Dominican Union Leader Urges Workers: Not One Step Backward! Forward!

Dominican Union Leader Urges Workers: Not One Step Backward! Forward!

“Hello my name is Jésus Maria Lora , I am Dominican. I belong to the Dominican Pepsi Company/Frito Lay union (SINTRALAYDO). Here is a bit of my history and what we have achieved by being organised as a trade union.

“I have worked for the company for 10 years, I am education secretary.

“What can I say,  having succeeded in getting our collective contract has been a tough, but at the same time, good experience. We have been fighting for about nine years for this. Nine years ago we had a  situation which was one of precariousness for the workers, then we got involved in this daily struggle—well, day after day—our achievement was this collective contract; that’s why I am telling you my story.

“Don’t give up, keep your head high, and always fight for what you want, because if you do that, you will always achieve what you want as we did in the Dominican Republic. It’s been a success, a great achievement, this collective agreement. We have gained the confidence of the workers (women and men) through social media and the community.

“This has allowed us to be accepted, trusted by the workers and their families as well, to achieve this great level of support on social media that we invite you to copy from us, this struggle we have won, this experience we have acquired, which has been very good, I hope you achieve it too and above all, unity! Wherever there is unity, you will always achieve what you want to achieve.

“Not one step backward! Forward!”

Cleaner’s Death Highlights Lack of Safety Protections

Cleaner’s Death Highlights Lack of Safety Protections

At a funeral service in Lima, Peru, dozens of street cleaners yesterday mourned the death of their colleague, Rosa Mamani Apaza, a street cleaner who was killed on the job August 29 by stray gunfire as bullets flew nearby during an apparent late morning robbery. Several other bystanders were injured.

Peru, street cleaner, Solidarity Center, human rights, occupational safety and health, unionsMamani, 44, worked for more than 30 years at a company that had been contracted by the city of Lima, cleaning sidewalks and streets in the city’s historic Jirón de la Union, where she was killed, one block from presidential palace.

She supported her two children, ages 12 and 17, and had migrated to Lima from Puno, a town in southeastern Peru, for better job opportunities.

Mamani “was a woman who always fought for her rights,” says Raúl Oviedo, secretary general of SITOBUR, the union that represents service workers at Innova Ambiental, the company where Mamani worked. “She always looked to improve working conditions.”

Oviedo discussed the importance of her work, which helped “maintain public health for the inhabitants of Lima.” Yet union leaders say the company, which employs 1,200 workers, the vast majority of whom are women, has not taken steps to secure the safety of its employees, who are on temporary contracts even though the country’s labor laws stipulate they should be permanent.

Even as mourners gathered at Mamani’s funeral, Innova fired six cleaners. Innova is owned by Brazilian Grupo Solvi, which owns 30 cleaning companies in Brazil.

Further, the city of Lima does not have a contract with Innova, a situation that further increases the workers’ precarity.

Street Workers Want Company to Address Harsh Working Conditions

Apaza Ordóñez, president of Peru’s congressional Labor Commission, decried the poor working conditions of the public-sector street cleaners and demanded the company detail the security measures it provides workers.

“There are responsibilities and measures that should be taken immediately,” he said in a statement.

Public-sector cleaners like Mamani are exposed to daily hazards on the job, including sexual harassment and long exposure to harsh weather, and must handle dangerous equipment, such as trash compactors. SITOBUR, which tweets about the conditions workers face, was recently blocked by the city from its Twitter feed.

In July, workers waged a brief strike, demanding the company provide safe and functional tools and protective equipment, as well as access to bathrooms for women cleaners and access to lunchrooms. Workers also say they have difficulty taking sick leave.

The Solidarity Center is conducting a research project with SITOBUR to document the most common forms of gender-based violence street cleaners face on the job. This data, along with strategies for women workers facing gender-based violence in the export-oriented agriculture and health sectors, will inform recommendations for improving national-level policies to strengthen prevention and penalties and integrate best practices in workplaces.

Burmese Rice Farmer: With a Union, We Improve Our Livelihood

Burmese Rice Farmer: With a Union, We Improve Our Livelihood

For years, Kyin San, like many rice farmers in Myanmar, worried that her land would be confiscated for large-scale development, as had so many other farms over the years.

