from artist @nikkolas_smith:
“I wanted to paint the last thing pre-Med graduate Atatiana Jefferson was doing before she was killed by the cops… I guess we can add this to the list of things black people aren’t allowed to do at home… Her Life Mattered.”
#AtatianaJefferson #TayJefferson #DallasFortWorth #FWPD #BlackLivesMatter #SayHerName #Atatiana #StopKillingUs
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Over the last several weeks, delegations of farm workers and community supporters delivered written notices to employers in support of FLOC members calling for an end to abuses and corruption in their workplace. They are demanding that the farms recognize their union and negotiate to end wage theft, abuse, and intimidation they have suffered at the hands of corrupt farm labor contractor (FLC) Salvador Barajas. Sign the petition to support their struggle!
Watch a video of 2 FLOC members discussing this summer’s problems and reasons for joining FLOC. The video was filmed by Oxfam America and we are grateful for their support.
Salvador Barajas, the FLC on these farms, has stolen workers’ wages and put workers’ health at risk through dilapidated housing and by forcing them to purchase unsanitary and inhumane meals at illegal prices.
Growers frequently outsource the recruitment and management of farm workers to FLCs because the costs of hiring workers directly, paying good wages, maintaining proper housing, and ensuring compliance with laws and benefits in a union contract cost money. FLCs save money by stealing from workers and not complying with the law, using threats and intimidation to keep workers quiet. FLOC has been informing the tobacco industry about these types of abuses by H2ALCs for years, but continue to meet with inaction.
FLOC members are preparing to escalate this campaign. Please donate here.
*We are grateful for your support, we could not do this without you!
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To find out more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.floc.com. |
The police raid was broadcast on Facebook Live by the leftist leader as she put on her clothes to prepare for being taken to into custody.
The prefect of the Ecuadorean province of Pichincha Paola Pabon was arrested in the early morning hours of Monday at her home. Police also raided the home of Virgilio Hernandez, a former lawmaker and member of the Citizen Revolution. Meanwhile, in the province of Guayas, Alexandra Arce, former mayor of the city of Duran, was also detained. Yofre Poma, another member and lawmaker from the Citizen Revolution movement was also arrested in police raids.
The police raid Paola Pabon’s house was broadcast on Facebook Live by the leftist leader as she put on her clothes to prepare for being taken to into custody.
RELATED CONTENT: An October that was February
“Today they entered my house at dawn and knocked down the door while I was sleeping. They take me into detention without evidence. Being an opposition in a democracy cannot be a crime. It is not a democracy when political opponents are persecuted in this way,” Pabón said. video.
The political leader of the Social Commitment Force movement has been accused by the government of the president of Lenin Moreno, of being one of the instigators for the small acts of looting and violence that took place as part of the massive, mostly peaceful, mobilizations around the country over the past 10 days in rejection of the pro-IMF decree that eliminated the fuel subsidies.
Moreno also accused Ecuadorean ex-president Rafael Correa, former foreign minister Ricardo Patiño, lawyer and former lawmaker Virgilio Hernández, and Pabón, of being behind the protests in an alleged attempt to overthrow him, charges they all deny.
RELATED CONTENT: Differences Between an Attempted Coup D’état and a Popular Civic Insurrection
Hernandez was not found at his house when the police raided his home, however, the prosecutor’s office published pictures of phones and credit cards and other ordinary objects that were found at his house, which it said would be used to investigate him.
Arce was also arrested for “investigations” into her alleged role in the unrest that had swept the country for 10 days before the president backtracked on his pro-IMF decree eliminating fuel subsidies.
In the video she posted on her Facebook about the raid, Pabón denounced that the police entered her home without a court order and that her detention violates the rule of law.
For its part, the country’s Attorney General office said on its official Twitter account that “Paola P., Christian G, and Pablo D” were arrested after their investigations with police support.
Featured image: Paola Pabon broadcasted the full raid on her house as she dencunced the police for not showing her a court order. | Photo: Twitter / @PaolaPabonC
Source URL: Popular Resistance
Day two. We’re on picket lines and at CPS (citywide members) until 10:30 a.m., then rallying at City Hall at 1:30 p.m. The message?
We need a nurse at every school.
We need a psychologist at every school.
We need a counselor at every school.
We need a librarian at every school.
https://fighting-words.net/2019/10/16/demand-for-a-short-work-week-30-hours-work-for-40-hours-pay/
By Jerry Goldberg, October 16, 2019
UAW Vice President and chief negotiator Terry Dittes, has correctly articulated that the critical issue in the current UAW/General Motors strike, in addition to ending the wage disparities among the members, is job security. What underlies the current battle is whether the technology of the future, encompassed in the shift to electric car production, will be used to fatten the profits of GM and the other auto corporations through further wage cuts and job cutbacks, or whether the technology will be used for the benefit of the workers through shorter work hours with no cuts in pay.
The strategy of the UAW leadership for the past 40 years, giving up huge contract concessions based on the false notion that joint union- company cooperation is the way to save jobs, proved to be a complete failure, and has led to corruption within the union officialdom. Hopefully, the UAW/GM strike signals the end of that approach, and its replacement with the militant class struggle approach that built the union. Part of that approach entails re-raising demands for a short week, 30 and out pensions for all union members, an end to multi-tier wages and guaranteed lifetime jobs.
Demand for a Short Work Week – 30 hours work for 40 hours pay
In the 1970’s, the UAW rank and file organized a movement around the demand for a short week, 30 hours work for 40 hours pay. This demand was first prominently raised by the AFL in the 1930’s, and by a significant sector of the UAW in the 1950’s..
1970’s Paid Personal Holidays
In the1970’s rank and file UAW members and officers organized a conference for a short work week at UAW 22 in Detroit, which represented GM’s Cadillac plant at the time. The core of the demand was that as new technology is introduced into the plants, the workers should get the benefits of the increase in productivity through a short work week with no cut in pay.
In response to the growing movement for a short work week among the ranks, the UAW leadership took up this demand in the 1976 and 1979 contracts. In the 1976 contract the UAW won 12 paid personal holidays (pph days) over the three year contract. This was expanded to 26 in the 1979-1982 contract….
IFCO/Pastors for Peace has been organizing trips to Cuba ever since the first US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan in 1992. We’ve made many friends: within the religious community, at ecumenical Centers such as the Martin Luther King Center, within the fields of medicine, education and arts, and within the various aspects of Cuban society working together to make a better world possible.
These friends share our desire for people from the US to know more about Cuba – its history and culture, and most importantly its people. After decades of being exposed to misinformation about Cuba, it is only through travelling to the island that the people of the US can get an accurate first hand picture of Cuba and make up their own minds about our neighboring country. Only by hearing their stories, by knowing the context for their decisions and actions, can we gain a better understanding of their country – and of our own.
UAW Members to Stay on Strike until Ratification
Local General Motors UAW leaders from around the country today announced that the UAW GM National Council voted to accept the Tentative Agreement with General Motors. UAW workers will remain on strike until ratification.
The ratification informational meetings and vote will take place beginning Saturday, October 19 and ending Friday, October 25, 2019. Members should contact their UAW Locals for dates and times for meetings and voting.
“We thank the public for their support during the strike and their continued support as UAW GM members review the tentative agreement,” UAW Vice President and Director of the General Motors Department Terry Dittes said. “Ultimately, UAW members will make the decision to ratify the agreement. Their unity and solidarity brought us to this moment.”
