Archive for the ‘Labor’ Category
BP’s Latin American Problem
8:16 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Colombia|Energy|Environment|Labor · 2 Comments
8 Jun 2010The eyes of the world are rightfully on the U.S. Gulf Coast and the massive damage being done by the BP oil spill and according to some, the U.S. government’s handling of it. BP, like so many multi-national organizations, has spread it’s oily tentacles across the globe and as people and wildlife struggle in the Gulf Coast region, in Colombia, workers have been fighting BP as well for at least five months. According to reports, workers at the Tauramena Central Processing Facility in Casanare have been fighting to have a recognized union with collective bargaining power, something BP is resisting.
On June 2, last week, a branch of the Colombian Army attacked the striking workers, who have escalated their strike to include blocking roads and other acts of civil disobedience.
Oyster Bay Long Island Ordinance Targeting Latino Day Laborers Halted
6:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor|New York · Comments Off
21 May 2010That was fast. An Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY ordinance targeting Latino day laborers seeking work was shot down yesterday by a Federal Judge, who issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the law until a full hearing on the matter on May 28th.
The decision came following a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union
The law used the excuse of public safety, claiming that day laborers seeking work in Farmingdale and Locust Valley presented a danger to pedestrians and drivers. Most Latino immigrant workers and their supporters say the law was racial profiling and anti-immigrant.
For now day laborers can return to seeking work in order to provide for themselves and their familias.
NJ Senator Menendez Making Pro-Migrant Moves Outside of CIR Framework
8:27 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor|New Jersey|Politics · Comments Off
19 Apr 2010
In the absence of any Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, seems that some Senators are making moves which take piecemeal approaches to protecting immigrant workers. Last week, New Jersey Democrat Senator Robert Menendez introduced the Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retailation (POWER) Act which seeks to protect immigrant whistleblowers who report workplace violations and abuses of being threatened with deportation.
Sen. Menendez said that the bill is likely to get the 60 votes in November 2010 which is better than the expectations for CIR.
“It may very well be in November the lame duck session, when members, who have retired or not going to run again, whose heart and mind says this is the right thing but maybe whose politics says to them no, would be willing to vote,”
Remember how we reported that activists in Dallas were working to get a street named after Chicano hero, Cesar Chavez? Well, I just found out (a little late) that Dallas city council decided to adopt the measure, and the Expressway will be renamed! From the Dallas Morning News:
The Dallas City Council voted unanimously this afternoon to rename South Central Expressway between Pacific Avenue and Grand Avenue for civil rights hero Cesar Chavez.
Chavez’s work on behalf of American farm laborers became a key part of the American civil rights movement and he is revered by many for advancing the rights of minorities and the poor.
The council’s path toward honoring Chavez, and acknowledging the influence of Dallas’ growing Hispanic population, was far from smooth.
The council rejected efforts to rename more prominent streets in Industrial Boulevard and Ross Avenue for Chavez. A short-lived plan to rename Young Street never made it to the full council.
The council was clearly united in the plan to rename the short stretch of surface street that runs past the Dallas Farmers Market.
Although it sounds like the renaming of this particular stretch of road wasn’t exactly what the activists calling for a name change wanted, it does show promise that they were able to push through the measure at all. I know several cities across the country, including in my own Michigan, where even renaming the worst street in the worst part of town has been met with hostility and sometimes even violence.
Congratulations to Dallas activists on a job well done!
All is Not Quiet in Honduras as Unionista is Murdered
9:09 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · honduras|Labor · 10 Comments
14 Feb 2010
The swearing in of new President Porfirio Lobo hasn’t brought the peace that the people of Honduras are seeking. Unfinished business post the ousting of Manuel Zelaya is particularly impacting local labor organizers, especially women.
The body of 29-year-old Vanessa Yamileth Zepeda, still dressed in her nurse’s scrubs and killed by a bullet, turned up in the Loarque neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on February 4. Zepeda had young children and was a leader of the SITRAIHSS labor union (Workers Union for the Honduran Social Security Institute). She had been abducted that afternoon while leaving a union meeting.
The fact that Zepeda’s death is being dismissed as an act of “common criminality” is disturbing enough, as if the murder of a mujer should be somewhat acceptable. Since Lobo’s inauguration there have been 10 to 15 assassinations of resistance members and leaders according to activists. Were those also acts of common criminals or the work of the common criminals of government?
Guest Worker Protections Officially Reinstated
4:47 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor · 1 Comment
11 Feb 2010It’s been almost a year since Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the suspension of Bush era changes to the H-2A agricultural guest worker program. Today, Solis announced today reinstatement of protections including remedying cutbacks in labor protections and restoring the requirement that U.S. workers be hired before foreign laborers are imported, a protection weakened under the Bush regulations.
I think it’s important to offer protection for the guest workers that are here, especially in the absence of a comprehensive immigration reform bill or plan, for that matter. It does not however solve the larger multiple issues involved in guest worker visa programs.
