Farmer & Landscaper Advocacy Project (FLAP)

FLAP’s mission is to improve working conditions for immigrants, snow plowing workers, migrant and seasonal workers in the agricultural and landscaping industries in Illinois. Including low-income farmworkers, landscapers, snow plowing workers, packinghouseworkers, cannery workers, restaurant workers and meat and poultry workers. FLAP carries out this mission through Outreach, Community Education, Community Legal Education, Litigation, Information and Referrals and partnering with other agencies to fight human labor trafficking.

Topics:

Community and Legal Education

FLAP staff seeks to educate migrant and seasonal workers about their rights in the work place. We build upon our relationships with churches and organizations in the community to deliver "know your rights" workshops to groups of immigrant workers. We have recovered more than 3.5 million dollars in back wages and illegal deductions.

Labor Trafficking Abuse Education

When someone forces, tricks, or coerces you into working against your will or makes you believe that you cannot stop working.

Litigation - Legal Assistance

FLAP focuses primarily on litigation to recover owed wages for our clients. FLAP litigates under both federal and state laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) and the Agricultural Worker Protection Act (“AWPA”). Our clients mainly bring forth claims for nonpayment of minimum wages or nonpayment of overtime wages in violation of these federal and state laws.

Defendants in our cases tend to be companies that remain competitive by breaking the law and by exploiting our clients. These companies and their individual owners manage to make higher profits by failing to pay their employees for all their time worked. These employers take unfair advantage of the fact that our clients are often unaware of their rights or are afraid of losing their jobs by coming forward with their claims. Correcting such abuse and preventing the exploitation of these workers is what FLAP seeks to accomplish through its litigation efforts.

Contact:

Alexandra Sossa

Farmer & Landscaper Advocacy Project

33 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 900

Chicago, IL 60602

847-668-2114

asossa@flapillinois.org