Help the Victims of Pakistan’s Floods
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When tragedy strikes American workers are always in the forefront of those offering help. This time, it’s the massive flooding caused by weeks of torrential rain in Pakistan.
In a letter to Khurshid Ahmed, general secretary of the Pakistan Workers’ Federation (PWF), AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka expressed solidarity with the Pakistani workers and offered condolences to the victims of the flooding.
In the letter, Trumka says:
Let me assure you that American workers are with you in your time of crisis. We also know that the Solidarity Center office in Pakistan is working with you to help relieve some of the suffering and pain that your members and their families are experiencing.
Solidarity Center Supports, Extends Workers’ Efforts to Build Unions
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Through its work in more than 60 countries on five continents, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center is supporting and extending workers’ efforts to gain a better life by helping them to build strong unions. In its 2009 Annual Report, the Solidarity Center highlights its wide range of programs to help workers form unions.
The Solidarity Center is helping African journalists in Rwanda and Burundi create full-fledged democratic unions and joining with national unions in those countries to fight HIV/AIDS.
- In Pakistan, where teachers unions are banned, the Solidarity Center, with support from AFT, brought together 45 teacher associations to form the Teacher Consortium of Pakistan (TCOP). The 150,000 members of TCOP fight for issues important to all teachers in the country.
- The Solidarity Center supports an association of women workers in the Dominican Republic, comprised of both Haitian migrants and Dominican nationals, and conducts advocacy to ensure they know their rights as workers.
- With the support of the Solidarity Center, the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine launched a campaign for quality health care and education. Members collected more than 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for adequate funding for medical and school supplies and other needs.
You can download the Annual Report here.
91 Unionists Killed in 2008, 49 in Colombia Alone
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A total of 91 union members were killed worldwide last year, the same number as in 2007. But more than half (49) were killed in Colombia alone, 10 more than last year, making it once again the most dangerous country for trade unionists, according to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC‘s) “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights.”
The Colombian government has not vigorously investigated or prosecuted the killing of trade union members. At the current pace of investigations and trials, it would take 37 years to prosecute the backlog of cases. And the caseload is growing—the rate of killings, which had fallen for a few years, jumped sharply last year by 25 percent, says José Luciano Sanin, director of Escuela Nacional Sindical (National Union School), a leading Colombian think tank.
