ITUC May Day Declaration 2009

Brussels, 30 April 2008 (ITUC OnLine): The world is facing its gravest economic crisis in over 60 years. Tens of millions of jobs are being lost due to the greed, plunder and incompetence which have, through decades of free market deregulation, led the world into deep recession. Global poverty and inequality are increasing fast, and working women and men everywhere face levels of insecurity unprecedented in recent times.

Trade unions demand far-reaching, urgent and coordinated action to pull the world out of recession. Governments must act to keep people in work and create new jobs, to avoid an even deeper and longer-lasting crisis. These actions are essential, but alone they are not sufficient.

Workers and Immigrants Will March on May Day

Nativo Lopez-Vigil
National President Mexican American Political Association

Yes, workers and immigrants will march again throughout the U.S. on MAY DAY, May 1st. This is known as the International Workers’ Day, but little celebrated in the U.S., at least until the great diversity of immigrants took to the streets in 2006 to advocate oppostion to the anti-immigrant legislation HR4437, and subsequent years to advocate for fair and humane immigration reform. This budding movement of workers and families has resulted in reviving this important and historic date, recognized internationally in memory of the struggle for the eight-hour day more than one hundred years ago in this country. Ironically, it was immigrant workers of European origin who led the fight for reducing the work-day, establishing unions, and fighting to improve working and living conditions of the laboring classes.

May Day Solidarity with Turkish and Iranian Workers

by Eric Lee
LabourStart

But before you celebrate May Day, please take a moment to help ensure that our fellow trade unionists in Turkey and Iran are allowed to celebrate too.

This year we’ve been asked by Turkish unions to send a strong message to their government demanding that they be allowed to peacefully celebrate the international workers’ holiday in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.  On May Day 1977, 37 trade unionists were killed there and efforts by unions in recent years to commemorate that massacre – and to demand justice – have been met by fierce repression.

We have only two days to get our messages to the Turkish authorities, so please click here and send your message now — and spread the word quickly to other members of your union.

Meanwhile, international unions have issue an alert regarding Iran, where union activists continue to face severe repression.  They are demanding that the government allow workers to peacefully celebrate this year.  You can sign up to that appeal here.

May Day Events Across the USA

We thought Talking Union readers might be interested in May Day events.  We haven’t done a web search to dig up a comprehensive list.  Below the fold are events in Chicago, Boston, Kansas City and Sacremento, Twin Cities, and Ithaca.  If you know of others,  leave a comments or send an email to talkingunion@gmail.com

Put Single Payer in the Survey!

By Andy Coates, MD

In an attempt to find out what union members think about the health care crisis and its solution, the AFL-CIO recently asked union members and supporters to complete a health care survey.

The problem with the survey is that it does not present the full range of opinions union members have, and nowhere in the survey is single payer, or Medicare for All, or HR 676 even mentioned as an option.

Baldemar Velasquez: Farmworkers need labor law protections

by Baldemar Velasquez

Baldemar Velasquez

A Call to Wage a National Campaign for Farmworker Labor Rights

I agreed to be one of the original sponsors of the call to build this movement – not a call for specific legislation, i.e. NLRA – but rather to confront the historical racism inherent in the first call for labor legislation in the 30′s.

At a time when most of the farm workers in the Deep South were Blacks, the Dixiecrats that controlled Congress would never see blacks on an equal  field as their counterparts in other industries.   Every reform that’s been debated since has excluded farm workers, including the current drive over the Employee Free Choice Act.  

Randy Shaw Responds to Michael Yates about the Chavez legacy and more

The UFW’s Powerful Legacy

It is unfortunate that Michael Yates’ deep-seated hostility to Cesar Chavez and the UFW led him to so badly misrepresent my book, Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21^st Century. Yates not only misstates the book’s thesis, but he ignores the vast majority of the text; one would never know from his review that the book primarily focuses on how, more than forty years later, the spirit, strategies, and tactics of the UFW in its heyday still strengthen the U.S. labor movement, build Latino political power, provide a progressive grassroots electoral model and infuse a growing national campaign for immigrant rights.  

Vermont Labor Welcomes Sanders Single-Payer Healthcare Bill

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ recent introduction of a single-payer healthcare reform bill in the U. S. Senate has drawn praise from Vermont labor leaders. “At a time when incredible pressure is being brought to bear on our representatives to support reform proposals that do little more than bail out the private insurance companies, Senator Sanders has taken his place among those of us who believe that healthcare should be a birthright of all Americans. We applaud his principled leadership,” said Traven Leyson, President of the Washington/Orange/Lamoille Counties Central Labor Council.

May Day Rally in Philadelphia

“The revival of May Day is essential for a strengthened labour movement everywhere and for the renewal of international labour solidarity”–Eric Lee, LabourStart

May Day was founded in the United States as a result of the great struggle and sacrifice of life that resulted from the general strike of 1886 and the movement for the eight hour work day. Globally, on May 1st of each year, workers in massive celebrations all around the world pay tribute to their labors and honor the struggle for better conditions.  Workers in the United States are too often ignorant of  their history and  common bond with workers in other countries.

In Philadelphia, a May Day Rally is being organized by  the Pennsylvania Labor History Society (PLHS) and the Philadelphia Area Project of Occupational Safety and Health (PHILAPOSH).

MAY DAY USA – A DAY TO HONOR ALL WORKERS
FRIDAY, MAY 1 – NOON TO 2 PM
Elmwood Park @ South 71st St. and Buist Ave.
Southwest Philly

UNITE HERE General President Bruce Raynor Suspended from Union

April 21  Press Release from UNITE HERE International Union

Chicago – Today, the General Executive Board of UNITE HERE met in Chicago and voted to suspend the General President, Bruce Raynor. The suspension comes as a result of President Raynor’s attempts to divide the union as well as promote SEIU as a competing labor organization within UNITE HERE’s jurisdiction. The vote margin was 32 in favor of suspension, 0 against, with 3 abstentions.

The UNITE HERE General Executive Board, which is the Union’s highest governing authority between conventions, voted to take harsh action against its General President because of his actions violating the Union’s Constitution. Actions have included trying to remove the International Union from control of the Amalgamated Bank, the Union’s pension and benefits funds, and the Union’s building in New York City, as well as fostering the illegal secession of joint boards from the Union.