INDIAN WORKERS START
‘HUNGER STRIKE FOR
JUSTICE’
Indian workers
launched a hunger strike Wednesday morning to
demand the US and Indian governments
investigate worker exploitation faced by guest
workers in the Gulf Coast. Supporters chanted
“Inquilab, zindabad” ("long live
revolution") while workers opened the water-only hunger strike
with silent prayers and ceremonial first drinks
of water. “We have let the US and Indian
governments know our demands but they have only
given us words, not actions,” said Sony
Sulekha, one of the hunger strikers. “We
stand here to say that until we have victory,
the strike will continue.” The workers –
former employees of marine construction company
Signal International, a subsidiary of Northrop
Grumman – walked off the job in March and
began a truth-action
tour to protest and expose Signal’s human
trafficking violations and worker abuse through
President Bush's H2B visa guest worker program
(DC
Jobs with Justice Corner: Indian Workers to
Stage Hunger Strike in DC 5/8/08 UC).
Speaking through a translator, workers detailed
the situation they faced while working for
Signal, including being forced to pay Signal
$1,050 a month to live 24 to a trailer. “We
came to the US for the promise of the American
Dream, but instead we were put in a camp and
treated like slaves,” said former Signal
worker Sabulal Vigayan.
When Vigayan and some of
his co-workers organized, Signal sent armed
guards into the camp and locked them up.
Hundreds of workers walked off the job in
protest and Vigayan and the other organizers
were eventually released, but Signal continued
to intimidate and threaten workers. “We
escaped Signal’s labor camps and went
straight to the Department of Justice and yet
we are being treated like criminals, living
under the threat of deportation every day,”
said Muruganantham Kandhasami. Dozens of
additional workers are expected to join the
hunger strike at the end of May if the
workers’ demands – which include allowing
the workers to stay in the US and participate
in a Department of Justice investigation of
Signal; Congressional hearings into abuses of
Gulf Coast workers under the guest worker
program; and Indian government action to
protect future Indian workers – are not met.
Click
here to find out how you can support the
workers’ struggle and here to
urge your Congress members to hold hearings on
Signal International and to grant asylum to the
workers.
- report/photo by
Andy Richards
WORKERS TARGET
VERIZON’S POOR SERVICE
THURSDAY
Verizon workers and
DC residents will hit the streets of downtown
DC early Thursday
morning to demand the DC Public Service
Commission (PSC) hold Verizon
accountable for its poor service and refusal to
invest in DC. The rally is taking place outside
a closed PSC hearing on a recent settlement
between Verizon and DC officials that the Connect-DC
Coalition calls a “substandard agreement
with false solutions to serious quality of
service complaints.” “In the last 3 years
Verizon has closed most of its service centers
in the District and moved a third of its jobs
out of the city,” says DC Jobs with Justice
organizer Ruth Castel-Branco. “And now,
instead of making a real investment in
infrastructure and staffing, Verizon has
decided to scape-goat its workers for its
service problems.” Click
here to tell PSC officials to
hold Verizon accountable for its poor
service.
LABOR
UPDATES
Hundreds of MontCo
Workers Protest Rollbacks of Pay
Raises: Over 300 county workers
“packed a [Montgomery] County Council hearing
room” to protest attempts by Councilmembers
Phil Andrews and Duchy Trachtenberg to revoke
promised pay increases for thousands of County
workers, reported C. Benjamin Ford in Friday’s
Gazette. “The suggestion that county
workers should volunteer to pare down
contractually established pay increases not
only ignores the financial realities of living
and working in one of the most expensive areas
in the country, it also undermines the
collective bargaining process,” said
MCGEO/UFCW Local 1994 President Gino Renne in a
letter to the editor in Saturday’s
Washington Post. The dispute comes as
labor’s influence continues to grow in the
County. “Over the past two decades, the
influence of the unions representing public
employees in the county has grown
dramatically,” reported Ann E. Marimow in Sunday’s
Washington Post. Government officials
“say Montgomery's bargaining system -- along
with labor's political clout -- gives workers
as strong a voice, if not stronger, than
taxpayers in budget talks.” Still
Time to Join CLUW Team to Beat Cervical
Cancer: This Friday is the
deadline to sign up for the Coalition of Labor
Union Women team for this year’s “Walk to
Beat the Clock” against cervical cancer on
Saturday, May 17. “Although [it] is too late
to be counted for the grant, [union members]
can still sign up online
until 5P on Friday, May 16,” reports Carolyn
Jacobson of CLUW. Members of any union,
including men, can join the CLUW team. Click
here to register.
