avenue, Fairground Avenue and Depot Road, men in groups of a half-dozen or more linger by a gas station, a bar, a tire-repair shop. They are Latino day laborers, waiting for trucks to pull up with jobs to do.

    

When times were good, there was lots of work. But hardly anyone is building or renovating now, and the men go days and weeks without being hired. Wages have plummeted, and when a job is done, the men are often paid nothing and told to get lost. The sidewalks they have claimed are small outposts of the national pain created by the burst housing bubble.

The men have no safety net: no unemployment insurance, no food stamps. They are nobody’s responsibility, and nobody pays them much heed, except those who find them distasteful or frightening and have pushed for laws to shoo them out of sight. It’s like this across Long Island. In Huntington Station, jobless laborers sleep in the woods. They do the same out east, in lush Southampton, and in points between.

The presence of an underclass stranded by a lack of work, with no place to exchange sweat and skill for a day’s pay, is an affront to decency in a place that enshrines the work ethic and owes these men so much. In this kingdom of home and lawn maintenance, they blew leaves, trimmed hedges and grass, spread mulch, painted houses and patched drywall. There is little demand for the informal labor market now, and the men who made it work have been left at the curb.

Long Island owes them gratitude, but — gratitude? Are you kidding? The men are lucky they aren’t being harassed and racially profiled by the police, swept into federal custody, as local authorities are doing to Latino immigrants across the country.

Suffolk County has begun a police crackdown on gangs and drugs in Huntington Station, which are a problem there, as in any poor community. But outreach to day laborers — to help them assimilate, find jobs or housing, or perhaps go home — is harder to find.

There is a fenced lot on Depot Road with benches and portable toilets — a day laborer hiring site supported by Huntington Town. It is not working as well as planned. To gain the tiniest advantage, the men have dispersed ever farther from the site. Even on a bright spring morning, all those men standing around give the neighborhood a feel of disarray and aimlessness.

The same could be said of government efforts to deal with day laborers, which boil down to a question: Do we welcome you, or try to push you off the streets, and the economic ladder?

In places like Huntington and Southampton, some residents are attacking the problem with level heads and kind hearts. Volunteers in Huntington house homeless laborers in churches every night, all winter. Sister Margaret Smyth, a Roman Catholic nun who has spent years serving the poor on the East End of Long Island, works with Southampton’s day laborers, fighting homelessness, hunger and wage theft.

“We’re getting more and more cases of workers not just underpaid, but just plain not being paid at all,” Sister Margaret said. “We take them to court. Poor Southampton court system, I must have 40 cases with them.”

When she’s not being her own nonprofit legal service agency, Sister Margaret is a travel agent, raising money to buy immigrants air fare home.

“I’ve never bought so many tickets,” she said. “I just bought four in the last week and a half. We’ve gotten very good at it. I joined a club on the Internet, and with Spirit Airlines, I can get a one-way ticket to Guatemala for $120.”

The immigration problem is far bigger than Sister Margaret. It’s a federal failure that has fallen into the laps of local governments. But reform is finally showing signs of moving forward in Washington, and local government would be smart to help it along, starting now.

It could step in to magnify Sister Margaret’s labors. It could support nonprofit agencies and help the men to organize themselves, to run hiring sites across the Island. It could fight the crimes of wage theft and harassment. It could give the men soup. It could abandon reflexive hostility to day laborers as the equivalent of a pest-control problem.

It could act decently, without starting a huge fight over immigration policy.

“We can always pray for a miracle,” Sister Margaret said.

Source: The New York Times

Latino Workers Mobilizing for Employee Free Choice

May 5, 2009   
by James Parks

Latinos make up the fastest growing segment of the workforce and union movement. To gain a better life for themselves and their families, Latinos and all workers need the freedom to form unions and bargain.

As part of that effort, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), an AFL-CIO constituency group, is stepping up its efforts to mobilize in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

 LCLAA members from across the Midwest will meet this weekend in Chicago for the first of three regional leadership development forums. At this forum and at future gatherings in Philadelphia and in Orange County, Calif., LCLAA members will develop strategies to build support for the legislation and expand organizing.

In a recent study, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that between 2007 and 2008, Latinos made up nearly 30 percent of the new union members. The value of unions to Latinos is clear. Latino union members make 43 percent higher median wages than Latinos who don’t have a union. Those and other demographics of the Latino community make union membership especially helpful to Latinos, says Gabriela Lemus, executive director of LCLAA. For example:

    * The income of one in six Latino seniors is below the poverty level. Joining a union would mean that they would more likely be prepared for retirement.
    * Latinos are among the youngest population group in the United States with a median age more than 10 years younger than the median age for the U.S. population overall. Union membership would assist them in earning a livable wage. It also could move many into jobs where they learn more skills, take on greater responsibilities and gain added benefits.
    * Union workers are 28.2 percent more likely to be covered by employer health insurance, have better insurance because employers are more likely to pay for a higher share of family coverage. A higher percentage of Latino workers are uninsured than in any other group in the country.

