Wednesday, April 30, 2014

MAY DAY: UN INTERNATIONAL WORKERS' DAY, MAY 1, 2014

OMNI

MAY DAY/UN INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY/INTERNATIONAL LABOR DAY COMMEMORATION, MAY 1, 2014.

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology.

 

 

 

Newsletters
Index:

 

Contents May Day, May 1, 2014

Dick:  Adolph Reed, Jr., “Nothing Left”? the Union Struggle

UN International Workers Day, Google Search

UN International Labor Organization (ILO)

AFL/CIO Global Union Movement

Unions in Arkansas

NWA Workers Justice Center

Rinku Sen on Saru Jayaraman’s book Behind the Kitchen Door 

UUSC Supports ROC United

Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), Dining Guide

SumofUs, Fast Food Strikers in Detroit 2013

Amy Goodman, Worker Safety

Ashbaugh, Lucy Parsons, Militant Labor Leader

Ness and Azzelliai, History of Workers Control

 

 

PROFESSOR ADOLPH REED, JR.
     Several years ago, around the time of Senator Obama’s first “We Can Do It!” campaign for the presidency, Reed was the OMNI Center’s speaker at an event in Fayetteville.  He stimulated considerable irate discussion by his skepticism regarding many of Obama’s promises, a skepticism soon justified by President Obama’s performance.  Since then I have looked forward to reading his stringent  essays. 
     Recently his article, “Nothing Left,” appeared in Harper’s  (March 2014), decrying the decline of the US labor movement and the New Deal coalition.  He makes clear how false are the definition and criticism of the US “left” by right-wingers, since the old left parties—Communist and Socialist--have been effectively erased in the US, and the labor movement severely weakened.   And he identifies the deep harm of the massive rightward shift--the separation of the remaining “left” from working class struggles.
     But because Reed is energized by challenges, he ends with a call to left remnants to make rebuilding their central purpose. 
     In fact, resistance and rebuilding are occurring.  The editors of Monthly Review (May 2014) tell about strikes and other resistance by K-12 educational workers against the privatization of the public schools.  “Precisely because teachers, supported by parents and community members, are now fighting not just for their jobs, but also for children, society, and community, they constitute, in our view, the heart of a new social unionism.”   Similarly, two of the following essays reveal heartening news of such a rebuilding by restaurant workers.   Let us all greet MAY DAY 2014 with Mother Jones: Don’t mourn, Organize --Dick

 

 

 

UN INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY, MAY 1, 2014 (GOOGLE SEARCH April 17, 2014)

 

1.                             The ILO Library commemorates May 1st - International ...

www.ilo.org/public/.../mayday.htm
International Labour Organization
Apr 23, 2013 - ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations ... May 1st is international labour day, a day which commemorates a time of civil unrest in the ...

2.                             International Workers' Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers'_Day
Wikipedia
International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement that occurs on May Day, May 1, a traditional Spring holiday in much of Europe.
History - ‎Americas - ‎Asia - ‎Europe

3.                             International Labour Organization - Wikipedia, the free ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization
Wikipedia
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency dealing .... A proposal to require an eight-hour work day was amended to require the ...

4.                             International Workers' Day - ACPP

www.acpp.org/sevents/0501.html
There is much to study on the history of International Workers' Day. ... 2001, in comemoration of the United Nations International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.

5.                             International Labour Organization (ILO) (United Nations ...

www.britannica.com/.../International-Labour-O...
Encyclopaedia Britannica
ILO specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) dedicated to improving ... National representatives meet annually at the International Labour Conference. ... and professional staff, handles day-to-day operations under the supervision of an ...

6.                             International Labour Day 2014, International Workers' Day ...

www.indiacelebrating.com/events/international-labour-day/
Find information about International Labour Day also called International ... in theUnited Nations, established to deal with labour issues on international level.

