Workers are Risking their Lives for Poverty Wages
W & K Steel, LLC is a steel fabrication company located in Rankin, Pennsylvania that manufactures fabricated structural steel and other products used in construction, such as metal bars, beams, ornamental iron railings, and stairs. W & K Steel reported $4.8 million in sales in 2008.1
Aung Oo has been working for W & K Steel for three years. When he began working there, he made $7.50 per hour. He now makes $9.00 per hour. Another refugee working at W & K Steel running a saw that cuts steel beams earns approximately nine dollars an hour. Working an average of 50 hours a week, he grosses approximately $25,000 annually. A third refugee worker interviewed stated he also was paid about $9 an hour and worked overtime nearly every day last year to earn just $24,000. For them and many of their coworkers, working almost continuous overtime still isn’t enough to raise their family out of poverty. And the large drop in construction activity due to recession reduced their overtime hours dramatically. Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor found that the 2009 average hourly wage for workers in Pittsburgh structural metal fabricators & fitters occupation was $16.14, almost double the amount many refugee workers were earning at W & K.The Stop W & K Sweatshop Campaign is a joint project of Pittsburgh UNITED, the Labor and Religion Coalition of Southwestern PA and the Three Rivers Coalition for Justice.
Visit the Stop W&K Campaign website for more information: http://wandksweatshop.wordpress.com/
To sign up for our email updates, sign up here:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5452/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=3103