CSWA also assists workers by filing lawsuits against employers, either on its own or in cooperation with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund or attorneys working pro bono.
In 1997, CSWA convinced the New York State Attorney General to sue the restaurant for confiscating portions of the daily tips and wages of almost 60 workers.
In 1999, CSWA sued the New York State Department of Labor, alleging that the closure of unemployment insurance offices in and near Chinatown violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
[9][10] In June 2002, CSWA sponsored a rally at which nearly 2,000 Chinese and Hispanic immigrants demanded that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provide medical coverage for residents in Chinatown and the Lower East Side in the wake of respiratory and other diseases caused by airborne particles released by the collapse of World Trade Center buildings during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
[4] CSWA has also been active in the New York state legislature[9][13] The work of the Chinese Staff and Worker's Association has occasionally drawn a violent response.
[14] Another says that in 1997, days after the New York State Attorney General announced a $1.5 million lawsuit against the Jing Fong restaurant, CSWA's Manhattan office was fire bombed.
[1] A third report has it that a bomb was detonated outside CSWA headquarters in 2000 after the group won its legal suit against the Jing Fong restaurant.
[15][16] Wing Lam is a Chinese immigrant who was a member of, and later a staff organizer for, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).
[1][5] CSWA is very active in opposing unhealthy and illegally working conditions in New York City's garment industry.
A United States Department of Labor study in 1997 found that 90 percent of the 3,000 garment manufacturing shops in New York City's Chinatown were sweatshops.
Injuries are frequent, and some of them crippling, but workplace safety laws are rarely enforced and few employers participate as required in the state workers' compensation system.
Its most famous effort involved DKNY, which was alleged to have permitted its contractors to underpay workers and fire those who protested their treatment.
[2][6][14] CSWA sued the City of NY in 1986, Chinese Staff and Workers Association et al., Appellants, v. City of New York et al., Respondents, for green lighting Henry Street Tower, a luxury residential development, arguing that the displacement of neighborhood residents and businesses caused by a proposed project is an environmental impact within the purview of SEQRA and CEQR, and the failure of respondents to consider these potential effects renders their environmental analysis invalid.