Searches related to UN International Workers Day

 


UN International Labour Organization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization
"ILO" redirects here. For other uses, see ILO (disambiguation).
International Labour Organization
ILO logo.svg
ILO logo
Abbreviation
ILO
Formation
1919
Type
UN agency
Legal status
Active
Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland
Head
Website
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularlyinternational labour standards and decent work for all.[1] 185 of the 193 UN member states are members of the ILO.
In 1969, the organization received the Nobel Peace Prize for improving peace among classes, pursuing justice for workers, and providing technical assistance to other developing nations.[2]
The ILO registers complaints against entities that are violating international rules; however, it does not impose sanctions on governments.[3]

Contents

  [hide
·                                 1 Governance, organization, and membership
o                                        1.1 Governing Body
o                                        1.2 International Labour Conference
o                                        1.3 Conventions
o                                        1.4 Recommendations
o                                        1.5 Membership
o                                        1.6 Position within the UN
·                                 2 History
o                                        2.1 Origins
o                                        2.2 Interwar period
o                                        2.3 Wartime and the United Nations
o                                        2.4 Cold War era
·                                 3 Programs
o                                        3.1 Labour statistics
o                                        3.2 Training and teaching units
o                                        3.3 Child labour
·                                 4 Issues
o                                        4.1 Forced labour
o                                        4.2 Minimum wage law
o                                        4.3 HIV/AIDS
o                                        4.4 Indigenous peoples
o                                        4.5 Migrant workers
o                                        4.6 Domestic workers
o                                        4.7 ILO and globalization
·                                 5 See also
·                                 6 References
·                                 7 Further reading
·                                 8 External links
MORE  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization

 

Global Unions



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Unions call for naitonal protest
Bulgaria: unions call for national protest
Across national boundaries, union organizations reach out and collaborate on issues that affect the working people in multiple countries. This international solidarity of working people is vitally important as corporations have spread their reach globally and jobs and whole industries are transplanted with the click of a mouse.
The AFL-CIO is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)—the worldwide union network. Based in Brussels, Belgium, the ITUC represents 175 million workers in 151 countries and territories and has 308 national affiliates. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka serves on the General Council and Executive Bureau of the ITUC. He also serves as the president of the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson is the president of the ITUC's Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA).

International Labor Organizations

·                       ITUC—International Trade Union Confederation
·                       ITUC-AFRICA—African Regional Organization
·                       ITUC-AP—Asia Pacific Regional Organization
·                       ITUC-TUCA—Trade Union Confederation of the Americas
·                       ETUC—European Trade Union Confederation
·                       Global Unions
·                       ILO—International Labor Organization
·                       PERC—Pan-European Regional Council

Global Union Federations

Ten Global Union Federations (GUFs) are the international representatives of unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups. Most AFL-CIO unions belong to the GUF for their sector.
·                       EI—Education International
·                       BWI—Building and Wood Workers International
·                       IFJ—International Federation of Journalists
·                       IMF—International Metalworkers' Federation
·                       ITGLWF—International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation
·                       ITF—International Transport Workers' Federation
·                       PSI—Public Services International
·                       UNI—Union Network International

National Centers

Trade Union Development Cooperation

Labor unions are a fundamental institution for democracy and economic development. The following organizations support stronger unions in developing countries through training, research and advocacy programs.

MORE http://www.aflcio.org/About/Global-Unions

 

 

UNIONS IN ARKANSAS

http://www.unions.org/unions/arkansas/4

 


WORKERS’ RIGHTS

1.                             NWAWJC | Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center

www.nwawjc.org/
o                                                       
o                                                       
As par of our leadership development, the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center (NWAWJC) engages worker members to participate in leadership ...
207 W Emma Ave, Springdale, AR 72764
(479) 750-8015

Contact Information

Our Accomplishments Contact Information. Contact NWA ...

Staff

Staff. Jose Luis Aguayo / Executive Director Jose Luis Aguayo ...

Contact us

Contact us. Address: 207 West Emma Ave. Springdale ...

About us

About us. NWAWJC. Who we are: The Northwest Arkansas ...


2.                             Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center ... - Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/.../Northwest-Arkansas-Workers-Justice-Cent...
Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center, Springdale. 838 likes · 3 talking about this · 39 were here. "He slays his neighbor who deprives him of living: he ...


