Update - Public Statement from the Board
As you likely already know, the board has been overseeing investigations into complaints about how a sexual harassment complaint was handled and about the overall work culture. After this process, we have decided that new leadership is needed. Guadalupe Torres was hired several weeks ago to be the Acting Executive Director, providing leadership and stability to Casa Latina during this transition. It is essential that Casa Latina’s programs that are so important to our members continue, especially after the challenging economic impact of COVID-19 that many are still struggling to recover from.
We are taking this time to reimagine the future for Casa Latina to ensure that our work to champion worker rights externally is modeled in our internal practices and culture. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) has been facilitating listening sessions and mediation with members, board, and staff. NDLON is a national coalition of day laborer organizations with worker centers like ours. As experts and nationally recognized leaders in the day laborer worker rights movement, they bring to Casa Latina expertise in facilitating restorative healing and transformational change. A part of their work will be making recommendations for adopting shared leadership models based on the best practices for organizations similar to ours.
Our work to improve Casa Latina’s policies, culture, and practices around sexual harassment will continue. The Sexual Violence Law Center has joined our league of advisors to provide trauma-informed anti-sexual harassment training for all staff in addition to mandatory annual training that staff participated in last month. The Sexual Violence Law Center will be reviewing Casa Latina’s practices and policies around sexual harassment and making recommendations for improvement.
I believe that we can build a strong internal culture that reflects Casa Latina’s vision for the world. Together, we can make Casa Latina the trusted “home” for our community again – and be even more rooted in our values as an organization than we were before.
Thank you for your support and partnership. I am grateful for you.
Sincerely,
Pilar Pacheco
Casa Latina Board President
P.S. You May have questions about hiring through the worker center. We provided answers to the most common questions we have been receiving from employers below.
FAQ: Hiring Through Casa Latina
Is it safe for me to hire a worker through Casa Latina’s job dispatch program? Yes! The sexual harassment complaints were against a staff person, not a member who relies on Casa Latina for the job dispatch program. Before someone can become a member of Casa Latina’s job dispatch program, they must go through a sex offender background check and King County criminal background check. New members are required to attend anti-sexual harassment training as part of their orientation. Since 2014, Casa Latina has dispatched over 54,000 jobs and has not received a complaint from an employer of sexual misconduct during a job through our job dispatch program.
Is the staff person who had the sexual harassment complaint against them still working at the worker center? No, the person has not physically been at Casa Latina since April 17th and has not been employed by Casa Latina since May 17th.
Is Casa Latina open? Yes! Casa Latina’s job dispatch program and other community services are open. 100% of wages go directly to workers themselves. For more information, please visit our website here.
