Friday, February 26, 2010

 

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-IRELAND:
HUNGER STRIKE IN COUNTY KILDARE:
Workers at Green Isle Foods, County Kildare Ireland, have been on strike for six months, and some workers are now resorting to a hunger strike to try and make the company see reason. They are asking for your support. Here's the story and appeal from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start. The strikers also have a strike website that you can access here.
ILILILILILILILILILIL
Ireland: Trade unionists on hunger strike at Green Isle Foods:
Two trade unionists are on hunger strike outside the Green Isle Foods plant in Naas, Co Kildare, Ireland. They are members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union. The first of the men began his hunger strike on February 17th, the second on February 24th, a third will join them on March 3rd. They embarked on this action after being left on the picket line for six months because the company, a wholly owned subsidiary of British based conglomerate Northern Foods, rejected every initiative of the Irish state's industrial relations machinery to resolve their dispute. The dispute began over the unfair dismissal of three TEEU members and the company's refusal to recognise the union. It has also refused to accept an Irish Labour Court recommendation that it reinstate the dismissed workers with compensation for lost earnings or pay them €160,000 compensation for the loss of their jobs. Since the hunger strike began the company has finally engaged in talks but we know there will only be a successful outcome if we can increase the pressure generated by the heroic action of these men.
ILILILILILILILILILIL
The Letter:
Please go to this link to send the following letter to management at Green Isle Foods.
ILILILILILILILILILIL
I will not be putting any more Northern Foods products such as Goodfellas and San Marco pizza, Donegal Catch, Dalepak or Green Isle frozen vegetables in my shopping trolley while this company behaves so callously towards its own employees. It should be ashamed that its behaviour has forced employees to resort to hunger strikes before it will engage with them and their union, and that it has rejected all attempts by the industrial relations machinery of the Irish state, including the Irish Labour Court to resolve this dispute. Recognise the men's right to be in a union and respect the Labour Court's findings if you want my business back.

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# posted by mollymew @ 9:22 PM 0 comments

Friday, February 12, 2010

 

AMERICAN LABOUR-CALIIFONIA:
HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST DISNEY:
You know I've always held a visceral dislike of "The Mouse". The reasons are many and various, but one of the main ones is an understanding of how Disney has always exploited the workers who maintain its paper-mache fantasy worlds. Down Los Angeles way some workers are fighting back publicly against Disney management's attempts to squeeze the last drop of blood out of their labour. Their weapon- a public hunger strike which they hope will shame the Corp into some sort of decency. the idea that Disney management can feel shame may be a forlorn hope, but they may fear the adverse publicity. Here's the story from the AFL-CIO Blog.
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Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work:
by James Parks, Feb 9, 2010
Disneyland hotel workers began a water-only fast Tuesday to protest what they describe as life-threatening safety issues on the job. The more than 2,000 bellmen, dishwashers, room attendants, and cooks, members of Unite Here! Local 11, have been working without a contract since February 2008. They say new work requirements at three resort hotels and the villas at the Grand Californian Hotel have led to serious health problems among workers, including heart attack, stroke and musculoskeletal injuries.

Disney management also is demanding to make drastic cuts in workers’ health insurance.
During the fast, eight Disneyland hotel workers, two Los Angeles International Airport food service employees–who also are members of the local–and one adult son of a Disneyland hotel worker will refrain from eating and consume only water. Fast participants will remain, 24-hours a day, in front of the Grand Californian Hotel, sleeping in tents on the sidewalk and surrounded by a large shrine to injured workers.

Part of the shrine will pay tribute to Grand Californian housekeeper Rosario Casas, who is out of work on disability after suffering a heart attack on the job in October. Casas said her doctor said the heart attack was due to stress.

Narciso Guevara, a houseman at the Grand Californian Hotel, who plans to fast, said:
"We’re fighting for our health. We need better, safer conditions on the job, healthcare we can afford, and even more importantly, we need the company to respect us."

Maria Navarro, a housekeeper at the Grand Californian, who was injured at work just three days after Disney remodeled the hotel, said she is fasting to bring attention to the injuries she and several of her co-workers have suffered.

Since the changes were implemented at the Grand Californian, things have gotten worse. There are many people in my department who are hurt, but work through the pain because they are afraid of losing their jobs. So much pressure creates an unsafe place. We must make it stop.

Throughout the fast, community and religious leaders, unions, musicians, students and residents will call on Disney to address the health and safety issues at the hotels to by participating in daily actions, rallies and concerts.

The fasting workers are blogging about the action at:
http://www.disneyisunfaithful.org/work-shouldnt-hurt
and more information also is available here.

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# posted by mollymew @ 9:13 PM 0 comments

Monday, November 24, 2008

 