Going Behind the Kitchen Door to Inspire A Different Kind of Foodie

Monday, February 11 2013, 9:31 AM ESTTags: books, Food Justice, restaurant workers
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publisher_icon_021411.gif
On Wednesday, Saru Jayaraman’s book Behind the Kitchen Door drops, and this is going to be a piece of shameless friend promotion. The book will be released that night at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., a beautiful space where so many activist authors have met their fans, and you can buy it here or at any book venue. Jayaraman is such an amazing organizer that she appears in both of my books, indeed is the number two in The Accidental American, the story of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-N.Y.) before it spawned a nationwide organization ROC United.

Writing from the perspective of a restaurant diner, in Behind the Kitchen Door, Jayaraman translates the great research ROC United has done, including the largest ever survey of restaurant workers nationwide. She tells the often-heartbreaking stories of workers who give everything they have to their workplaces, only to encounter wage theft, untreated on-the-job injuries, and rigid racial and gender hierarchies that prevent them from advancing within the largest private sector industry in our country.

We meet Daniel, a Latino runner at Del Posto, a four-star restaurant in New York City, who was told repeatedly that he could not be a server because he didn’t “communicate well,” even as he watched white European men with incomprehensible accents get the best jobs in the house. We meet Alicia, a pastry chef who chronicled being called “little girl” by one chef, and a long record of unaddressed sexual harassment by another.  We read about Woong and Nikki, who worked with swine flu and conjunctivitis, respectively, because their wages were too low for them to take time off without paid sick days.

Most importantly, Jayaraman’s book brings together two ends of an industry — diners who want to eat ethically, and workers who want to be able to feed their own families. She explains some basic things, like why tipping is critical to workers whose federal minimum wage is only $2.13 per hour, how it happens that prep cooks, servers and runners are forced to go to work sick, and the mechanisms by which racial and gender discrimination is allowed to run rampant. You can watch her explain some of these issues during an appearance on CNN last week.

Jayaraman’s goal is to redefine the “foodie” identity, making it include as much concern about the people who put your food on the table as it does about whether the food was locally sourced or organically grown. In his foreword, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, writes, “The abuses endured by American farmworkers, meatpacking workers and restaurant employees violates even the most watered-down definition of ‘sustainability.’ Our food system now treats millions of workers like disposable commodities… When people ask what are the most important changes that we could make to our food system right away, I reply: Enforce the nation’s labor laws and increase the minimum wage.”

This week, ROC United will be asking Congress to make the most basic change, to raise the federal minimum wage for tipped workers, which has been stuck at its current rate for some 22 years as a result of relentless lobbying by the National Restaurant Association. Please buy the book this week, on Valentine’s Day if you can, to help these workers leap into the public consciousness as they carry out actions in Washington this week.

The book’s website includes an invitation to join the Welcome Table, ROC United’s new effort to organize diners as successfully as it has workers. In addition to joining, you can download the national Diners’ Guide that will help you determine the best places to eat from a labor standpoint and what to do if you eat elsewhere and don’t like what you see. You can also watch beautiful profiles of workers created by Louverture Films, the company that is also developing a fictionalized film version of The Accidental American. Jayaraman is starting a 13-city book tour that includes Detroit, Los Angeles and Chicago. Before you eat in another restaurant, you want to read this book and join this movement. If you love food, and if you love people, help to ensure the sustainability of both by reading and sharing Behind the Kitchen Door. 




Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United),
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST SUPPORT FOR RESTAURANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS
With the launch of our Choose Compassionate Consumption campaign this fall, UUSC supporters joined together to form a powerful block of consumer advocates.

In October, we targeted Hershey and the use of child labor in chocolate production, sending more than 1,100 letters to Hershey, along with samples of a competitor’s fair-trade chocolate. In November and December, UUSC supporters generated approximately $15,000 in sales for the Southern Agricultural Alternatives Cooperative, a socially responsible pecan-processing cooperative that creates jobs in southwest Georgia.

Now let’s use our power to make a positive difference in the lives of restaurant workers, by choosing where to eat based on how restaurants treat their employees!

Home

   
UUSC
Dear Dick,
Thank you for downloading the diners' guide from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) and for using it to make your dining choices.

To share the diners' guide with your friends, please e-mail them this link and post it on social media:

uusc.org/dinersguide

In addition, the diners' guide is available as an iPhone or Android app and you may request paper copies of the diners' guide.

If you are interested in learning more about ROC-United, please visit the ROC-United website.