Via / United Farm Workers
Ask Dallas To Name A Street After Cesar Chavez
10:15 am By la Macha · history|Labor · 3 Comments
10 Feb 2010Got this note in a message on facebook. For those of you in Dallas, turn up if you can!!
Host:
LULAC District III
Type:
Meetings – Club/Group Meeting
Network:
Global
Date:
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Time:
12:00pm – 3:00pm
Location:
Dallas City Hall
Street:
1500 Marilla St., 6th Floor Council Chambers
City/Town:
Dallas, TXDescription
Join us:
Wednesday, Feb. 10, Noon to 3 p.m.
Dallas City Hall, 6th Floor Council Chambers
1500 Marilla St., Dallas, TX 75201
RSVP: jessegarciadallas@gmail.comPlease come show your support and urge Dallas City Council members to vote in favor of renaming a portion of South Central Expressway (from Pacific Avenue on the north to Grand Avenue on the south) to César Chávez Boulevard.
Cities around the nation including Austin, El Paso, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Boise, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Albuquerque and many others, have already honored César Chávez with a street. It is time that Dallas step up and recognize an individual that means a lot to the Hispanic community, a community that makes up 40 percent of the city.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee files Federal lawsuit against US Border Patrol
12:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor · 1 Comment
29 Jan 2010The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and its members have joined
Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc (ABLE), the law firm of Murray
and Murray, Co. L.P.A., and the Immigrant Worker Project (IWP) in filing
a class action complaint against the US Border Patrol and several local
law enforcement agencies in Northwest Ohio. The suit challenges the
Border Patrol and local agencies’ practice of restraining and
interrogating Latinos about their immigration status based solely on
their Hispanic appearance. The suit argues that this violates the 4th
Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures and
the 5th Amendment’s guarantee of due process and equal protection of the
law.“I think it is imperative that we not only address this issue, but tell
them to quit it,” says Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC founder and President.
“Stop spreading fear in the Latino community and start doing the serious
police work.”Racial profiling in NW Ohio and SE Michigan worsened after the Bush
administration significantly increased the Border Patrol’s budget. New
offices opened along the border with Canada, affecting Michigan and Ohio
residents. FLOC argues that the Border Patrol may have had difficulty
justifying the increased budget and has subsequently tried to create
numbers by going after farmworkers and other Latinos in the area. One
case presented in the complaint refers to a person who was pulled over
because the light over his license plate was dim. When he presented his
valid Ohio Driver’s License, the officer unreasonably demanded proof of
immigration status from him and his five passengers. All of them turned
out to be lawful permanent residents, but their brown skin seemed to be
cause enough for the local enforcement agent to intrude upon their civil
liberties.“In some cases”, says ABLE attorney Mark Heller, “the U.S. Border Patrol
has offered to come and restrain and interrogate persons that the local
law enforcement agencies have already seized, violating the 14th
Amendment’s guarantee for due process and equal protection of the law.
There really is no legitimate defense to what they are doing”.*LET’S JOIN FORCES TO PUT A STOP TO THE RACIAL PROFILING BY THE BORDER
PATROL AND LOCAL ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES !!!**ACTION:*
1. Please help us by locating members in the community who may have
suffered this type of discriminatory practice. The lawsuit
currently has 12 plaintiffs, but we are certain that there are
hundreds more who have suffered this discriminatory practice.
Contact Beatriz Maya at FLOC bmaya1@floc.com
or 419-243-3456 ext 3.
2. Write or call the US Border Patrol and demand an end to all racial
profiling:Acting Chief Michael J. Fisher, Office of the Border Patrol
1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20229
PH (202) 344-2050
3. Write your member of Congress and ask them to scale back the
bloated funding for the US Border Patrol. You can get contact
information in Spanish and English for your member of Congress at
www.contactingthecongress.org
4. If you want to be involved in the campaign, email: bmaya1@floc.com
; or call FLOC at 419-243-3456 ext. 3
Detroit Centro de Obreros USSF Cena Informativa
7:55 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Detriot|Labor · Comments Off
19 Jan 2010
Homelessness Up Among Day Laborers in NYC
11:57 am By Maegan La Mala · economy|Immigration|Labor · 6 Comments
5 Jan 2010According to an article in the NYT (who still thinks it’s ok to use “illegal” as an adjective), homelessness is up among day laborer in Queens.
Mr. Ruano, 38, who had drawn his living from 69th Street and Broadway for six years, has been on the streets since. He and other hard-luck day laborers have slept wherever they can: in the emergency room at Elmhurst Hospital Center, in unfinished buildings abandoned by bankrupt developers and under bridges along the freight railroad tracks that slice through western Queens, where dirty mattresses and work boots lay on the rocky ground one recent morning.
“The only reason we don’t go hungry is because there are people who offer us food,” Mr. Ruano said on a snowy Saturday as he clutched a cup of soup from a group of Pentecostals feeding day laborers at a park on Woodside Avenue.
With their isolation and day-to-day existence, the laborers are perhaps the most invisible and hardest-to-reach victims of the recession, advocates and city officials say.
The invisible comment got to me. I have lived in an immigrant neighborhood for a number of years and there is nothing invisible about this trend. There is a small plaza three blocks from casa mala where laborers who aren’t working hang out and more and more I have seen more people there, and yes sleeping.
It’s amazing to me really how visible day laborers are when they are allegedly peeing and drinking on “white streets” but in POC/immigrant neighborhoods, their not having a home is suddenly invisible.
Hola!
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