Last night, just a few miles away from Nike’s global headquarters, two Honduran workers spoke out strongly about how Nike’s destructive labor practices have hurt them, their families and their co-workers. Gina Cano and Lowlee Urquía testified in front of members of the Portland Area Workers’ Rights Board and a crowd of more than 100 community members.
Both women had worked in Nike-contracted factories for many years in Honduras before being laid off without notice, and without legally mandated severance pay in January 2009. “We’re here in Oregon, the home of Nike, because we want to put a face to the consequences of Nike’s behavior”, said Lowlee Urquía. “We’re saying to Nike that it is responsible every step of the way.”
The two women represented over 1,700 workers who are owed $2.2 million in severance pay. The workers are also owed health care premiums, which were deducted from their wages but never paid to the health care system. This meant that workers could not access health care in the four months before the closure. At least one worker, who had been receiving cancer treatment, died because of this denial of care, according to
The debate over measures to fix America’s broken labor laws took a back seat during the long debate on health care. Now that the focus has shifted to efforts to stimulate economic growth and job creation, it’s time to put workers’ rights front and center.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with right-wing noise groups with shady sources of funding put out numerous talking points and videos painting unions as the problem as citing union intimidation as the biggest threat to the rights of working people to decide whether to unionize or not. They even went so far as to hire an actor from The Sopranos (union actors by the way) to create a cartoonish vision of this imagined reality.
The idea that unions are the problem flies so greatly in the face of the reality experienced by countless workers who have been involved in organizing campaigns, that a lie that big can’t be allowed to stand unchallenged. But rather than earnest position papers and counterpoints, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
On Friday, April 16th, Jobs with Justice coalitions in Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Boston joined protesters in front of British Consulates in those cities to demand justice for 570 California miners who have been locked-out of work by the Rio Tinto mining corporation, a British-based mining conglomerate, since January 31, 2010 at the world’s 2nd largest borax mine in Boron, CA.
Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has a history of human rights abuses around the globe. In Boron, California, the company retaliated against employees, members of the ILWU, and instituted the “lock-out” after workers rejected a company ultimatum that included illegal contract demands and provisions allowing the company to convert good full-time jobs into part-time, temporary, and outsourced positions with little or no benefits.
“Today’s action was a powerful demonstration of solidarity by ILWU locals and other labor and social justice groups in the SF Bay Area for the mineworkers in Boron, which is in a relatively remote part of California,” said Gordon Mar of Jobs with Justice San Francisco.
Students and workers are tired of having the federal and state budgets balanced on their backs and are standing up to these atrocities. Today, we will stand up to demand full funding of higher education, a stop to the corporatization of education, proportionate representation on university decision -making bodies, and good union jobs in our schools. We will demonstrate that students and workers will not stand on the sidelines as education become a privilege available only to the few and while jobs are lost because of state budget cuts and the inaction in the federal government to pass student aid reform.
We are fighting these cuts now, but we also know that we need to look at the root problem and seek ways to fund the public sector through revenue reform and change
BOSTON—More than 90 union members, students and community activists jammed the SEIU Local 888 union hall here on Saturday for a “Troublemakers School” sponsored by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice.
IBEW Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey gave a rousing welcome to kick things off. “We’re not going to get labor’s problems solved in Washington or on Beacon Hill unless we take a page from the civil rights and gay rights movements,” said Calvey, a former New England telecom strike leader. “We’ve got to be a lot more aggressive so that politicians are forced to deal with our issues. We’ve got make our problems, their problems!”
Calvey was followed by a panel of local organizers from the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Angelica Laundry strike, Service Employees’ Local 1199’s Caritas hospital campaign and American Federation of Government Employee’s Transportation Safety Officers organizing drive. Their presentations were followed by a wide-ranging discussion about organizing strategies and reports from other workplace struggles. (To learn more about these campaigns, go to www.ufcwlocal1445.org/Open1445Intro2.htm; http://fairunionelections.org and
Members of community, labor, religious and student organizations gathered on February 11th to hear from and support workers facing exploitation at the hands of Gillette stadium’s contractor and the outrageous tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in ambushing dozens of immigrant workers.
