In a Day's Work Read online

  2. The supervisor was named in the lawsuit but was never served. The settlement resolved the entire case.

  3. Helen Chen, Alejandra Domenzain, and Karen Andrews, “The Perfect Storm: How Supervisors Get Away with Sexually Harassing Workers Who Work Alone at Night,” Labor Occupational Health Program, UC Berkeley, May 2016, http://lohp.org/the-perfect-storm.

  4. Sara Hinkley, Annette Bernhardt and Sarah Thomason, “Race to the Bottom: How Low-Road Subcontracting Affects Working Conditions in California’s Property Services Industry,” Labor Center, UC Berkeley, Mar. 8, 2016, http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/race-to-the-bottom.

  5. The mean wage for janitors cleaning buildings and dwellings in 2016, Bureau of Labor Statistics, www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes372011.htm.

  6. Additional background and information about the campaign is available via the UCLA Labor Center’s “Justice for Janitors” webpage, www.labor.ucla.edu/what-we-do/labor-studies/research-tools/campaigns-and-research/justice-for-janitors.

  7. Based on a custom data run by the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. See also Erika Harrell, “Special Report: Workplace Violence 1992–2009,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, Mar. 2011, www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/wv09.pdf.

  8. On July 5, 2016, the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Epic Health Services $98,000: www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region3/07052016.

  9. In 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 6,758 complaints (or “charges”) of sexual harassment. That year, the commission filed 46 lawsuits related to alleged violations of Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

  2. The Open Secret

  1. The accounts of assault and harassment at Evans Fruit are based on law enforcement records, as well as documents and testimony obtained through the litigation of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Evans Fruit Co Inc., filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Washington, civil case no. 2:10-cv-03033. The case was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, case nos. 13-35886 and 13-35885, and settled in January 2016.

  2. Mary Bauer and Mónica Ramírez, “Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Nov. 7, 2010, www.splcenter.org/20101108/injustice-our-plates.

  3. Grace Meng et al., “Cultivating Fear: The Vulnerability of Immigrant Farmworkers in the US to Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment,” Human Rights Watch, May 15, 2012, www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/15/us-sexual-violence-harassment-immigrant-farmworkers.

  4. Irma Morales Waugh, “Examining the Sexual Harassment Experiences of Mexican Immigrant Farmworking Women,” Violence Against Women 16, no. 3 (Mar. 2010): 237–61.

  5. ASISTA provided the surveys to The Center for Investigative Reporting, and Grace Rubenstein analyzed the results, which we published in an infographic accompanying our article: Bernice Yeung and Grace Rubenstein, “Female Workers Face Rape, Harassment in US Agriculture Industry,” https://www.revealnews.org/article/female-workers-face-rape-harassment-in-us-agriculture-industry.

  6. See EEOC v. Tanimura & Antle, 5:99-cv-20088-JW (N.D. Cal.).

  7. In our reporting on sexual harassment litigation as it related to farm workers and janitors, we spoke with numerous attorneys who represented employers in various industries. They said that the cost of litigation often prompted employers to settle even those cases that the companies believed they could win in court, and that most settlement agreements clearly state that the employer doesn’t admit wrongdoing.

  8. See EEOC v Austin J. DeCoster (d/b/a DeCoster Farms of IA) and Iowa Ag LLC, 3:02-cv-03077-MWB (N.D. Iowa).

  9. See EEOC v. Moreno Farms, Inc., 1:2014-cv-23181 ((S.D. Fla.)

  10. See EEOC v. Harris Farms, Inc., F-02-6199-AWI LJO (E.D. Cal.)

  11. The appeal, No. 05-16945, was heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

  12. Tim Evans reportedly investigated the claims but he died of cancer in 2010. Since he did not document it, little is known about it.

  13. Bill Evans passed away in December 2016 at age 87.

  3. Behind Closed Doors and Without a Safety Net

  1. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-603, 100 Stat. 3445.

  2. Juan F. Perea, “The Echoes of Slavery: Recognizing the Racist Origins of the Agricultural and Domestic Worker Exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act,” Ohio State Law Journal 72, no. 1 (Jan. 2011): 95–138.