With gratitude,

Kara Smith
Associate for Grassroots Mobilization

ROC UNITED
The U.S. restaurant industry employs over 10 million workers nationwide and is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy. But sadly, the restaurant industry also has a very high rate of workers’-rights violations.  

That’s why the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United) has released the ROC National Diners’ Guide 2014: A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants. The guide rates restaurants throughout the country based on how they treat their workers, listing responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick.

Download the restaurant guide today — and use it to choose compassionate consumption when you dine out!

GOOGLE SEARCH 4-30-14 (--Dick)

1.                             National Diners Guide | ROC

rocunited.org/dinersguide/
Restaurant Opportunities Center
Dec 17, 2013 - Our National Diners' Guide provides information on wages, benefits, and the ... New for 2014 – share your experiences using the guide here!

2.                             ROC National Diners' Guide Mobile App | ROC

rocunited.org/dinersguideapp/
Restaurant Opportunities Center
A consumer guide on the working conditions of American restaurants –. [nggallery id=15]. DOWNLOAD NOW: iPhone version or Android version. The ROC National Diners' Guide mobile app provides information on the ... Created by ROC United, App developed by Clay Ewing ... Copyright © 2014 ROC • Login • Site Credits.
3.                              [PDF]

Download the guide as a PDF here - Restaurant ...

rocunited.org/.../2014/.../2014-Natl-Dine...
Restaurant Opportunities Center
1. 2014 ROC NATIONAL. dI. NeRs' GuIde. TO. eT. hICAL eATING. ResTAuRANT OPPORTuNITIes CeNTeRs uNITed. A consumer guide on the working.







$15 an hour and a union
Kaytee Riek, SumOfUs.org [us@sumofus.org]
Actions
To:
 James R. Bennett 

Saturday, May 11, 2013 5:25 PM
James,
WHOA. Yesterday, something huge happened: Hundreds of Detroit fast food workers went on strike demanding $15 an hour and the right to form a union. So many workers went on strike, in fact, that McDonald’s had to call in replacement workers so that they didn’t have to close.
And guess what happened then? SOLIDARITY, that’s what. The replacement workers saw the picket line -- and decided to go on strike too!
Since last night, thousands of people have already shared this image on Facebook. Click the image below to join them and share it now to show mad respect for these workers who are standing up for their rights -- and for each other!
Detroit workers go on strike -- turn on your images to see!
As Joe Biden might say, deciding to go on strike is a Big Eff-ing Deal. Some workers who strike face illegal retaliation, even though they have every right under the law to organize and fight for better working conditions. But in the past year, low-wage fast food and retail workers -- from Burger King to JCPenney to Walmart -- have gone on strike in dozens of cities.
These workers have jobs where they are paid as little as $7.25/hour, even after years of reliable job performance. And they often have no control over their hours. No one can support a family on that.
But the thing about solidarity -- like the solidarity shown by these McDonald’s workers in Detroit -- is that if enough workers stand up together, they have the power to force big corporations to the table and change their destructive penny-pinching business models.
In solidarity,
Kaytee, Claiborne, Taren, Rob, Tara, Angus, Marguerite, Anthony, and the rest of us
 P.S. The strikes are getting big national press coverage. Read more:
  SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. 
Was this email forwarded to you? Click here to add yourself to SumOfUs. 


WORKERS’ SAFETY, APRIL 28, WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY
Terror in the West

Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:35 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Lane Anderson" andersonlane47 VIA TRUTHDIG AND VETERANS FOR PEACE
Do we really need the concentrated chemical fertilizers like ammonium nitrate when organic produce is so much healthier?
Published on Thursday, April 25, 2013 by TruthDig.com