Earlier this year ICE detained 58 workers who were on their way to work at Gillette Stadium at a roadblock in Foxboro. The workers were hired to shovel snow from the stadium seats in preparation for a New England Patriots game. These hardworking Rhode Islanders now face deportation.
This ICE attack is the most high-profile act by ICE against Rhode Islanders since the raids at six RI courthouses in 2008. It is the largest number of Rhode Islanders detained by ICE since the 2007 raid at the Bianco Factory in New Bedford.
While ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have tried to claim that the raid was directed toward people with criminal records, the vast majority of people arrested had no record whatsoever, and were unknown to ICE at the time of their arrest. According to Juan Garcia of the Immigrants in Action Committee, “This action shows that ICE is not focused on going after people
After two years of struggle at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Jobs with Justice (JwJ) and the security guards at the museum filed for union recognition this past September and won their election on October 10, 2009, forming the Philadelphia Security Officers Union (PSOU). This historic victory is a testament to hundreds of hours of volunteer work, the strategic campaign run by JwJ, the support of Philadelphians, and the dedication and fearlessness of the security guards who stood up for their rights on the job.
AlliedBarton, the security company that employs the guards, contested the election, and guards spent December awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
On January 5th, the NLRB announced their decision in favor of the PSOU! Guards are currently working on their contract with AlliedBarton, and anticipate more obstacles to come. Will AlliedBarton slow down progress further by filing another frivolous appeal?
Check out this great segment on GRITtv about the workers’ struggle
Lakeside worker Lana Wegner-Harden, joined by SEIU Organizer Baschki Leo, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, and Tompkins County Workers' Center/JwJ Organizer, Linda Holzbaur Speaking at Tuesday Press Conference (Photo: Marty Luster, Photo News Service)
One hundred thirty workers at Lakeside Nursing Home in Ithaca announced Tuesday (supported by their union SEIU1199, Assemblyperson Barbara Lifton; Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson; Pastor Rich Rose of the First Baptist Church in Ithaca, the Workers’ Center, families of residents, and various community organizations) their intention to fight requirements by the new owners of Lakeside, the Peregrine Health Management Company. Health care workers at Lakeside have been told they must reapply for jobs, will have their wages lowered, and lose retirement pensions when Peregrine, take over as owners on November 1st.
The workers at Lakeside (to be renamed Cayuga Ridge LLC) demand that Peregrine guarantee the jobs and pensions of the healthcare-givers they have employed for the past nine years. Lana Wegner-Harden, an LPN at Lakeside for the past 16 years,
City seasonal workers launched a class-action lawsuit against the City of Buffalo in early 2008 as part of their campaign to secure back wages owed to them under the City of Buffalo’s Living Wage Ordinance. Their lawsuit inched closer to victory last week when NYS Supreme Court Judge Timothy Drury issued a decision that strongly supports the workers’ claims. Judge Drury ruled that the wage freeze imposed by the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority that was lifted in July of 2007 should never have been applied to the seasonal workers, stating clearly that the local Living Wage Ordinance is not pre-empted by the Fiscal Stability Act.
Abraham McKinney, one of the plaintiffs in the case said:
I feel good about Judge Drury’s decision. I’ve worked as a seasonal for over eight years. Funny thing is that there isn’t anything ’seasonal’ about my work. I get laid off every six months for five work days. I applied for a seasonal laborer position thinking it would be a stepping stone to a decent city job but I’ve never been offered a permanent position and until recently our wages were impossible to live on. No one who is earning poverty level wages should have their pay
Last night, the Providence City Council took a final vote to approve the Hospitality Business Protection and Worker Retention Ordinance. The ordinance will require that hospitality businesses in the district, including the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the Rhode Island Convention Center, Veterans Memorial Auditorium, and three hotels, retain employees for at least six months in the event of a sale or subcontract of the business and maintain the prevailing wage and health insurance standards.
Last night, just a few miles away from Nike’s global headquarters, two Honduran workers spoke out strongly about how Nike’s destructive labor practices have hurt them, their families and their co-workers. Gina Cano and Lowlee Urquía testified in front of members of the Portland Area Workers’ Rights Board and a crowd of more than 100 community members.
