Search Results for 'International day of Action'
Organizing & Bargaining |
Mar 21 |
March 21: International Day for Elimination of Racism
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The global economic crisis cannot be successfully resolved if the solution leaves out workers who are discriminated against because of their race or ethnic origin. As unemployment rises around the world, so, too, are the incidents of racial, ethnic and gender discrimination in the workplace, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Today, on the International Day for the Elimination of Racism, the ITUC is mobilizing its members—some 170 million workers in 157 countries—to bring attention to the need to eradicate racism in the workplace.
In today’s global economy, the ITUC says, millions of men and women are currently deprived of jobs, denied promotions or are poorly paid, harassed and intimidated because of their race or ethnic origin.
The global union movement is calling on the world’s leaders, who will meet in coming weeks at a United Nations conference on racism, to make a “solid commitment” to eliminating all forms of discrimination. The ITUC statement makes it clear governments must play a role in eliminating discrimination.
Discrimination based on color, ethnic origin, culture or religion is an insidious and changing phenomenon, difficult to quantify and to combat. Nonetheless, a show of real political will by all those concerned could lead to a world free of discrimination.
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Mar 5 |
Check Out Workers Memorial Day Via Facebook
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Workers Memorial Day is April 28 and as part of the preparation for the events and ceremonies to honor workers who have been killed or injured on the job—and to demand improved workplace safety—the AFL-CIO has set up a special Workers Memorial Day Facebook page.
On the just-created page, you can connect with other workplace safety activists, learn about Workers Memorial Day events in your area, or reach out to others to help organize actions where you live. The page also has a gallery of Workers Memorial Day posters from previous years.
If you are not are not already a Facebook member, it’s a simple, free process to register. If you are a Facebook member or have your own page, don’t forget to post the Workers Memorial Day information in your profile or on your page. That will help generate a community of people concerned about workplace safety.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Mar 5 |
Women Worldwide Are Paid Even Less Than We Thought
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In the current global economic crisis when jobs and living standards for millions of workers are threatened, a new report reveals the pay gap between men and women worldwide may be much higher than previously believed. The report, Gender (in)Equality in the Labor Market, puts the global pay gap at up to 22 percent, rather than the official government figure of 16.5 percent reported last year.
The report, released today by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in advance of International Women’s Day, March 8, reaffirms what union members already know: Women who belong to unions earn more than nonunion women and receive better pay relative to their male co-workers. Click here to read the entire report.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Mar 4 |
Solis Investigating Guest Worker Visas on Florida Hotel Project
In one of her first official acts as labor secretary, Hilda Solis has asked for a review of how Mexican sheet metal workers were given visas to work on the St. Regis Hotel project in Bal Harbour, Fla., when more than 1,000 members of the Sheet Metal Workers union (SMWIA) are out of work in the same area.
The company hired to install the heating and air conditioning ducts, CYVSA International, received approval from the state of Florida and the Bush Labor Department for visas to bring in foreign workers for seasonal work. But the visas are supposed to be granted only if there are no Americans available to do the job.
Florida ranked second in the number of jobs certified for foreign workers under one of the visa programs known as H-2B. In 2008, a total of 22,195 jobs in the state were approved for H-2B foreign workers, including 1,145 construction workers, 119 roofers, 10 electricians and six bricklayers.
Economy, Legislation & Politics |
Feb 9 |
Green Jobs Must Also Be Good Jobs
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Creating green jobs must be a key part of our economic future, and it holds the key to solving the dual issues of global warming and economic growth. But the jobs will only boost the economy if there are guarantees to prevent employers from seeking to make profits on the backs of workers.
For three days last week, more than 2,600 union and environmental activists and lawmakers gathered in Washington, D.C., to discuss how to create a new wave of green jobs that will both stimulate the economy and provide a clean future. Participants at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference focused on transforming the struggling economy through a range of environmental investments in green technology, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Conference organizers said the goal was to develop a “New Green Deal” that would create jobs, increase energy independence, reduce global warming and expand the clean energy and green technology markets.
In addition, the conference highlighted the potential of a green economy to build a new social agenda that lifts Americans out of poverty, improves public health and strengthens the middle class.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 1 |
$3 Million for Super Bowl Ad. $3 for Workers Who Paid For It
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| Liberian rubber workers walk for miles with heavy metal buckets of rubber on their backs. |
Nearly 100 million football fans across the country will be tuning in to watch Bruce Springsteen belt out his trademark songs celebrating America’s workers during halftime at the Super Bowl this evening. They also will see two new 30-second commercials—estimated to cost at least $3 million each—from Bridgestone Firestone, the world’s largest tire company and the halftime sponsor.
