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Interpreters, Translators Stepping Up Efforts to Organize Nationwide
Spend enough time in a courthouse and you’ll quickly see that justice depends on more than judges, lawyers and juries. Imagine them trying to muddle through a case with a victim, witness or suspect who doesn’t speak English.
Bridging the language barrier is the job of highly skilled court interpreters who can translate English into a foreign tongue — including many obscure legal terms — as quickly as the words are spoken. Then they translate the answer into English.
But their skills rarely translate into fair wages or benefits. CWA is trying to help them change that.
In April, CWA brought foreign and sign language interpreters and translators together in Chicago for a strategy session to expand organizing efforts that began in the 1990s. That’s when the Translators and Interpreters Guild was created as part of The Newspaper Guild. Translators convert written language; interpreters convert speech.
TTIG is a nationwide local, TNG-CWA Local 100, with about 400 members. They are still considered freelance workers rather than employees in their respective courthouses, but they have won improvements in some places by banding together.
In Massachusetts, for instance, judges for years refused interpreters’ requests to talk about pay issues. They finally agreed to a meeting in 1998, after the interpreters organized through TTIG. Certified interpreters went from $30 an hour to $160 for a half day’s work and $250 for a full day.
The unit’s activities have led to other improvements, too, including the court’s hiring of an ombudsman and a training director for the interpreters’ office, said Jaime Fatas, the unit’s president-elect and one of the participants in Chicago.
“It was a great meeting,” he said. “It really helped us to share our work experiences and information from other states. We’re part of a profession that’s not recognized as a profession, and it’s important for us to get together and push forward, to set a basis for a high standard of practice.”
In California, the Bay Area Court Interpreters Association, part of TNG-CWA Local 521, and the California Federation of Interpreters are trying to organize the state’s 1,200 court interpreters. CFI members are in the process now of voting by mail to decide whether to affiliate with TNG-CWA Local 69, the Southern California Media Workers’ Guild.
In Chicago, TNG-CWA Local 71 is at the peak of an organizing drive to represent about 130 Cook County interpreters, most of them freelancers who work for $120 a day and no benefits.
“We’re not the lowest paid in the nation, but we’re one of the lowest for major metropolitan areas,” said Kathleen Orozco, co-organizer of the Cook County interpreters. “In solidarity with our colleagues in other states, we won’t rest until pay rates and working conditions are on a par with those of our fellow professionals nationwide.”
Bridging the language barrier is the job of highly skilled court interpreters who can translate English into a foreign tongue — including many obscure legal terms — as quickly as the words are spoken. Then they translate the answer into English.
But their skills rarely translate into fair wages or benefits. CWA is trying to help them change that.
In April, CWA brought foreign and sign language interpreters and translators together in Chicago for a strategy session to expand organizing efforts that began in the 1990s. That’s when the Translators and Interpreters Guild was created as part of The Newspaper Guild. Translators convert written language; interpreters convert speech.
TTIG is a nationwide local, TNG-CWA Local 100, with about 400 members. They are still considered freelance workers rather than employees in their respective courthouses, but they have won improvements in some places by banding together.
In Massachusetts, for instance, judges for years refused interpreters’ requests to talk about pay issues. They finally agreed to a meeting in 1998, after the interpreters organized through TTIG. Certified interpreters went from $30 an hour to $160 for a half day’s work and $250 for a full day.
The unit’s activities have led to other improvements, too, including the court’s hiring of an ombudsman and a training director for the interpreters’ office, said Jaime Fatas, the unit’s president-elect and one of the participants in Chicago.
“It was a great meeting,” he said. “It really helped us to share our work experiences and information from other states. We’re part of a profession that’s not recognized as a profession, and it’s important for us to get together and push forward, to set a basis for a high standard of practice.”
In California, the Bay Area Court Interpreters Association, part of TNG-CWA Local 521, and the California Federation of Interpreters are trying to organize the state’s 1,200 court interpreters. CFI members are in the process now of voting by mail to decide whether to affiliate with TNG-CWA Local 69, the Southern California Media Workers’ Guild.
In Chicago, TNG-CWA Local 71 is at the peak of an organizing drive to represent about 130 Cook County interpreters, most of them freelancers who work for $120 a day and no benefits.
“We’re not the lowest paid in the nation, but we’re one of the lowest for major metropolitan areas,” said Kathleen Orozco, co-organizer of the Cook County interpreters. “In solidarity with our colleagues in other states, we won’t rest until pay rates and working conditions are on a par with those of our fellow professionals nationwide.”