You may have missed an important development in our case against The GEO Group in the flurry of Election Day earlier this week.
The GEO Group (GEO) is a for-profit, private prison corporation making millions of dollars every year running the ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
We secured a major victory for workers' rights — and for basic human dignity by holding this corporation accountable. Here’s what happened:
FIRST, a unanimous jury held that GEO violated our state’s Minimum Wage Act by paying detainees $1 a day to run a significant portion of the Center, including cleaning and cooking at the facilities. GEO must pay the minimum wage going forward.
THEN, the jury ruled that GEO must pay $17.3 million in compensation for back wages to more than 10,000 detainees.
ON TUESDAY, the judge in our case ordered GEO to surrender an additional $5.9 million in profits unlawfully gained through the use of $1-per-day labor for nearly two decades. This brings the total judgement to $23.2 million that GEO must pay for their unjust and unlawful violation of Washingtonian workers.
My office is the first to bring an enforcement action against a for-profit detention corporation for minimum wage violations involving detainees.
The outcome of this case will not go unnoticed by the powerful corporations and special interests who believe that they can play by their own rules.
Fortunately, I have people like you on my team. We’ve set a goal to bring on 1,000 supporters by the time our fundraising freeze begins in early December. Will you be one of them?
I am proud of this work and committed to standing up for Washingtonians’ values — and protecting our rights.
Can I count on you to join our team?
Bob
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