Symposium: Building Bridges to Labor’s Community Allies
Marvin Bing, a member of the AFL-CIO Special Committee on Labor-Community Partnerships, sends us this report on a meeting of AFL-CIO constituency groups in Phoenix.
AFL-CIO constituency groups kicked off the “We Are One Moving America Forward” symposium late last week with a series of great speeches by William Lucy, Ben Jealous, George Gresham, Danny Ortega and Judith Browne-Dianis. A resounding theme: “We can’t let the 1 percent trick us into believing we are different—We are the 99 percent, we are one and if we don’t work together on issues that bring us together, we will fall together.” We are the people who fight for working families, we are the people who fight to protect our students, children, seniors and families. We are the labor movement and together with the community we are unbeatable.
Constituency members include: The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), Pride At Work (PAW), Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA).
Maria Elena Durazo, secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, closed the panel, “Organizing in Our Communities: How African Americans and Latinos Have Strength in Unity,” by saying: Read the rest of this entry »
Eye-Witness to the Cruel Conditions in Tobacco Farm Labor Camps
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Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from North Carolina, where she is on a fact-finding trip to witness the brutal conditions endured by tobacco workers.
We joined a diverse delegation of 25 activists, students, labor and community leaders and traveled to farm labor camps in Dudley, N.C.., to witness firsthand the appalling and abusive conditions of tobacco farm workers.
Our journey began with a visit to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), where we learned about a recent report, “State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry,” that brings light to the tobacco industry’s impact on the human rights of farmworkers in the fields of North Carolina. Issued jointly by FLOC and Oxfam America, the report presented human right violations that we would later witness.
We drove 40 minutes into the country to visit labor camps where farmworkers live while they harvest tobacco to supply companies like RJ Reynolds, one of the richest corporations in U.S. agriculture—in fact, one of the largest tobacco corporations in the world, with annual profits of over $2 billion.
We what saw was never to be imagined. Read the rest of this entry »
Latino Labor Organization Calls for New Approach on Immigration
Andrea Delgado, LCLAA policy analyst and communications manager, sends us this.
Politicians must stop blaming immigrants and focus on the root causes of immigration—addiction to cheap labor and free trade policies that displace workers—according to a new study by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), an AFL-CIO constituency group.
“Disposable Workers: Immigration After NAFTA and the Nation’s Addiction to Cheap Labor” calls attention to the root causes of immigration flows into the United States, focusing on international economic policies that have triggered a massive displacement of workers, and U.S. addiction to cheap labor, which have intensified undocumented immigration and sparked racial tensions in this country.
The study’s author, LCLAA’s Executive Director Hector Sanchez, asks us to think about the hypocrisy in slandering of immigrants in the United States and the anti-immigrant policies even as we ignore the role that U.S. international economic policies have had in exacerbating income inequalities and uprooting millions of Mexicans and Central Americans from their homeland. Hector adds:
The same policies that are displacing workers here in the U.S. have dislocated workers in Mexico and other countries—limiting their economic prospects in their homeland and forcing them to seek better opportunities in the U.S.
Latino Heritage Month Celebrates Latino Working Families
Sept. 15-Oct. 15, Latino Heritage Month, offers a time to recognize the contributions of the nearly 47 million Latinos living in the United States and to highlight the issues facing our Latino brothers and sisters.
Representatives from Latino advocacy groups, unions, civil rights organizations, community groups and elected and appointed officials will come together to celebrate and recognize Latino working families in the United States Oct. 12 at the AFL-CIO. The theme of the evening is “Siempre Unidos. Our Legacy, Our Future: Celebrating America’s Latino Working Families.” Read the rest of this entry »
Study: Tobacco Workers Face Brutal Conditions in Tobacco Fields
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| Protesters rally outside the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., last week. |
The nearly 100,000 workers who travel to North Carolina each summer to harvest the state’s tobacco crop are often repaid for their hard work with sub-minimum wages, dangerous conditions in the fields and inhumane living conditions, according to findings released today from a human rights assessment conducted by Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).
The findings will be presented tomorrow to the annual shareholders’ meeting of Reynolds American in Winston-Salem, N.C., where supporters will call on the company to take action to end the abuses in its supply chain. Although Reynolds does not directly employ the farm workers on its contract farms, it sets the terms with its contract growers and profits from the farm workers’ labor. The full report “A State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry” will be released this summer. Click here to read the summary.
Protests in 10 Cities Support Tobacco Workers
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Union activists joined with members of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) to rally in front of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and British consulates in nine cities. The marchers called on British American Tobacco (BAT), the largest stockholder in U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American, to use its influence to stop “widespread and egregious” human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers.
