FLSA Victory: Chinese Daily News Workers Win Lawsuit

American bosses see the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act as a dinosaur and frequently treat it like it's extinct, with management standing in the way of workers trying to organize unions, finding ways to force overtime without pay and otherwise thwarting the law. After all, the consequences amount to a slap on the hand, if that.

But sometimes the little guys win. In January, a jury awarded beleaguered workers at the Chinese Daily News in the Los Angeles area a minimum of $2.5 million for the newspaper's violations of state and federal wage and hour laws.

The final amount will be determined by the court, which can assess higher damages because the violations were found to be willful.

Since 2001, Chinese Daily News employees have fought for a voice at work through The Newspaper Guild-CWA. Using threats, intimidation, illegal firings and other flagrant violations of labor law, management has blocked the workers' right to a union. In addition to being subject to many unfair labor practices, employees filed wage and hour lawsuits over forced, unpaid overtime.

Though the newspaper workers finally have a victory to celebrate, CWA leaders say their six-year battle for a union and management's continuing anti-union campaign shows how badly the system is tilted in favor of law-breaking employers.

"Management had too many years to harass and intimidate workers who should have long ago had their union," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said. "This is a key example of why our labor election system is broken and why we need to make company neutrality and card-check recognition the law of the land through the Employee Free Choice Act."