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Don’t Forget Haiti’s Workers
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Despite reports of improved conditions in Port-au-Prince, two weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, workers still lack basic shelter, food, water and medicine, reports Cathy Feingold, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Feingold met with union leaders in Haiti last week and says:
…the majority of union leaders and members are sleeping outside their homes because many completely collapsed or became unstable as a result of structural damage. Direct access to international humanitarian aid remains challenging; so many workers and their unions depend on the support received from the global labor movement.
You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here. You can read Feingold’s full report here.
Meanwhile, union support continues to pour into Haiti:
- Some of the 11,000 nurses who responded to the National Nurses United‘s call for volunteers to help in Haiti left this week to join the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is crewed by members of the Seafarers. You can help send a nurse to Haiti by clicking here.
- Donations to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers Campaign are already being put to use. Delegations from Dominican unions have traveled to Port-au-Prince with truckloads of bottled water, non-perishable food, first aid products, re-hydration liquids and other needed supplies. Click here and Union Plus will automatically match your contribution to the fund, up to $100,000. You do not need to use a Union Plus credit card for the matching donation.
- Fire Fighters (IAFF) members from Los Angeles, Fairfax County, Va., and other cities are still conducting rescue operations in the rubble.
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3 Comments
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AMERICANS AND COUNTRYS FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHO HAVE DONATED MONEY TO ALL OF THE PROGRAMS FOR HELPING HAITI SHOULD BY NOW , SHOULD HAVE LET GO OF SOME OF IT AND PUT IT IN THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE TO HAITI IN THE RELIEF OF HELPING HAITI ! THEY SHOULD BE COMPENSATED AND HELP WITH ALL THE NEEDS , WHO GAVE THEM SELFS AND NOT BE OVER LOOCKED AND SWEEPTED UNDER THE RUG , THEY SHOULD BE PAID FOR THEY WORK TOO! THERES A LOT OF MONEY THAT HAS BEEN MADE AND SHOULD BE FAIR ABOUT IT !
WE CAN NOT TAKE KINDNESS AS A WEAKNESS AND FOR SO LONG THATS HOW PEOPLE TAKE AMERICANS , THE ONES THAT OUR THERE DOING ALL THE WORK , NOT THE HOT AIR BADS THAT WANT TO TAKE ALL THE CREDIT AND WALK AWAY WITH THE MONEY !
I have seen no information in the media about Haitian workers or their unions. The National Labor Committee says they haven’t been working there recently. But surely, someone knows what has happened to workers at the Disney factories that used to make the Pocahontas costumes. How about the Levi-Strauss factories? Did they get knocked down? Googling Bataille Ouvrier gets a message that says that workers are being forced back to work in ruined factories. Is this true? This item from James Park mentions workers and quotes Feingold on union leaders, but doesn’t tell us anything about workers and their work and their places of work.
Thanks — Helena Worthen, University of Illinois
Lets bring some of these union leaders up to the U.S. to travel around and address large labor meetings in solidarity with the workers in Haiti. Lets organize union to union solidarity together with the Haitian community here.