Framingham, Mass.: Firing of Spanish-speakers leaves many unfazed

[Harold Schiffman]

Firing of Spanish-speakers leaves many unfazed

By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff  |  December 28, 2007

FRAMINGHAM - A federal lawsuit that targets the Salvation Army for
firing two Spanish-speaking workers here who did not learn English has
touched off debate in Congress and fueled a tempest in the
blogosphere. But in Framingham, a town of 67,000 that has been
transformed by immigration, the response to the controversy has been
quieter and more complicated. In recent interviews, neighbors and
supporters of the religious organization struggled to reconcile
conflicting sympathies: for the immigrants who are widely credited
with helping to revitalize the downtown area and for a respected
charity that has helped countless local people.

Downtown, where the Salvation Army's yellow-brick headquarters
dominates a busy intersection in a neighborhood of immigrant-owned
businesses, a few residents defended the organization for requiring
employees at its thrift store to speak English. But many criticized
the firings, and some said they might reconsider their support for the
charity. "I feel bad, because this is a country that gives opportunity
for anybody, and I know this is not the right thing to do," said Edson
Marinho, the Brazilian-born owner of a meat market, Casa de Carnes,
behind the Salvation Army. He said he learned English while cleaning
houses and working in restaurants.

Last week, US Senator Lamar Alexander filed legislation that would
protect employers who enforce English-only workplace rules. Made in
the midst of an election-year furor over immigration, the Tennessee
Republican's proposal was spurred by the discrimination lawsuit
against the Framingham thrift store, filed in federal court in Boston
in March by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The
Salvation Army decided to enforce its language policy in 2004 and had
directed all employees to learn basic English, according to the suit.
The EEOC complaint on behalf of Dolores Escorbor and Maria del Carmen
Perdomo says their firings in December 2005 were unlawful because
there was no legitimate business reason for them to be required to
speak English on the job.

Joseph Mastone, a car wash owner from Dedham who bought several novels
at the thrift store last week, said he admired the charity's good
works but was bothered by the strict language policy because his wife,
an immigrant from Vietnam, is still learning English 15 years after
coming to this country. "It's nice to ask people to study English, but
these people are [working long hours] to make a living," said Mastone,
who, like most of those interviewed, learned of the lawsuit from a
reporter. Inside the Framingham store, where sweaters grouped by color
hang in blocks of green, yellow, and lavender, workers sorting
merchandise behind a thin-walled partition with swinging red doors
could be heard speaking a mixture of Spanish and English.

Some customers said they understood the language requirement. Pausing
on the store's front steps, Adriana Solorzano said she thought it
would be helpful for the store to employ Spanish speakers, given the
number of its customers who speak the language. But she also said the
policy is not unreasonable. Solorzano immigrated to the United States
from Venezuela five years ago and now works as a Spanish teacher for
adults and corporations. "You're in America, and you have to adapt to
this country," she said in English.

Escorbor, a native of the Dominican Republic, and Perdomo, from El
Salvador, began working at the store in 1999 and communicated mostly
in Spanish. In 2004, according to the Salvation Army's response to the
lawsuit, employees "were told . . . to obtain at least a working
knowledge of spoken English," and were given more than a year to
demonstrate progress. But the women did not learn English and
continued to speak Spanish at work, according to the charity. The
problem with the firings, according to the employment commission's
complaint, is that the women worked behind the scenes sorting clothes,
and, therefore "learning English . . . was unrelated to the job they
had been performing."

The Salvation Army denies that the women worked only as clothes
sorters. Charity officials declined to speak to a reporter because the
lawsuit is pending, but a statement said: "The Salvation Army
continues to believe that there is no legal basis for the complaint
filed by the EEOC . . . and we vigorously dispute any suggestion that
we have violated the law." The lawsuit raised the ire of Alexander,
who first tried to attach an amendment to a funding bill to block such
suits. The measure provoked strong opposition from Hispanic members of
Congress, who called it dangerous and discriminatory. Alexander then
filed it separately, as the Protecting English in the Workplace Act,
which will be referred to a committee for study.

"Our greatest accomplishment as a country has been uniting our
magnificent diversity, and one way we have done that is by all
speaking a common language, English," Alexander said in a statement.
The dispute captured the attention of conservative bloggers and
illegal immigration foes, who have tried to rally support for the
legislation. "Tell Congress to rein in this ROGUE agency and PROTECT
English as the common, unifying language of our nation!" urged the
website for a nonprofit group called ProEnglish that aims to make
English the official language of the United States.

David Grinberg, a spokesman for the EEOC, said federal law allows
English-only rules when there is a "business reason" for them to
exist, such as employees interacting with customers or using dangerous
equipment. He said a tiny number of the allegations brought to the
agency concern such rules - 125 out of about 75,000 last year - and
even fewer result in lawsuits. The commission filed two such suits
this year, he said. "Most employers do the right thing," he said.

Practices that have led to lawsuits have included bans on employees
speaking other languages on breaks, on personal phone calls, and on
the street outside the workplace, he said. Tje lawsuit against the
Salvation Army seeks back pay for the two workers and compensation for
other losses, including health insurance, and for emotional suffering.
Attempts to reach Escorbor and Perdomo were unsuccessful. Outside the
Wal-Mart on Route 9 in Framingham last week, Salvation Army
bell-ringer Lillian Bailey said she would support the English-only
policy even if she didn't work for the charity. "This is the United
States, and English should be the first language," she said.


   http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/28/firing_of_spanish_speakers_leaves_many_unfazed?mode=PF
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************