My name is Socorro Cortez, and I lead the wage theft campaign at Worker Justice Wisconsin. From a young age, I witnessed how the labor movement defined the lives of my family. I grew up in a home deeply committed to unionism, where in the 1970’s my father and aunt were staff delegates at the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.
Accompanying them to marches and union meetings, I learned that the fight for workers’ rights is not just an action, but a commitment to justice. At that age, I did not fully understand the magnitude of what it meant, but I felt it in my heart: worker justice is fundamental to building a more equitable society.
As I got older, I got more involved in the labor movement. In high school, I joined the student movement at the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, where I participated in strikes and marches. In those moments, I understood that when a person has no voice, it is everyone’s job to stand up and raise their voice together.
Nonetheless, when I moved to the United States, and then to Madison more than 30 years ago, I started to experience firsthand what it means to be vulnerable to an unfair labor system. In my previous job, I experienced wage theft, discrimination, and a workplace accident. What was most painful was that I did not know my labor rights. At the time, I did not know how the system worked in this country or what to do to defend myself. Like many workers, I found myself trapped in a cycle of abuse and misinformation.
After 17 years of enduring these injustices, I made a crucial decision: to leave my comfort zone and seek help. That’s when I came to Worker Justice Wisconsin, where I was educated about my labor rights.
I learned that I should not only demand a fair wage, but I was also given the tools necessary to defend myself. When my case was finally resolved, I knew I had found my purpose: to help others learn about their rights and prevent them from suffering the same things I did.
I’m currently an organizer at Worker Justice Wisconsin, a position I’ve held for five years. During this time, I have witnessed the magnitude of the problem that wage theft represents, especially for the Latino community. Many workers are unaware that their employer is stealing their wages because they don’t even review their pay stubs. Many do not know that they have the right to demand a detailed pay stub. In many cases, employers decrease wages without workers realizing it. This lack of awareness is one of the main reasons why wage theft remains a common practice and goes unreported.
These days, I find myself knocking on doors in different neighborhoods, educating workers about their rights, teaching them how to identify wage theft, how to read their pay stubs, demand a copy, and recognize when their wages are being stolen. Wage theft is not just an economic problem, but an injustice that affects thousands of families, many of them unaware that they are being victims of systematic abuse.
My hope is that through our Wage Theft campaign, we will raise awareness about the magnitude of wage theft problem and eventually get legislation passed to protect workers from this abuse. Education is the key to changing this reality, and every conversation, every door I knock on, brings me closer to a future where all workers are paid a fair wage.
I invite you to participate in the Wage Theft campaign by joining me and other worker members as we go door knocking and present wage theft trainings throughout the community. Email me at socorro@workerjustice.org or call 608-572-0715.