But now, Kyin Sun says, farmers are no longer hesitant to negotiate with the government to settle disputes. Along with 10,000 other farmers in the Hlae Ku Township, Kyin Sun has joined the Agriculture and Farmer Federation of Myanmar (AFFM), part of the Confederation of Trade Unions–Myanmar (CTUM).

“Through CTUM, we have made much progress,” she says.

Youth Day 2017: Young Workers Stand up for Their Rights at Work

Youth Day 2017: Young Workers Stand up for Their Rights at Work

With youth unemployment rates at record highs and working poverty levels increasing, young workers around the world faced with a lack of decent jobs increasingly are joining with union movements and worker associations to challenge policies that do not promote an economy that works for all. On International Youth Day, the Solidarity Center recognizes those young workers who are standing up for their rights and making their voices heard at work.

Kyrgyzstan, garment workers, unions, Solidarity Center

Young workers like Kymbat Sherimbayeva are standing up for their rights to decent work and collective bargaining. The Kyrgyzstan garment worker recently joined with some 200 co-workers, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 25, to improve wages and safety conditions. With the help of trainings provided by the Garment Workers’ Union of Kyrgyzstan, with Solidarity Center support, workers at the factory formed a union, recognizing they could negotiate improvements with management much more effectively as a group than as individuals.

Jane Njoki Muthoni, president of ITUC-Africa Young Workers Committee in 2017. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

Jane Njoki Muthoni, president of ITUC-Africa Young Workers Committee in 2017. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

Unions are reaching out to young workers to develop the next generation of leaders. From Kenya, Jane Njoki Muthoni works to enable young women advance to union leadership positions through her roles as president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)-Africa Young Workers Committee and youth leader for the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU)-Kenya. The Kenya union movement “makes sure that it protects the rights of young women, the rights of young workers in society,” says Njoki.

Brazil, Solidarity Center, human rights

Youth Representatives of Brazil’s CUT at a May Day Rally in 2017. Photo Credit: Maria Robalino.

Young workers are mobilizing in vast numbers to challenge laws and policies that would deny them the ability to attain good wages and stable jobs. For instance in Brazil, young workers were a key force in a  24-hour general strike in May 2017, protesting labor law reforms that penalize mainly unemployed young people and young Afro-Brazilian workers.

A meeting between a union organizer and hotel workers in Sri Lanka in 2015. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center/Pushpa Kumara.

Seeking to reach the many young workers in Sri Lanka’s booming tourism industry, unions launched a web-based platform, Wedabima, for workers to share comments, learn about union-related workshops, and access a labor perspective on daily news. The site is part of the Sri Lankan union movement’s innovative strategies to attract young workers into Sri Lanka’s labor movement.

Zimbabwe, young workers, Solidarity Center, unions

Young Zimbabweans rally against nonpayment of salaries in Bulawayo in 2015. Photo Credit: Abigail Mangunda

Fed up with low pay and a government proposal for at-will employment, Zimbabwean workers spearheaded demonstrations across six cities in 2015, demanding better conditions. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions points to high unemployment as a leading cause of the country’s “brain drain”—the migration of young, educated workers out of country.

A young garment worker demonstrates against safety violations at a 2015 rally commemorating the deadly Rana Plaza collapse. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center.

In the Bangladesh garment industry, where more than 90 percent of workers are age 29 or younger, young workers are leading the drive to achieve workplace safety, decent wages and fair treatment at the workplace by forming unions.

Young workers participate in a May Day rally in Georgia in 2015. Photo Credit: GTUC

The youth chapter of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation came out in force to share May Day celebrations of their rights as workers.

Young workers in Peru rally against a discriminatory labor law in march 2015. Photo Credit: Luis Mendoza

In Peru, after lawmakers in 2015 rammed through a law that reduced salaries and benefits for workers under age 25, tens of thousands of young workers and their allies organized meetings with workers across industries and marched in a series of massive protests. Their efforts resulted in the law’s nearly immediate repeal.

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