Patricia Kakalec and Daniel Werner

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2004

Patricia Kakalec and Daniel Werner

Workers’ Rights Law Center of New York (WRLC)

http://www.workersrightsny.org

Kingston, New York, United States

Legal Advocacy

The Bold Idea:

Empowering low-wage workers' rights through enforcement, education, and advocacy.

New York’s Hudson Valley is presently undergoing great population and job growth as the suburbs of New York City move northward. Five of the ten counties with the State’s highest population growth are located here. The new, largely immigrant workforce faces poor workplace conditions and systemic abuses including wage loss, injury and sexual harassment. This region does not have any independent worker centers or other non-union organizing efforts.

By offering free legal services to this population, the WRLC addresses workers’ urgent legal needs stemming from workplace abuses. At the same time, WRLC uses litigation, educational outreach and relationships in the community to serve as a bridge between immigrant workers and organized labor unions. Located in Kingston, New York, WLRC’s strategy for supporting the Hudson Valley’s new immigrant workforce is built on the belief that unions, with their resources and community support, can provide immigrant workers with important access to power. WLRC will offer three programs: Know Your Rights Workshops; trainings of volunteers who accompany workers to small claims court to recover unpaid wages; and litigation.

Biography:

WRLC Legal Director Dan Werner co-founded the WRLC after six years as an attorney with Farmworker Legal Services of New York, Inc. Before he began representing farmworkers in New York, Dan received a NAPIL (now called Equal Justice Works) Equal Justice Fellowship to represent citrus harvest workers in Florida. In total, Dan has been a farmworker advocate in six states, including with the United Farm Workers in California. He is a 1996 graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law.

WRLC Executive Director and co-founder Tricia Kakalec also comes to the WRLC from Farmworker Legal Services of New York, and represented farmworkers in New York for six years. Prior to beginning her work as a farmworker attorney, she spent three years in private practice in New York City, and served as a law clerk for the Hon. Denis R. Hurley in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Tricia is a 1993 graduate of Harvard Law School.

In an interview with Echoing Green, Patricia and Daniel talk about starting the Workers' Rights Law Center of New York and their hopes for the future.

Moment of Obligation: When and why did you decide to start your organization?
Around a year and a half ago, when we were attorneys with Farmworker Legal Services of New York, we were driving from Rochester to our Hudson Valley office after a staff retreat. We both had a lot of ideas about how we thought law could be practiced in a way that supports workers and worker organizing. We were also aware of new needs in our community. On that drive, we suddenly realized we could actually create the kind of organization we were imagining. Amazingly, we never really did look back from that point, even when people kept asking us about our “Plan B.” (There was no Plan B.)

Who do you look up to and why?
Tricia: The farmworker lawyers I have worked with over the past six years, who have represented their clients with boldness, commitment and intelligence.

Also, Dorothy Day and my father.

Oh, and Dan.

Dan: Like Tricia, I also look up to the farmworker attorneys throughout the United States. Each farmworker attorney has made tremendous personal and financial sacrifices to bring justice to one of the most oppressed groups of workers in the country.

I also look up to my clients, who have taken the greatest risks to bring about workplace justice.

Finally, I look up to Cesar Chavez, who I drove to Des Moines airport once in my college days -- an hour in a car that changed the direction of my life.

Oh, and Tricia.

A snapshot in ten years: What is your dream of what's happening? What impact has your organization had?
In ten years, we’d like for the WRLC to be known and respected in the immigrant and labor communities of the Hudson Valley. Perhaps we’d have a second office, this one in the southern part of the geographic area our project covers. Most importantly, we’d like to have played a part in the growth of the labor movement and the achievement of greater justice for low-wage workers in our area. (By then, also, hopefully Dan will have an organized desk and Tricia will stop humming in the office!)

What's in your CD player right now?
Tricia: Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones, Rocket Ship Beach by Dan Zanes (great kids’ music from my niece & nephew’s last visit)

Dan: Perfect timing on this question -- no time to change the CD. I must admit, with head in hands, I most recently listened to Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits.

What are a few book recommendations (pleasure, work and anything in between)?
Tricia:

• With These Hands by Daniel Rothenberg
• The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right edited by Herman Schwartz
• Which Side are You On? by Thomas Geoghegan
• Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
• In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens by Alice Walker

Dan:

• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Which Side are You On? by Thomas Geoghegan
• Big Sugar by Alec Wilkinson
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

What websites do you go to often (work and personal)?
Tricia:

• Our website, www.workersrightsny.org
• Western New York Law Center, www.wnylc.net
• National Employment Law Project, www.nelp.org
• National Immigration Law Center, www.nilc.org
• The New York Immigration Coalition, www.thenyic.org
• My Brother’s Website, www.kakalec.com

Dan:

Same as above (except, with all apologies, www.kakalec.com)

• The Weather Channel, www.weather.com (an unfortunate obsession)
• New York Times, www.nytimes.com
• Farmworker Legal Services of New York, www.flsny.org
• My Personal Website, www.danwerner.net
• Roto World, www.rotoworld.com (for my rotisserie baseball stats)

Quick piece of advice for people starting social change organizations:
Tricia: From Audre Lorde: “When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

From me: Don’t think too small. Also, try to have fun with it.

Dan: Clinging to your idealism is essential. Healthy cynicism is essential, as well. Don't let either consume you. Be willing to engage in self-criticism. Also, if you don't already, learn to like coffee.