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The Justice for Jeyasre Speaking Tour Stops in Chicago

October 6, 2021

Wale Ogunyemi was killed this summer in an unsafe warehouse outside of Chicago. He was a 42-year old Nigerian immigrant who supported his wife and two daughters from the United States. In that same warehouse, three workers were killed on the job and fifty-one serious injuries have been reported since 2016. 

In the first few minutes of the Justice for Jeyasre speaking tour stop in Chicago, Roberto Clack from Warehouse Workers for Justice shared Wale’s story, how they also had to bury a fellow worker, just months earlier, because of an unsafe workplace.

The Justice for Jeyasre Speaking Tour Stops in Philadelphia

September 30, 2021

There was an outpouring of support from the local labor unions, worker centers and members of Asian and South Asian diaspora especially Tamils who attended the Philadelphia stop of the #JusticeForJeyasre speaking tour. Participants in the tour stop shared personal experiences with workplace fights from garment shops in Bangladesh to coffee shops in Philadelphia, reflecting on parallel injustices and strategies to build worker power on the job.

The Justice for Jeyasre Speaking Tour Stops in Arizona

September 23, 2021

Borders are easily crossed by corporate garment brands. They rake in massive profits from suppliers who cheaply produce clothing in countries with low wages, large labor pools, and insufficient worker protections. While borders are open to brands, they hold workers in low wage jobs and, when workers do cross them, provide employers with the potent threat of deportation if workers organize or report abuse like sexual harassment. When the Justice for Jeyasre speaking tour stopped in Arizona on September 23rd, Thivya’s call to build solidarity across and against these borders resonated deeply with those listening.

The Justice for Jeyasre Speaking Tour Stops in Florida

September 15, 2021

On September 15th, Thivya met with unions and worker center leaders in Florida to discuss gender-based violence and harassment in the work\place.

The meeting was the first stop in Thivya’s virtual speaking tour to cities across the United States in support of the Justice for Jeyasre campaign. Central Florida Jobs with Justice, Dream Defenders, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Florida Policy Institute, Florida Student Power Network, Miami Workers Center, United for Respect, WeCount!, and SEIU 1199 all came out virtually to discuss strategies for organizing against retaliation and gender-based violence and harassment, and to learn about the Justice for Jeyasre campaign.

Indian Union Leader Thivya Rakini Inspires APALA Convention with Lessons of Organizing on Global Supply Chains from the South and Calls for Global Solidarity with Garment Workers in Honor of Jeyasre Kathiravel

August 9, 2021

Over the weekend,  Indian Union Leader Thivya Rakini, President of the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU) addressed the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance’s 16th Biennial Convention with the theme Rooted in Legacy: Reimagining a New World Beyond Borders & Across Oceans.  TTCU is a women-led Tamil Nadu based sectoral textile worker union.  

Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum Mourns the Passing of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Honors His Legacy Promoting International Labor Solidarity

August 9, 2021
 
 

WASHINGTON DC — Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-IRLF), our staff, and our allied unions and community organizations around the globe mourn the loss of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
 
As a third-generation miner and son of immigrant parents, President Trumka often publicly called on that experience as he defended important positions for working people and unions in the U.S. and around the world.  

Trade Subcommittee Hearing on the Global Challenged of Forced Labor in Supply Chains: Strengthening Enforcements and Protecting Workers

July 21, 2021

On Wednesday, July 21st, 2021 GLJ-ILRF’s Executive Director, JJ Rosenbaum testified at the Subcommittee on Trade of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means’s hearing to discuss innovative approaches to combat forced labor in global supply chains and how the U.S. government can strengthen enforcement & protect workers.

Other expert witnesses included Neha Misra, Global Lead of Migration and Human Trafficking at the Solidarity Center, Charity Ryerson, Executive Director of the Corporate Accountability Lab, Genevieve LeBaron, Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, and Brian Lowry, Senior Vice President of Innovation, Regulation, and Trade at the United States Council for International Business.

Decent Work and Central American Immigration

May 27, 2021

“The difference between staying in Honduras and leaving for the United States is not whether you have a job or not. It’s whether you have decent work,” states Tomás Membreño, President of STAS, the Honduran industrial agricultural workers’ union. He would know. In 2017, after palm oil conglomerate Grupo Jaremar used violence and unlawful firings to break STAS’s organizing efforts in the palm oil plantations, over a hundred would-be union members joined caravans headed north.

Support Central American Farmworkers Impacted by Hurricane Eta

November 11, 2020

 

Donate now and show your solidarity with Honduran and Guatemalan Farmworkers devasted by the impact of Hurricane Eta.

There is an urgent need for support for Honduran and Guatemalan farmworker unions in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Eta. Thousands of Central American farmworkers have been left in a state of emergency caused by flooding and devastation in the wake of Hurricane Eta.

AFL-CIO, SEIU File Complaint Charging Trump Administration’s COVID-19 Response Violated Global Labor Standards

October 21, 2020

Actions, or lack thereof, by OSHA, NLRB Endangered Workers’ Lives Groups Call on International Labour Organization to Step in to Protect U.S. Workers 

U.S. trade unions representing more than 14 million workers Wednesday filed a complaint with the International Labour Organization charging the Trump administration with violating global standards in its handling of the Covid-19 crisis in American workplaces. In the complaint, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) assert the Trump administration and anti-union employers have exploited longstanding flaws in U.S. labor law – and imposed new ones – to restrict employees’ organizing and bargaining rights, leaving millions of workers unable to defend their health and their lives while the Coronavirus ravages their workplaces.

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