Interpreters boycott over courtroom mistreatment

 

When Bay Area Court Interpreters asked for a meeting to discuss deteriorating working conditions in Santa Clara County Superior Court, Presiding Judge Richard Turrone promised a reply "in a few weeks."

BACI got a somewhat quicker response when the new unit called a one-day boycott after Judge Andrea Bryan ordered the arrest of an interpreter for failing to appear in her courtroom.

The interpreter avoided arrest after it was pointed out that he was busy translating in a different courtroom, one of several he'd been assigned to cover as needed. Judge Bryan later insisted she was only kidding.

But the incident is an example of why Bay Area Court Interpreters and California Federation of Interpreters, BACI's Southern California counterpart, both have become units of Northern California Media Workers Guild/Typographical Union, Local 39521 of the Communications Workers of America.

Because interpreters in most California Courts are classified as private contractors, they are vulnerable to exploitation and whimsical, abusive treatment by judges, administrators and other court officials, said Guild Representative Stephanie Moore.

"Do we risk being thrown in jail for coming to work and doing our job?" asked Andy Ta, certified Vietnamese interpreter and member of the board of BACI who has worked in the Santa Clara County courts for more than 10 years.

"With interpreters being subjected to such abuse, it is, sadly, no surprise that interpreters are leaving the courts," Ta added. "This situation needs to be resolved for the good of the community as well as the good of the interpreters."

BACI's one-day boycott did indeed catch Presiding Judge Turrone's attention. He announced a meeting with BACI officers and told a legal newspaper that progress was made.

BACI disputes this. The judge sent court administrators to the meeting and stayed away himself. The only "progress" was picking a date for a future meeting, Moore said.

The interpreters also dispute Judge Bryan's instance that she was only joking when she ordered her bailiff to track down the absent interpreter and remand him to custody.

No time was wasted in hiring a private company to supply interpreters at upwards of $160 each per hour - four times the cost of the court's own certified, regularly scheduled interpreters - for Department 47, where Judge Bryan presides. BACI estimates this will cost the taxpayers an extra $9,000 a week for only two such interpreters, one Spanish and one Vietnamese."

Meanwhile, legislation pending at Sacramento would silence arguments that interpreters are properly classified as independent contractors.

Senate Bill 371 by Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Montebello, would recognize court interpreters as employees entitled to the right to bargain collectively and resolve problems through negotiation.

 

Reprinted from the April 2002 issue of Ralph, official publication of the Northern California Media Workers Guild/Typographical Union Local 39521.

www.mediaworkers.org/news/ralph