The Workers Rights Center is new at City College and is designed to help students that work and attend school. The program is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers.
According to “On Campus” Magazine, an American Federation of Teachers publication, 60 percent of students that attend community colleges work more than 20 hours per week.
“A lot of our students are not unionized workers, which means that they don’t have a lot of support in the workplace and they won’t know what to do if something happens to them,” said Larissa Dorman, City College professor.
According to Workers Rights Center intern Nate Madsen, far too many students have to put up with unfair labor practices, such as not getting paid overtime or not getting their last paycheck in a timely manner.
According to Madsen, ”Anyone who has been working for a long length of time has seen unfair labor practices. Either someone got fired for the wrong reasons, or no reason at all. If you are that person, we are here to let you know, that you have rights.”
The student interns are very passionate about helping their peers get ahead and succeed.
“To be able to educate others about the laws that are there to protect us feels really nice and empowering,” said Workers Rights Center intern Cassandra Carrillo.
The center trains student interns to be able to help their peers with any employment rights issue that may arise.
Although the students are not qualified to handle any legal issues, they are well trained according to Dorman.
For students that need actual legal counsel, there will be one day a week set aside for those individuals to meet with legally qualified people about their issues starting in spring semester.
The internship is mainly for labor studies majors.
The program will be opened up to students of various majors in the coming months.
Anyone who attends school in the San Diego City College District can benefit from the services that this program offers.
According to Dorman, in the future the services could possibly reach beyond the community college District.
At the moment, anyone who does not attend school in the district will be referred to the Employment Rights Center located at 4265 Fairmount Ave., Suite 210, San Diego.
The Workers Rights Center on campus will be located in A-113E.
The center will be open for business on Monday, Oct. 17.
For more information about the Workers Rights Center or the internship, go to the AFT Workers Rights Center Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AFTWRC.
