American Civil Liberties Union

Kavita is a manicurist in a nail salon. She's worried because some of the salon products she uses on clients have been giving her frequent headaches and asthma attacks. Should she:

1. Tell her supervisor so that her employer can provide better training on chemical safety, improve the salon's ventilation, and try to purchase less toxic products;
2. Remain silent because she is an undocumented immigrant and will likely be fired if she makes any trouble at work; or
3. Quit her job because she is pregnant and her employer routinely fires pregnant women anyway, making it useless to ask for better working conditions.

The obvious answer in this hypothetical multiple choice question is A. But in reality, the options for low-wage immigrant workers are usually limited to B and C. This past weekend, I joined members of the Nepali community organization Adhikaar at a conference on immigrant workers' health and safety in New York. It was clear from the presentations by Adhikaar and other workers' organizations that immigrant workers face pervasive intimidation and discrimination in the workplace.