  3. Hina B. Shah and Marci Seville, “Domestic Worker Organizing: Building a Contemporary Movement for Dignity and Power,” Albany Law Review 75, no. 1 (Jan. 2012): 413–46.

  4. Premilla Nadasen, Household Workers Unite: The Untold Story of African American Women Who Built a Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2015); Premilla Nadasen, “Citizenship Rights, Domestic Work, and the Fair Labor Standards Act,” Journal of Policy History 24, no. 1 (Jan. 2012): 74–94.

  5. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has interpreted its obligations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include protecting workers from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. However, this is not a settled issue. Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission No. 16-111 was accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court for review, and the outcome will help decide whether laws around religious freedom trump antidiscrimination laws related to sexual orientation. In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief in Zarda v. Altitude Express that essentially argues that under federal law, it is not illegal to fire an employee based on his or her sexual orientation. Finally, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo in October 2017 that states that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect transgender workers from discrimination, in contrast to guidance issued by the Obama administration.

  6. Nadasen, “Citizenship Rights, Domestic Work, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.”

  7. Ibid.

  8. Ibid.

  9. In addition to surveys and reports published by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, I found the qualitative studies by academics Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo of the University of Southern California and Mary Romero of Arizona State University especially instructive and illuminating. Pierrette Hondagneu-Soto, Doméstica (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001); and Mary Romero, Maid in the U.S.A. (New York: Routledge, 1992).

  10. Sameera Hafiz and Michael Paarlberg, “The Human Trafficking of Domestic Workers in the United States: Findings from the Beyond Survival Campaign,” Institute for Policy Studies and National Domestic Workers Alliance, 2017, www.domesticworkers.org/sites/default/files/bs_report2017.pdf; and U.S. Government Accountability Office, “U.S. Government’s Efforts to Address Alleged Abuse of Household Workers by Foreign Diplomats with Immunity Could Be Strengthened,” Report to Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Human Rights and Law, July 2008, www.gao.gov/new.items/d08892.pdf.

  11. See United States of America v. Ngozi Nnaji and Emmanuel Nnaji, 4:09-CR-172-A (N. Dist. Tex). The couple was convicted and Ngozi Nnaji received a prison sentence of nine years and Emmanuel Nnaji received a sentence of twenty years. They were also ordered to pay restitution of nearly $306,000 to their abused domestic worker.

  12. Remark made at trial by Hon. John McBryde in USA v. Ngozi Nnaji and Emmanuel Nnaji.

  13. Hondagneu-Sotelo, Domésticas, 30–37; Romero, Maid in the U.S.A., 1–6, 61–63; Linda Burnham and Nik Theodore, “Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work”; and Nik Theodore, Beth Gutelius, and Linda Burnham, “HomeTruths: Domestic Workers in California,” www.datacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/HomeTruths.pdf.

  14. Burnham and Theodore, “Home Economics.”

  15. In addition to the Domestic Workers United, the coalition was made up of Adhikaar for Human Rights, Unity Housecleaners, Damayan Migrant Workers Association, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, and Andolan—Organizing S
outh Asian Workers.

  16. Patrick Healy, “At Rally for Domestics’ Rights, a Nanny Tells of Mistreatment,” New York Times, Mar. 8, 2004.

  17. Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Day Labor Program Women’s Collective of La Raza Centro Legal, and DataCenter, “Behind Closed Doors: Working Conditions of California Household Workers,” Mar. 2007, www.datacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/behindcloseddoors.pdf.

  18. The California Domestic Workers Coalition was made up of Alianza de Mujeres Activas y Solidarias (ALMAS), La Colectiva de Mujeres de San Francisco, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Pilipino Workers Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, California Immigrant Policy Center, and Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employer Network.

  4. When Only the Police and the Prosecutor Believe You

  1. The description of the circumstances surrounding Guadalupe Chávez’s rape allegations are based on law enforcement records and trial transcripts from the criminal prosecution of her case. The accused supervisor was acquitted.

  2. There is an extensive literature on self-blame by sexual assault victims. The National Institute of Justice specifically cites: Janice Du Mont, Karen-Lee Miller, and Terri L. Myhr, “The Role of ‘Real Rape’ and ‘Real Victim’ Stereotypes in the Police Reporting Practices of Sexually Assaulted Women,” Violence Against Women 9, no. 4 (Apr. 2003): 466–86.

