Oct. 29: Student Day of Action Against Rite Aid
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In eight cities across the country today, college students will visit their local Rite Aid drug store, not to pick up toiletries or prescriptions but to picket and protest the company’s persistent pattern of worker rights abuse.
The protests are part of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) national day of action against Rite Aid, the country’s third largest retail drugstore chain. USAS International Campaigns Coordinator Teresa Cheng says students are especially concerned about employee abuse at Rite Aid’s massive Southwest Regional Distribution Center in Lancaster, Calif., where 550 workers are in the sixth year of a struggle to join union and bargain a contract.
Student activists will hold actions today outside Rite Aid stores in State College, Pa; Palo Alto, Calif.; Boston; Los Angeles; Ithaca, N.Y.; Seattle; Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Washington, D.C.
Workers, Activists Rally for Release of Bangladesh Labor Rights Leaders
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Jeff Vogt, associate director of AFL-CIO International Department, reports on today’s rally at the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, D.C.
Some 30 trade union and labor activists from the AFL-CIO, AFT, International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and others rallied in front of the Embassy of Bangladesh today to protest the continued imprisonment on unsubstantiated charges of the leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS).
The arrests of Kalpona Akter and Babul Ahkter follow recent worker protests over minimum wages in the ready-made garment industry. The police rounded up the BCWS leaders even though they were were not involved in destroying property during one such protest rally. The move appears to be part of an overall strategy to intimidate and chill legitimate workers’ rights activity in the industry.
The government recently has taken away the labor rights organization’s registration. BCWS and other workers’ rights groups in Bagladesh report that another BCWS leader was detained and tortured. While the leader was detained, BCWS says authorities unsuccessfully attempted to force a confession that would implicate the group’s leadership of illegal activity.
At 20 cents per hour, garment workers’ wages are by far the lowest of any major apparel producing country. Often, workers are not even paid. They also face hazardous working conditions, and several lost their lives recently in major factory fires.
Rally organizers promised to return to the embassy until BCWS leaders are released.
Shuler: Youths, Unions Together Can Change the Nation
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Saying today’s young workers are the “guinea pigs of the new normal economy,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler called for a new national economic strategy that addresses the real needs of young people in the workforce and creates good jobs that provide the security and prosperity previous generations enjoyed.
Speaking at the national conference of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), one of the union movement’s staunchest allies, this past weekend in Knoxville, Tenn., Shuler said the union movement must reach out to its younger members and young workers in general. She said the AFL-CIO is convening a national youth summit in June 2010 to explore ways younger workers can become even more involved in helping build the kind of country we all want to live in. Click here to read the full speech.
Shuler is leading AFL-CIO efforts to engage youth organizations, online communities and young people in and outside of unions about their needs, hopes and expectations in this tough economy and for the future.
Shuler told the USAS members:
There’s no question that the union movement needs your skills, your energy, your ideas, your leadership.
Student Anti-Sweatshop Activists Score Big Win for Honduran Workers
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In what is being hailed as the biggest victory ever by student anti-sweatshop activists, Russell Athletic, the largest supplier of team uniforms and logo-wear, has agreed to reopen a Honduran factory shut down in January shortly after its workers formed a union and will rehire the 1,200 union members.
When Russell shut the factory and moved production to cheaper nonunion plants, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) mobilized on college and university campuses across the country. Their actions persuaded nearly 100 schools, including Harvard, Michigan, Miami, North Carolina and Stanford universities, to end their agreements with Russell for violating the workers’ rights.
Workers Push for Fair Wages in Asian Garment Industry
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Workers in Asia, the United States, United Kingdom and throughout Europe are mobilizing to secure a living wage for garment workers in Asia. The Asia Floor Wage is focused on making sure that the more than 100 million mostly women workers in the Asian garment industry receive adequate wages for what they produce.
Launched on Oct. 7, World Day for Decent Work, the Asia Floor Wage is pushing for a minimum wage equivalent to $475 for a month with a 48-hour workweek. That’s twice what Indonesian laborers get. It’s three times the minimum rate of pay in Sri Lanka and more than six times the wage in Bangladesh.
Today Is World Day for Decent Work
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Today is World Day for Decent Work, and union members in more than 100 countries are mobilizing to address the global economic and employment crisis and demand fundamental reform of the world economy.
The deepest global recession since the 1930s has led to a jobs crisis with millions of people out of work. The International Labor Organization (ILO) predicts that as many as 50 million more workers could be kicked out of jobs worldwide in the next year and could lead to a dramatic increase in the number of working poor.
Live online coverage of the activities around the world, including videos, photographs and messages from events in every continent, will be broadcast on a special website, www.wddw.org, which will be updated via a 24-hour live feed.
