Blog

Maritza, Puerto Rican Mother: Unsafe workplace and resistance to unionizing

May 2, 2009

There’s not a lot of safety in our factory. There’s not enough space
to walk down the aisles. We’re almost sitting on top of each other. The
walls, fans, and lamps are dirty. The bathrooms aren’t in the best
conditions – the toilet seats are broken and many of the toilets don’t
work. Sometimes there isn’t toilet paper. We are lucky to get paid
maternity leave that ranges between 20-60 days. We are offered a
medical plan but it’s expensive; for me the family medical plan costs
me $150 per month and it doesn’t even cover pharmaceuticals. We don’t
have paid sick leave: right now we’re organizing to have our legal
rights to12 paid sick days per year.

May Day Fails its Promise to Workers

May 1, 2009

On April 19, while President Obama was shaking hands with Colombia’s President Uribe, mine workers for a US coal company in Colombia were being violently assaulted by Colombia’s National Guard. The workers were engaged in a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with a worker who was killed on the job on March 23, and to demand enforcement of better safety and health protections in the workplace. National Guardsmen surrounded the meeting with tanks, injured several workers, and detained the union leaders.

Corporate America Feasts from the African Bread Basket

April 30, 2009

In its essence, Ngonyo’s talk downplayed the influence that American corporations and government agencies have in re-shaping Kenya's agriculture policy. Kenyan farmers and consumers were kept in the dark last year as the US legislature passed the Global Food Security Act on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that benefits multinational corporations while putting farmers and consumers at risk. However, this act paints a bigger and more morbid picture of a broken African food system that allows these corporations and agencies to abuse agricultural workers and in turn feed the world unhealthy food.

Far from Equal Pay

April 28, 2009

In the US, according to a new analysis released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the median weekly income for men is higher than those of women in almost all occupations.  Even in the highest ten paying professions for women, a woman’s salary consists of only 86% of a man’s salary in the same position.  This has significant consequences for women, as the salary that a female worker is paid today considerably impacts the amount of social security benefits she will receive later in life and the retirement money she will be able to rely on due to the contribution she will be able to make to her 401K plans.

Beyond ‘Buy American’: Sorting Allies and Enemies

April 22, 2009

When unions side with nationalism they confuse workers about who our allies are, who our enemies are, and what will advance our own interests. Without alternative strategies economic nationalism seems logical, but our history suggests it will take us onto the rocks. Why?

HATRED, VIOLENCE

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when we were first starting to hemorrhage manufacturing jobs and corporations were going global, labor reacted by advocating trade protections and Buy American. Toyota-bashing parties and blaming Mexican workers for stealing our jobs were commonplace.

Workers Responding to Crisis #1: Updates from France, Central Europe, NYC, DC, Boston & More!

April 21, 2009

Central Europe

Tire production has been rapidly expanding in Central Europe recently with companies like Bridgestone and Goodyear opening up factories in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia.  The ICEM and rubber union leaders in Central Europe recently held a meeting in Budapest to talk about how the economic crisis is affecting tire workers and how these unions can work together.  Many unions reported that workers are seeing hours and wages reduced, some are being forced to take vacation or are working shorter weeks and others are still struggling with union recognition.

Global

Tax Dollars for Sweatshops?

April 16, 2009

Governments can help create a more fair and just economy in many ways.  One way, seldom considered, is simply being responsible and ethical consumers.  As big purchasers, governments on all levels can require that workers who make the products they buy enjoy decent working conditions and living wages. Many states and cities are doing so by joining the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium, an innovative new collaboration to steer our tax dollars to companies doing the right thing by their workers.

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