Co-Workers Speak in Spanish

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA
I have an issue that revolves around language used in the work place. I work in an industry where we have many migrant workers and many illegal workers. These are facts, and not hearsay. We have had to fire a few folks because they could not produce paperwork AFTER they had done the work.

I do not speak Spanish and my coworkers barely speak English. One of them has been in the US for over 20 years and still cannot put together 2 sentences in English! I have been told to "speak more slowly" while at work, among other suggestions. I have been doing this for 4 years and I also speak broken English with some Spanish-ization. Whatever that is. This whole issues seriously undermines safety while on duty.

We now have a new worker who is not Mexican but does speak Spanish and he has been told to go ahead and speak Spanish with both of the Mexican workers in order to "keep his skills sharp". He is being asked to take over some of my duties BECAUSE he can speak Spanish. As he put it, "it really develops a good re pore with the guys when I speak Spanish with them" implying that I do not have the skill to develop a good repore with the same workers. Very degrading to me.
I have been told for the last 3 years that ONLY English is to be spoken at the workplace. But now I can see that this is not the case and any attempt to have the Mexican workers learn English is undermined by management.

It is now clear to me that I am not moving up in the company because I DO NOT speak Spanish. And every "rule" to limit the use of Spanish in our workplace is completely disregarded.

I'm not sure what I asking for here....But I feel like I am the foreigner and I am not part of the team and excluded from moving up. I am sick and tired of this.
Sorry but this is the United States and the national language is NOT Spanish. Why am I continually penalized for knowing English!

AS a side note, I do speak German and Swiss-German as I lived there for a few years in the '80s. Two years ago we had a German man working with us temporarily and when I attempted to speak German with him, I was immediately told, "Hey!, English ONLY guys!" What a shocker that was. Again with the demeaning and degrading treatment.

So I am asking for suggestions. What are the laws regarding language in the workplace? Are there any such precedents? Should I just move to Spain?
I want English to be the language, of our workplace.

It appears you are being discriminated against. I suggest you review EEOC complaint filing.

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Quoting Genechip

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My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA
I have an issue that revolves around language used in the work place. I work in an industry where we have many migrant workers and many illegal workers. These are facts, and not hearsay. We have had to fire a few folks because they could not produce paperwork AFTER they had done the work.

I do not speak Spanish and my coworkers barely speak English. One of them has been in the US for over 20 years and still cannot put together 2 sentences in English! I have been told to "speak more slowly" while at work, among other suggestions. I have been doing this for 4 years and I also speak broken English with some Spanish-ization. Whatever that is. This whole issues seriously undermines safety while on duty.

We now have a new worker who is not Mexican but does speak Spanish and he has been told to go ahead and speak Spanish with both of the Mexican workers in order to "keep his skills sharp". He is being asked to take over some of my duties BECAUSE he can speak Spanish. As he put it, "it really develops a good re pore with the guys when I speak Spanish with them" implying that I do not have the skill to develop a good repore with the same workers. Very degrading to me.
I have been told for the last 3 years that ONLY English is to be spoken at the workplace. But now I can see that this is not the case and any attempt to have the Mexican workers learn English is undermined by management.

It is now clear to me that I am not moving up in the company because I DO NOT speak Spanish. And every "rule" to limit the use of Spanish in our workplace is completely disregarded.

I'm not sure what I asking for here....But I feel like I am the foreigner and I am not part of the team and excluded from moving up. I am sick and tired of this.
Sorry but this is the United States and the national language is NOT Spanish. Why am I continually penalized for knowing English!

AS a side note, I do speak German and Swiss-German as I lived there for a few years in the '80s. Two years ago we had a German man working with us temporarily and when I attempted to speak German with him, I was immediately told, "Hey!, English ONLY guys!" What a shocker that was. Again with the demeaning and degrading treatment.

So I am asking for suggestions. What are the laws regarding language in the workplace? Are there any such precedents? Should I just move to Spain?
I want English to be the language, of our workplace.

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There are no such laws. If what you want is not what management wants, then your wants are irrelevant.

If speaking Spanish is important to your ability to effectively perform your job, you may want to consider taking some community college courses or taking other steps to improve your Spanish language skills. You are the one telling us that your inability to communicate with other workers creates potential safety issues - it's reasonable that your employer wants to avoid having those issues arise.

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Quoting Disagreeable

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It appears you are being discriminated against. I suggest you review EEOC complaint filing.

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No, it really doesn't.

Disagreeable is 100% wrong in this case. Speaking Spanish is not a characteristic protected under the law. You do not have to be Hispanic, Mexican or Latina to speak Spanish. The EEOC will not be interested. Disagreeable - and the poster - may be interested to know that the EEOC has found English-only laws to be discriminatory.

Contrary to what you may believe, the United States does not have a national language. Yes, it's true that Spanish is not the national language, but neither is English.

Discrimination, based on not being Mexican or Puerto Rican, would be illegal. I stand by my assertion OP should investigate EEOC procedures to determine if he has a case.

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Quoting cbg

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Disagreeable is 100% wrong in this case. Speaking Spanish is not a characteristic protected under the law. You do not have to be Hispanic, Mexican or Latina to speak Spanish. The EEOC will not be interested. Disagreeable - and the poster - may be interested to know that the EEOC has found English-only laws to be discriminatory.

Contrary to what you may believe, the United States does not have a national language. Yes, it's true that Spanish is not the national language, but neither is English.

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But he's not being discriminated against by not being Mexican or Puerto Rican. He's being discriminated against for not being able to speak Spanish. That's not illegal.

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Quoting Disagreeable

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Discrimination, based on not being Mexican or Puerto Rican, would be illegal. I stand by my assertion OP should investigate EEOC procedures to determine if he has a case.

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Did you not notice the following:

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We now have a new worker who is not Mexican but does speak Spanish

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I am not latina by any means and I speak Spanish fluently. In fact, I was hired originally in my current job specifically because I speak Spanish and Italian.

Then he will review the EEOC site and determine his situation does not apply. EZ PZ.

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Quoting cbg

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But he's not being discriminated against by not being Mexican or Puerto Rican. He's being discriminated against for not being able to speak Spanish. That's not illegal.

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Exactly. The ability to speak Spanish is not limited by national origin. Since it is clear it is not his national origin, but his inability to speak Spanish, that is causing the problem, this is not only not an EEOC issue, but the employer is on safer ground by NOT enforcing English-only rules than they would be if they handled the situation the way the poster wants.