In a recent letter to LCLAA members, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said linking politics to organizing is critical for all union members, including Latinos.

    The Latino community will play an integral role in strengthening these linkages. At the same time the policies that…Congress and the Obama administration are addressing, including the Employee Free Choice Act, health care reform [and] immigration reform will have a significant impact on the Latino community.

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

LCLAA: Union Membership Good for Latino Community

Apr 2, 2009
by Seth Michaels

To get a stake in America’s economy and a better life for themselves and their families, Latinos need the freedom to form unions and bargain—which means they need the Employee Free Choice Act.

That’s the conclusion of a new article by Gabriela Lemus, executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), a national organization for Latino working families and an AFL-CIO constituency group. LCLAA has joined other prominent voices in the Latino community, including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the National Latino Congreso, in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Lemus says Latinos should “wholeheartedly support” the Employee Free Choice Act.

Lemus says the union advantages of better health care, pensions and wages—Latino union members make 43 percent higher median wages than Latinos who don’t have a union—are critical to giving this community a shot at being part of a strong middle class. The demographics of the Latino community, Lemus says, make union membership especially helpful to Latinos.

In particular, young men and women just entering the work world benefit from protections that collective bargaining provides.

Latinos are among the youngest population group in the United States. Their median age is 25.8 years—more than 10 years younger than that for the U.S. population as a whole…union membership would assist them not just in earning a livable wage. It could move many into jobs where they learn more skills, take on greater responsibilities and gain added benefits.

Lemus says that as the Latino population reaches retirement, union membership will help ensure a decent standard of living after retirement because of the greater access to pensions and the increased ability to save for retirement that come with a union contract.

It’s not just individuals who benefit, Lemus says. The communities where Latinos live and work stand to gain from greater access to union membership.

Where unions are stronger, not only are wages higher and health insurance more accessible; there are numerous other benefits. In states with higher union density, it is more likely that poverty will be reduced. There will be more homeowners than renter and better schools because there is greater public education spending per pupil. The three are inter-related.

LCLAA has a fact sheet available about the Latino population and union membership. The Employee Free Choice Act is critical to restore the freedom to form unions, and that really matters to working men and women, including the Latino community.

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Migrant workers on the move; high unemployment blamed

Mar 24, 2009 
by John Paul

Fewer opportunities for work in Elkhart County have forced some immigrant workers to pack-up and leave. Some Latino-owned businesses have noticed profits and foot traffic are down significantly because workers have moved on looking for work.

From the dough mixer to the oven to the shelves, Jose Gonzalez has followed the same routine for three and a half years at the International Bakery, to support his family.

"I saw the opportunity here to put up a bakery," Gonzalez said. "I didn't see a bakery around here."

Gonzalez said after opening, business picked up. So did Elkhart County's Hispanic population, but high unemployment in the county began to change his bottom line.

Gonzalez noticed more of his Hispanic clients spending less, while others packed up and moved out.

"Some people are going back to their original country," Gonzalez said. "Some are just getting out of here from Indiana going back to Chicago and other states."

Fewer jobs and opportunities left a bad taste.

"It's really getting really critical," Gonzalez said.

"We're seeing a lot of musical chairs being played in the United States," said Allert Brown-Gort, Associate Director of Latino Studies at Notre Dame.

Some migrant workers with established roots will stay, said Brown-Gort. Many others can't afford to.

"There is no doubt we are going to be seeing a lot of movement of the population," Brown-Gort said.

That news is bittersweet for Gonzalez.

"It gets you," Gonzalez said. "You start thinking, wow is it that bad?"

And the hearty truth has him hoping the economy will improve.

"We have all of our life savings invested in this place," Gonzalez said.

Source: WSBT

Illegal immigrants lose jobs edge

March 22, 2009
Via UPI

The recession and government crackdowns are causing illegal immigrants to lose their foothold in the U.S. workforce, experts say.

The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Sunday that while jobs are few these days, many illegal workers are taking whatever work they can find, regardless of the pay or conditions, and have no desire to return to their homelands.

    

"Most of the things I got are right here," said Balbino Lopez Hernandez, who came to Tennessee illegally from Mexico. "I got my family, my wife, my kids. Everything is here."

Lopez, 28, lives and works in Morristown, Tenn., where most of the help for illegal workers comes from churches. Lopez said he networks with them to find odd jobs, the newspaper said.

Nationwide, Hispanic immigrants had greater job losses in 2008 than did Hispanics born in the United States or black workers, the Pew Hispanic Center says.

Chris Baker, a sociologist at Walters State Community College in Morristown, said it has been illegal immigrants working for less money and no benefits that have kept many factories in the region afloat.

"The employers hire Latinos, and after that, they leave," he said. "It goes from white to black to Latino to -- gone."