On the Line
On the Line Taking a Stand Against Sweatshops On December 9, the National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights and New York University students held a protest against Wal-Mart's use of...
...It started with one firing, then another, and quickly the number ballooned to eight in a matter of six months...
...A few have returned to their hometowns in Mexico...
...Groups involved with the rally included the Workman's Circle Shule, a Jewish Sunday school in Brookline, Mass AFL-CIO, Mass Jobs with Justice, Mass National Organization for Women, UNITE, and the Jewish Labor Committee...
...The workers formed their own union, United Dairyworkers of Ohio, Local 1. They went on strike November 2, and their demands include regular wage increases, grievance procedures, and an end to paycheck deductions for workplace accidents...
...Despite words of solidarity, however, such unions hesitated to send resources to a small band of workers-no more than fifty-in a remote area...
...Charu Gupta...
...There are more than three million directly hired farm workers, 80 percent of whom are from Mexico, according to the U.S...
...The company also reduced its starting wage from $8.50 to $7.50...
...For more information, contact the Rainbow Push Coalition at www.rainbowpush.org or the We Do Not Concede Coalition at www.donotconcede.com...
...Every Vote Counts Columbus, Ohio A group of civil rights organizations rallied on January 3 in Ohio's capital to denounce alleged voter fraud and voter suppression in the November 2004 Presidential election...
...Nearly 100 people attended the Justice for Janitors demonstration, organized by the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin and the Service Employees International Union Local 1. For more information, go to www.seiu1.org or www.workerjustice.org...
...Most workers have had to find part-time jobs to pay the bills...
...The new umbrella group Boston Student Mobilization Against the War-a coalition of students from fourteen area colleges and high schools-organized the protest...
...Some airlines are trying to use the bankruptcy process to cancel union contracts...
...Working the farm are mostly natives of Mexico...
...Fewer than 30,000 farm workers are organized, advocates say...
...The workers, with help from the Immigrant Worker Project nearby, first tried to find backing from major unions like the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and the United Food and Commercial Workers...
...Stop the War Boston About 300 students rallied against the Iraq War on December 4 at the Boston Common, where Howard Zinn addressed the crowd...
...Like other agricultural workers in the U.S., they have no official rights to form a union, bargain collectively, or confront employers-rights granted to workers in most other industries under the National Labor Relations Act...
...He wouldn't talk to me as a representative of all of us," says Espinoza...
...The odds aren't great for the Ohio workers, and the picket line has already proved grueling...
...The airline workers criticized the Bush Administration and Congress for allowing airline executives to propose bailouts that do not protect wages, benefits, pensions, and jobs...
...They also trucked in Guatemalan replacement workers from Georgia...
...For more information, contact the National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rightsatwww.nlcnet.org...
...Organizing dairy farm workers is a challenge...
...On the Line Taking a Stand Against Sweatshops On December 9, the National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights and New York University students held a protest against Wal-Mart's use of sweatshops...
...Departments of Labor and Agriculture...
...Even though they know that very few of them may benefit in the long run, they think it's time to take a stand...
...These strikers are settling into a long-term strategy," says Jeff Stewart, an activist with the Immigrant Workers Project...
...Justice for Janitors Madison,Wisconsin Janitors rallied on International Human Rights Day-December 10- to drum up community support for unionization efforts at CleanPower, Madison's largest cleaning contractor...
...On the other hand, a strike fund has collected more than $4,000, which helps with groceries and rent...
...The Olsen twins, who are students at NYU, signed the maternity leave pledge and are now calling for public disclosure of the names and addresses of factories used in Bangladesh to sew their garments...
...Dairy Derechos Marshallville, Ohio Stoll Farms has 3,000 dairy cows in northeastern Ohio...
...When a new manager fired an injured co-worker who couldn't work fast enough, Jorge Espinoza asked his colleagues-about forty other immigrant laborers-to stop working...
...And immigrant workers fear deportation if they sign up...
...For more information, contact the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA at www.afanet.org...
...He told us to leave if we didn't talk to him one on one...
...Lawyers for Stoll Farms did not return calls for comment...
...On December 5, children and union members protested at a Wal-Mart in Lynn, Massachusetts, because of the company's use of sweatshops...
...They also condemned the lack of paid maternity leave in Bangladeshi factories that produce goods for the retail giant...
...The protesters targeted Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsens clothing line, a private label for Wal-Mart...
...Espinoza then went to owner Edward Stoll with some questions...
...We will strike when the first bankruptcy judge throws out a flight attendant contract," said Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, reports AP...
...Under no obligation to recognize the strike as legal, Stoll Farms instead obtained a court injunction against the workers that permits only two people to picket per entrance...
...They say they were not treated fairly...
...Fight or Flight Washington, DC Two hundred flight attendants, pilots, maintenance workers, and their supporters demonstrated on December 14 at the White House to demand government action on the failing airline industry...
Vol. 69 • February 2005 • No. 2