HUMAN RIGHTS-GREECE:
HUNGER STRIKE BY IMMIGRANTS IN GREECE:
The following is from the Anarkismo website. Like most countries in the world immigrants to the country of Greece have few rights and are as much as actively discouraged from staying. Here's the response of one such group.
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Chania Migrants on Hunger Strike:
the first 10 days
On Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 15 immigrants from North African Countries (Algeria, Morocco etc.), active members of the Forum of Immigrants of Crete, went on a hunger strike. The hunger strikers are all residents of Chania and they demand residence permits, which will allow them to continue living in Greece legally. This text is a summary of their first ten days of struggle.
Before that, a lengthy quotation from the first public statement of the hunger strikers:
“We are migrants, members of Crete Forum of Immigrants, living in Greece. We entered the country illegally, as the majority of immigrants do, since the political and institutional regime in Greece does not allow people seeking a better life in Greece to stay legally in the country where they themselves live, work, and raise their children. Since we were eligible to do so, we applied for residence permits in compliance with the law currently in effect; however, residence permits were denied to us, on the pretext that our passport had been issued after 2004, although we had applied for it at the embassies of our countries of origin in Athens long before 2004. We then followed the legal process of applying for the cancellation of this reject decision in the Greek courts, but our demand was rejected all the same. Each one of us paid thousands of Euros along this process. Many cases are yet to stand a trial, and this delay forces us into “clandestine” status. For the police authorities, none of our documents has any validity, so that the prospect of us finding ourselves in detention rooms or deported is extremely likely, since this has already happened to people like us. Existing migration policies and laws clearly aim at our marginalization, promoting ignorance not only of the problems we deal with, but also of our social existence as a whole. Faced with that, we decided to embark on a drastic course of action and raise awareness around our issues and difficulties.
We claim the right to live and work under decent conditions. For a migration policy that will guarantee the legalization of all migrants living in Greece and their meaningful integration into the Greek society:
* it is vital that the injustice of us being held hostages of an unfair legal status, ends. The current regime either excludes us from legalization processes, or threatens us with “legalization” in the terms of Fortress Europe.
* It is vital that the renewal of residence permits is disconnected from the possession of a certain number of revenue stamps. This is extremely unfair for migrant workers, for whom informal labor, with no insurance whatsoever, is the rule and the only option. This regulation forces us into buying extra revenue stamps with their cost burdening exclusively the migrant worker.
* It is vital that the right to family unification is disconnected from proving a certain – high – annual income, since this requirement forces us into vouching virtual incomes from rural jobs – and into paying high taxation.
* It is vital that the cost for the residence permit issue fees is lowered, and that it corresponds to the real cost of the bureaucratic process.
* It is vital that municipalities employ more people for work in the issuing and renewal of residence permits. Furthermore, it is unacceptable that the essential information for applying is not available in the migrants’ own languages. The Forum of Migrants of Crete has already pledged to assist Municipalities in making this possible.
* It is vital that the detention and deportation of minors ceases.
* It is vital that all children born in Greece are allowed to be registered in municipality tolls, obtain certificates of birth, and be granted Greek citizenship – as it happens in the rest EU states.
* It is vital that international human rights conventions and treaties are respected in Greece.

 Appeal to all organizations and political parties, municipalities and prefectures, labour union centers, trade unions and scientific associations. We ask for the support of political and cultural collectives and societies in Chania, the rest of the country and abroad. To all democratic and aware citizens.
We are appealing for active and daily support and solidarity to all migrants living in Chania and the rest of Greece, to all democratic and aware Greek fellow-citizens. We want all society to be on our side. We need it. We expect support from political parties and members of parliament, municipalities and prefectures, Labour Union Centers and any trade union and scientific association. We ask for the support of political and cultural collectives and societies in Chania, the rest of the country and abroad, because we know that our struggle concerns everyone.
Because we know that what threatens the society at large is racism, oppression, exclusion and discrimination, it is not us.” 


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# posted by mollymew @ 9:13 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

 

AMERICAN LABOUR/HUMAN RIGHTS:
HUNGER STRIKE FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS:

The following item is from the United Farm Workers (UFW), and it concerns a segment of the working population that is vastly expoited in the USA and which the UFW attempts to represent. Without immigrant labour the United States wouldn't function, but this labour is not only not given its due but also has to live under the threat of imminent deportation. Here's an attempt to set this right.
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Day 20 of Hunger Strike for Immigration Reform:

Sign the Pledge to Vote and Take Action.
Message from UFW Vice President Diana Tellefson:



Today I proudly join the hunger strike for immigration reform. On October 15th, nearly 100 people began one of the largest hunger strikes in American history to call on Latinos, immigrants, and people of conscience to rise out of our fear and vote for change.



12 young people have been fasting continuously on water for 20 days. They are determined to encourage 1 million people to sign the pledge to vote and take action for immigrant rights. The fasters and supporters who have joined in the fast chain have been staying at a tent city in Los Angeles' historic Olvera Street. On Wednesday, they'll march to LA 's federal building calling on the new administration to take decisive action on immigration reform and will end their fast.



More than 300 people—including Congresswomen Hilda Solis, UFW Co-Founder Dolores Huerta and LA County Federation of Labor Secretary Treasurer Maria Elena Durazo--have come to the tent city and participated in the fast. Dozens of others have joined in solidarity fasts from Santa Cruz to Michigan to Florida to Washington DC, to name a few locations. Hundreds of activists and organizations throughout the country have joined them and are circulating the pledge to their friends and family.



On this historic election eve, I am proud to come to Olvera Street and participate in the fast chain to call for justice for immigrants through the power of our vote. The sacrifice of the brothers and sisters I'm joining is truly inspiring. Tonight, I will stay at the encampment; tomorrow we will go the polls and vote.



This fast is important to me because the vast majority of farm workers, who pick the fruits and vegetables that nourish this country, are undocumented. Like them, millions of other hard working immigrant families live in the shadows of our society. Our immigration system needs to change. Those who vote have the power to change it.



I am writing this to ask you to please sign the pledge and forward this e-mail to your friends and family and any organizations you belong to.



We need those who support immigrant rights to pledge to vote and go to the polls tomorrow!
Si Se Puede!

http://www.ufwaction.org/ct/LdzuCuF1ZPYS/takeaction

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