Labor Dispute Silences Spanish at E-ZPass Center

[Mikell]

"Last month, colleagues began telling Maria Rizera -- one of 16 Spanish-speaking workers at the Staten Island E-ZPass call center -- that, unless she began taking calls in English only, her job was going to get a lot tougher. To protest what they see as wage discrimination, Rizera's coworkers were walking away from the Spanish language line.

"People just kept quitting the Spanish queue, and I stuck on until, all of a sudden, I was the last one at the call center taking these calls," Rizera said. "And I looked at my paycheck that week, and said, 'I can’t keep doing this.'" So Rizera quit speaking Spanish on the job, and people seeking help from the call center can receive it only in English."


Pressure on the Company

"Motivated by the Staten Island dispute, Assemblymember Jose Peralta introduced a bill yesterday that proposes to mandate Spanish language service in all privately operated customer service centers on contract with New York State and city agencies."


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