  3. Ibid.

  4. U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, “Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department,” Aug. 10, 2016.

  5. Robert C. Davis, Edna Erez, and Nancy Avitabile, “Access to Justice for Immigrants Who Are Victimized: The Perspectives of Police and Prosecutors,” Criminal Justice Policy Review 12, no. 3 (Jan. 2001): 183–96.

  6. Robert C. Davis and Nicole J. Hendricks, “Immigrants and Law Enforcement: A Comparison of Native-Born and Foreign-Born Americans’ Opinions of the Police,” International Review of Victimology 14, no. 1 (Jan. 2007): 81–94.

  7. Jill Messing et al., “Latinas’ Perceptions of Law Enforcement: Fear of Deportation, Crime Reporting, and Trust in the System,” Affilia 30, no. 3 (Mar. 2015): 328–340.

  8. See Carlos A. Cuevas and Chiara Sabina, “Final Report: Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) Study,” National Criminal Justice Reference Service, Apr. 2010, www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/230445.pdf.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Bernice Yeung, “Under Cover of Darkness, Female Janitors Face Rape and Assault,” The Center for Investigative Reporting, June 23, 2015. See also Bernice Yeung and Grace Rubenstein, “Female Workers Face Rape, Harassment in US Agriculture Industry,” The Center for Investigative Reporting, June 25, 2013.

  11. This case is documented in greater detail in Yeung, “Under Cover of Darkness,” and the court file related to this federal case, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. ABM Industries, which was settled in 2010.

  12. Estelle B. Freedman, Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).

  13. Ibid.

  14. A discussion of the various state laws and case law that required corroboration for rape is discussed here: Irving Younger, “The Requirement of Corroboration in Prosecutions for Sex Offenses in New York,” Fordham Law Review 40, no. 2 (1971), 263–67.

  15. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, chastity is defined as “Purity; continence. That virtue which prevents the unlawful intercourse of the sexes. Also the slate of purity or abstinence from unlawful sexual connection.” People v. Brown, 71 Hun 601, 24 N.Y. Supp. 1111; People v. Kehoe, 123 Cal. 224, 55 Pac. 911, 69 Am. St. Rep. 52; and State v. Carron, 18 Iowa 375, 87 Am. Dec. 401.

  16. Patricia J. Falk, “‘Because Ladies Lie’: Eliminating Vestiges of the Corroboration and Resistance Requirements from Ohio’s Sexual Offenses,” Cleveland State Law Review 62 (2014): 343.

  17. National District Attorneys Association, “Rape Shield Statutes as of March 2011,” www.ndaa.org/pdf/NCPCA%20Rape%20Shield%202011.pdf.

  18. Susannah Meadows, “What Really Happened That Night at Duke,” Newsweek, Apr. 22, 2007.

  19. Kimberly A. Lonsway, Joanne Archambault, and David Lisak, “False Reports: Moving Beyond the Issue to Successfully Investigate and Prosecute Non-stranger Sexual Assault,” The Voice 3, no. 1 (Jan. 2009), 1–11; David Lisak et al., “False Allegations of Sexual Assault: An Analysis of Ten Years of Reported Cases,” Violence Against Women 16, no. 12 (Dec. 2010), 1318–34; Melanie Heenan and Suellen Murray, “Study of Reported Rapes in Victoria 2000–2003: Summary Research Report,” Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Sexual Assault, 2006; and Kimberly Lonsway, “Trying to Move the Elephant in the Room: Responding to the Challenge of False Rape Reports,” Violence Against Women 16, no. 12 (Dec. 2010), 1356–71.

  20. Lisak et. al., “False Allegations of Sexual Assault.”

  21. This issue is highlighted through a systematic review of unfounded cases in Baltimore following a newspaper report that identified problems with the way that rapes were being classified by police. Baltimore City Sexual Assault Response Team, “October 5, 2011, Annual Report,” mcasa.org/_mcasaWeb/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/BaltimoreCityAnnualReport_print.pdf. There have been a number of additional news reports on the misclassification of rape cases, e.g., Alex Campbell, “Unfounded,” Buzzfeed, Sept. 8, 2016; and another in-depth example: Robyn Doolittle, “Unfounded: Why Police Dismiss 1 in 5 Sexual Assault Claims as Baseless,” The Globe and Mail, Feb. 3, 2017.