Terror in the West, Texas, Night
by Amy Goodman
 



The Boston Marathon bombing and its 
aftermath has dominated the nation’s headlines. Yet, another series of 
explosions that happened two days later and took four times the number 
of lives, has gotten a fraction of the coverage. It was the worst 
industrial accident in years. But to call it an accident ignores that it
was preventable, and was quite possibly a crime, as is common with so 
many dangerous workplaces.
The first call came in to the 911 
dispatcher at 7:29 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17. A woman at a playground 
noticed a fire across the railroad tracks, at the West Fertilizer Co. 
facility, in the small town of West, Texas, near Waco. The local 
volunteer fire department was mobilized. Less than 25 minutes later, a 
massive explosion leveled the plant, sending shock waves, debris and 
fire across West, ultimately killing 15 people, among them a local EMT, 
eight volunteer firefighters and a Dallas fire captain who was visiting 
his sons and joined the firefighting effort.
The call came over the emergency radio 
system: â€Å“We need every ambulance we can get at this point. A bomb just 
went off inside here. It’s pretty bad. We’ve got a lot of firemen down.”
Another call followed, with moaning in the 
background: â€Å“The rest home has been seriously damaged. We have many 
people down. Please respond.”
A mushroom cloud climbed high into the sky.
The explosion registered 2.1 on the Richter scale, the same as a small 
earthquake. 911 calls flooded in, with people reporting a bomb, many 
injured and others engulfed in a toxic cloud. Sixty to 80 houses were 
leveled.
One week later, the fires are out, most of 
the funerals have been held, but major questions remain unanswered. A 
team of up to 70 investigators is probing the source of the explosion. 
Reuters reported last Saturday that the plant had on site 2,700 tons of 
ammonium nitrate. This is 1,350 times the amount that would require a 
facility to self-report its stockpile to the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS). Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer used in industrial 
farming worldwide, and is stable when properly stored. It can be highly 
explosive when ignited, especially when mixed with fuel, as Timothy 
McVeigh demonstrated with the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal 
Building in Oklahoma City. West Fertilizer Co. never reported its 
ammonium nitrate to DHS.
The concern with theft of ammonium nitrate 
by potential bombers is the basis for this reporting requirement. 
Numerous other federal and state agencies are supposed to regulate 
fertilizer plants, chemical storage facilities and workplaces in 
general. Yet OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 
last inspected the facility in 1985. An inspection report filed with the
Environmental Protection Agency in June 2011 listed 54,000 pounds of 
anhydrous ammonia, a different fertilizer, but claimed there was no 
serious hazard.
The West Fertilizer explosion happened just
a day after the 66th anniversary of the Texas City disaster, said to be
the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. Two thousand, three 
hundred tons of ammonium nitrate bound for France, as part of the 
Marshall Plan for European reconstruction and aid, caught fire aboard 
the ship, the SS Grandcamp. The explosion that followed killed at least 
581 people, wounded 5,000 and destroyed 500 homes. You would think Texas
would be sensitive to the potential hazards of this dangerous chemical.
Yet Gov. Rick Perry told The Associated Press, “Through their elected 
officials [people] clearly send the message of their comfort with the 
amount of oversight.”  He recently touted the lax regulatory environment 
in Texas while trying to lure businesses there from states like 
California and Illinois.
April 28 is Workers’ Memorial Day, 
commemorating the 4,500 workers who die on the job annually in the U.S. 
Thirteen workers, on average, go to work each day and never come home. 
Tom O’Connor, executive director of National Council for Occupational 
Safety and Health, said, “As companies decry regulations and emphasize 
profits over safety, workers pay the ultimate price.”
Those who died in West, Texas, were 
workers, volunteer first responders, retirees and neighbors. Unsafe 
workplaces cause injury and death on a daily basis in this country, but 
seem to be tolerated as simply the cost of doing business. Gov. Perry 
declared West a disaster area and asked for prayers. But that’s not 
enough.  As legendary labor organizer Mother Jones said, “Pray for the 
dead, and fight like hell for the living."
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. © 2013 TruthDig.com


LABOR LEADER LUCY PARSONS
Carolyn Ashbaugh.  Lucy Parsons: An American RevolutionaryHaymarket Books, 2013.  One of the most militant leaders in the history of the radical labor movement.

 HISTORY OF WORKERS’ CONTROL
Ness, Immanuel and Dario Azzelliai.  Ours to Master and to Own:  Workers’ Control from the Commune to the Present.  Haymarket, 2011.

TAKE ACTION;  Contact your local and or state labor officers, offer your help.  Join a union (some offer associate memberships).  If a college is nearby, locate the professor/instructor who teaches the about labor history; if none, contact the college appropriate college officer and ask why. 


END UN INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY, MAY 1, 2014



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Dick's Wars and Warming KPSQ Radio Editorials (#1-48)