Meanwhile in London, a delegation led by Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) President Baldemar Velasquez met with a small group of BAT corporate officials at the company’s headquarters. BAT promised to hold another larger meeting next month with workers to discuss conditions in the U.S. tobacco fields, according to FLOC. This is the first time any corporation with close ties to Reynolds American has agreed to meet with workers. For at least the past four years, Reynolds has refused to meet with representatives of workers.
Report: Latino Workers Face Roadblocks on Path to American Dream
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Latinos face tremendous challenges that threaten their prospects for a better life, according to new report.
The report, “Latino Workers in the United States 2011,” released this week by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), provides an in-depth look at the state of Latino workers.
The recession has hit Latino workers hard, the report says. The unemployment rate among Latinos last month was 11.3 percent, compared with 7.9 percent for white non-Latino workers. Employed Latinos disproportionately work in low-paying jobs. The median weekly income for Latinos in the most recent quarter available in 2010 was $532, while white non-Latinos earned $774. In fact, one in every four Latinos lived below the poverty line in 2009.
Latinos also have the highest high dropout rate, the highest percentage of people without health insurance, the highest occurrence of wage theft and are the most in danger of being killed on the job.
Read the full report here.
To correct these alarming trends, the report calls for a series of policy changes by Congress and the White House. It should begin with a massive jobs program that targets the Latino community. According to the report:
Workers will need training programs in order to full advantage of the good jobs, high wages and career opportunities presented in a new economy. In states and localities with limited English proficient populations, these programs must provide both job and language training. Legislation that better protects the lives and health of workers is a priority.
Finally, the report also calls for the President and Congress to: Read the rest of this entry »
19 Latino Organizations Denounce Assaults on Public Employees
Nineteen Latino organizations, including the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), have come together to oppose the attacks on public servants. Governors or legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Iowa and Florida are pushing extremist legislation that would take away the freedom of nurses, police, firefighters and other public employees to bargain for a middle-class life.
In a statement, the organizations call on lawmakers to oppose legislation that “limits the power of workers to negotiate for quality jobs, good wages, benefits, safe working conditions and job security.”
In the history of our nation, labor unions have served as workers’ watchdogs and the decline in union presence in our workplaces is a major issue affecting the job quality of Latinos and all workers across industry sectors. By bargaining collectively through their union, workers are able to negotiate higher wages.
Poor quality jobs, limited access to health care and pensions combined with high rates of wage violations, injuries and fatalities in the workplace are grave issues that disproportionately affect the Latino community. In the absence of unions, attacks on workers’ rights and declining job quality will go unabated for all workers; exacerbating these risks among vulnerable populations.
Click here for the full statement and a list of the organizations.
Latino Leaders: ‘Don’t Vote’ Ad Is Irresponsible, Dangerous
With less than two weeks to go, a Republican operative has been roundly condemned for trying to suppress the Latino vote, this time through a TV ad that Latino leaders say is both irresponsible and dangerous.
The Spanish-language network Univision on Tuesday pulled an ad funded by the front group, Latinos for Reform, urging Latinos in Nevada not to vote in the upcoming election, supposedly because Democrats had not reformed immigration laws. Latinos, who make up 15 percent of Nevada’s voters, overwhelmingly support Democrats.
Nevada’s Latino vote could be decisive in the race between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and tea party-backed Sharron Angle in one of the most high-profile races in the country. Nationally, Latino voters also will most likely play critical roles in races in California, Florida, New Mexico and Illinois, and Latino voter participation also will be watched closely in Arizona and Texas.
Republican Senators Can Block, but Not Kill, the DREAM
Ava Avendaño, assistant to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, writes that immigrant workers, unions and advocates for justice will not stop fighting just because Republican senators blocked the DREAM Act yesterday.
In another revealing display of their party’s true colors, Senate Republicans yesterday blocked passage of the DREAM Act. Every Republican senator—even some who had co-sponsored the legislation in the past—voted to stop progress on a bill that is vital to our national security and would have provided a path to citizenship to some of our nation’s most promising youth.
By stopping the bill, the Party of “No” made clear their willingness to exploit fear for political gain at the expense of our nation’s children, even as members of the Pentagon and many former top Defense officials say they support the DREAM Act because it would help the military build and keep a stronger all-volunteer force.
If enacted, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act would allow undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at least five years and have graduated from high school or received a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) to legalize their immigration status by pursuing a college education or serving in the U.S. military.
