California bill fights predatory labor trafficking practices targeting migrant workers |
Opinion By Avelino Reloj
Special to The Sacramento Bee July 1, 2025 6:00 AM
Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San José), authored AB 1362, which would make California a national leader in protecting both human dignity and fair competition in the labor market. Krishnia Parker Back in the Philippines, I worked as a hotel attendant until I lost my job. My family depended on me, and I dreamed of continuing my studies, but those dreams were slipping away.
When a labor contractor offered me a job as a janitor in the United States, I grabbed onto it like a lifeline. I believed I was finally getting the chance to change our lives for the better. But the promise I was given quickly turned into a trap. TOP VIDEOS Before I even arrived in the U.S., everything changed: I found out that I wouldn’t be placed in the state I had been told. Then, I was forced to sign a new contract I didn’t fully understand — not for a janitor position, but a hotel job.
And unlike my original contract, which promised free housing, food and transportation, the new one said I’d have to pay for everything myself. When I landed in the U.S., my employer took my passport. They told me — and the others — that if we didn’t go along with these new terms, we’d be deported.
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