But none of the viewers will see Austin Natee and his fellow workers. Natee is president of the union that represents the thousands of Liberian rubber workers who earn $3 on a good day, but whose hard labor creates the profits that Bridgestone Firestone uses to pay for the halftime spectacular.
When he was in Washington, D.C., last year to accept the 2007 Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award on behalf of the rubber workers, Natee explained how Bridgestone Firestone continually exploits workers and pollutes the environment. Saying the workers live in modern-day slavery, he explained that rubber tappers work 14 hours a day and must tap 750 rubber trees and accumulate 150 pounds of latex daily—all for little more than $3 a day and a monthly 100-pound bag of subsidized rice if quotas are met.
Economy |
Jan 28 |
Up to 50 Million More Jobs Threatened by Global Crisis
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| The ILO predicts worldwide poverty will rise as the global economic crisis worsens. |
The global economic crisis could throw as many as 50 million more workers out of jobs worldwide in the next year and lead to a dramatic increase in the number of working poor, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In its annual Global Employment Trends report, the ILO, an arm of the United Nations, says global unemployment between 2007 and 2009 could rise by 18 million to 30 million workers-and possibly by more than 50 million if the world economy continues to deteriorate. As a result, some 200 million workers, mostly in developing economies, could be pushed into extreme poverty. Click here to download the report.
Legislation & Politics |
Jan 21 |
Bush Deals Last-Minute Insults to Workers’ Rights
The Bush administration couldn’t resist taking a final slap at human rights. In Bush’s final hours in office, he implemented on Friday a trade agreement with Peru despite calls by Congress, unions, environmental and human rights groups to delay action to ensure that Peru’s laws meet its commitments before the agreement enters into force.
The new “reforms” passed by Peru’s Congress last week are inadequate to protect the environment, promote worker rights and ensure access to affordable medicines, as required by the agreement.
At the same time, the Bush Labor Department’s Office of Trade & Labor Affairs rejected a petition, the first of its kind, under the labor provisions of the Central America Free Trade Act (CAFTA) The petition, filed in April by six Guatemalan unions, with the support of the AFL-CIO, involved five cases where employers suppressed, sometimes violently, workers’ efforts to form a union, and the government failed to protect worker’s internationally recognized rights.
AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee says these two actions:
….were a parting shot of disrespect by the Bush administration.
In a last-ditch effort to avert criticism and secure implementation of the agreement before Bush left office, the Peruvian government approved a series of legislative reforms Jan. 13 that exacerbate current environmental problems, such as mass deforestation, and do not adequately address labor rights, labor and human rights groups say.
Here is Susan Ellsworth, associate representative with the Sierra Club:
The U.S. Congress voted for an FTA that members believed represented a new day for environmental protection and worker rights on trade agreements. This is not what will happen if Peru rushes through flawed laws at the eleventh hour.
Many members of Congress, including President Barack Obama, supported the U.S.-Peru agreement in 2007 because it included new and stronger provisions to promote worker rights and protect the environment. But the rush to certify the FTA now threatens to undercut these advances and lock inadequate laws into place.
Lee adds:
Peru’s labor laws still fall far short of meeting International Labor Organization standards, and we were deeply disappointed with the Bush administration’s decision to rush implementation without first securing compliance with the agreement’s provisions. This represents a wasted opportunity and shows poor faith on the part of our own government.
The Bush administration refused to even consider the Guatemalan unions’ complaint even though four union leaders and/or their family members were murdered in that country since the agreement was approved by Congress and many others have been victims of attempted murder or have received death threats. Workers who attempt to form or join a union, bargain collectively or conduct a strike still are routinely fired illegally, the unions say.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Jan 16 |
Indonesian Workers Ready to Weather Global Economic Storm
Tim Ryan of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center reports from Indonesia, where the global economic crisis is eerily familiar.
When the U.S. economy went over the edge in the middle of September, I had a horrible feeling of déjà vu. Except it wasn’t an illusion because I’d actually seen it before. Ten years ago, I was working with trade unions and labor activists all across Indonesia, where the Asian version of what’s happening now on the global level brought tremendous chaos and a revolution to this country of 220 million people.
Legislation & Politics |
Jan 14 |
Global Unions Will Help Push Employee Free Choice
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Yesterday at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., union leaders from 45 different countries met with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and representatives of U.S. union organizations to discuss the union movement in the United States and the need to work together to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s an exciting chance for global cooperation in the fight to preserve workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Union leaders, representing countries from across the world—Australia, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, Ghana, Sweden and Indonesia, just to name a few—took part in a discussion of the critical issues facing America’s workers.