  22. Lonsway, Archambault, and Lisak, “False Reports.”

  23. Ibid.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Ibid.

  26. Ibid.

  27. National estimate based on crime and criminal justice data analyzed by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). These statistics can be viewed here: https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system. The methodology behind these statistics is explained here: https://www.rainn.org/about-rainns-statistics. Professors Cassia Spohn of Arizona State University and Linda M. Williams of Wellesley College and University of Massachusetts–Lowell have also done detailed studies on the attrition of sexual assault cases in specific jurisdictions.

  28. Jen Fifield, “Despite Concerns, Sex Offenders Face New Restrictions,” Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts, May 6, 2016.

  29. Ibid. See also: Elizabeth Erhardt Mustaine, “Sex Offender Residency Restrictions: Successful Integration or Exclusion?” Criminology and Public Policy 13, no. 1 (Jan. 2014): 169–77.

  30. Analysis of data on exonerations by year and type of crime obtained from the National Registry of Exonerations, a project of University of California–Irvine and the University of Michigan, www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Exoneration-by-Year-Crime-Type.aspx.

  31. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Bryan C. McCannon, “The Effect of the Election of Prosecutors on Criminal Trials,” University of Birmingham Department of Economics Discussion Paper 11-08, Mar. 10, 2011, pp. 1–2.

  32. Ibid.

  33. AEquitas, the Justice Management Institute, and the Urban Institute, “Model Response to Sexual Violence for Prosecutors: An Invitation to Lead,” 2017, www.aequitasresource.org/Model-Response-to-Sexual-Violence-for-Prosecutors-RSVP-An-Invitation-to-Lead.pdf.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Ibid.

  36. These accounts of rape are based on documents from the civil lawsuit, Leticia Zúñiga Escamilla v. SMS Holdings Corporation; Service Management Systems, Inc.; and Marco González, filed in U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota.

  37. Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system, and www.rainn.org/about-rainns-statistics.

  5. All That We Already Know

  1. U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “Hearings on the Nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas to Be Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Oct. 11, 1991, part 4, J-102-40 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1993), www.loc.gov/law/find/nominati
ons/thomas/hearing-pt4.pdf.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Margo Jefferson, “The Thomas-Hill Question, Answered Anew,” review of Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, by Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, New York Times, Nov. 11, 1994.

  4. This comment can be found in Part 4 of the transcript of the Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, “Nomination of Judge Clarence Thomas To Be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” October 11–13, 1991. Viewable at the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/law/find/nominations/thomas/hearing-pt4.pdf.

  5. This was an especially controversial moment in the already highly charged proceedings. It received wide media coverage, e.g., Andrew Rosenthal, “Psychiatry’s Use in Thomas Battle Raises Ethics Issue,” New York Times, October 20, 1991.

  6. Amanda Cochran, “Anita Hill: Clarence Thomas Hearings 23 Years Ago Unfair,” CBS News, Mar. 13, 2014; “Anita Hill: Biden Did ‘Terrible Job’ Running Clarence Thomas Hearings,” Talking Points Memo, Mar. 20, 2014.

  7. Cochran, “Anita Hill.”

  8. Jill Smolowe, “Sex, Lies and Politics: He Said, She Said,” Time, Oct. 21, 1991.

  9. Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Thomas Nomination: Most in National Survey Say Judge Is the More Believable,” New York Times, Oct. 15, 1991.

  10. Dennis Cauchon, “USA Today Poll: Whom Do You Believe? Testimony Shifts Support to Nominee,” USA Today, Oct. 14, 1991.

  11. Louise F. Fitzgerald et al., “The Incidence and Dimensions of Sexual Harassment in Academia and the Workplace,” Journal of Vocational Behavior 32, no. 2 (Apr. 1988): 152–75.

  12. The activities identified in the SEQ are based on the behavior of real people, though the names Fitzgerald uses here are not their actual names.

  13. Barbara A. Gutek, Ryan O. Murphy, and Bambi Douma, “A Review and Critique of the Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ),” Law and Human Behavior 28, no. 4 (Aug. 2004): 457–82.