RECENTLY ARCHIVED
STORIES
LABOR UPDATES
(5/8/08); SATURDAY FINAL CHANCE TO JOIN CLUW
WALK TEAM; TODAY'S LABOR CHORUS CD DRAWING
WINNERS; DC JOBS WITH JUSTICE CORNER: INDIAN
WORKERS TO STAGE HUNGER STRIKE IN DC; MONTCO
WORKERS DEMAND COUNTY HONOR CONTRACTS; "STAMP
OUT HUNGER" SATURDAY; FBI RAIDS OFFICE
RESPONSIBLE FOR PROTECTING FEDERAL WORKERS
CIVIL RIGHTS; FLIGHT ATTENDANTS HOLD UNION VOTE
AT DELTA; LABOR UPDATES (5/9/08); LABOR ON THE
MOVE: LIPSETT NEW SEIU 32BJ POLITICAL DIRECTOR;
FREE LABOR CHORUS CD DRAWING; COUNCIL DIRECTORY
UPDATED & ONLINE; Read these and other
UNION CITY! stories dating back to December
2006 in our searchable online
archives.
Metro Washington (DC) Council AFL-CIO
MD/DC STATE FED BEGINS
WALKS FOR ’08
ELECTIONS
The Maryland
State/DC State AFL-CIO will host a labor walk
on Saturday,
May 17 at 9A to gear up for the 2008
elections. “This year, we can make a
significant change in the direction of our
country,” says the Maryland State/DC State
AFL-CIO. For more info or to volunteer, contact
Denise Riley, 443-995-6860.
COUNCIL DELEGATE
MEETING MONDAY
Get the
latest local labor news at this month’s Metro
Council delegate meeting on Monday,
May 19 at 6:30P. This month’s meeting
will include updates on the DC City Council
noise bill, the recent Prince George’s County
District 4 elections, the DC Labor Filmfest,
and the Labor Night at the Nats, reports on
upcoming local union actions, and more!
A BETTER
WEBSITE
IN 50 MINUTES
Find out how
to update your website automatically with new
content at the May 21 “Labor Websites 101: A
Better Website in 50 Minutes.” Michael
Whitney of American Rights at Work will lead a
lunchtime roundtable on “RSS Feeds” in the
first of a new series of free noontime sessions
on how to pump up your website, organized by
the Metro Washington Council and International
Labor Communications Association. “RSS feeds
are a way to display real-time updated news
from other sources on your site--and to
make sure your updated web content is seen by
others,” says Mariya Strauss of ILCA. Whitney
will discuss how this simple yet powerful tool
can work for your union site. FREE but
space is limited and pre-registration is
required. Click
here to register.
DC JOBS WITH
JUSTICE CORNER
Day
Laborers Find Support, Strategize at JwJ
National Conference: Since
January, DC
Jobs with Justice (JwJ) () has been
actively supporting the development of the
Union de Trabajadores – a worker-led
organization of day laborers in DC – to build
worker unity, advocate for their rights, and
create positive
relationships in the community they work.
Earlier this month, three members of the Union
attended the National Jobs with Justice
conference in Providence, Rhode Island where
they shared experiences and struggles with
union locals, organizations and workers
centers. "As day laborers, we need a lot of
character to work in the face of uncertainty,
poverty and despair," says Jorge Ortiz of the
Union de Trabajadores. “People who hire us
know our legal status and know that most of us
are not aware of our labor rights or do not
know where to look for support.” Ortiz –
who was part of the DC delegation to the JwJ
National Conference – shared and learned
strategies for organizing the unorganized and
leadership development with low-wage and
non-union workers at one of the conference’s
low-wage workers organizing forums. “At the
National Conference, I found out that we are
not alone," says Ortiz. "We got the support of
American brothers with experience in the
struggle for dignity of working people from all
over the United States. Now I know we have
friends who support us; now I know there is
hope.”
- report by Pedro
Cruz, DC Jobs with Justice Day Laborer
Organizer
LABOR HISTORY
(5/15-5/18)
The first labor
bank opens in Washington, D.C., launched by
officers of the Machinists. The Locomotive
Engineers opened a bank in Cleveland later that
year (5/15/1920); Death of IWW song writer
T-Bone Slim, New York City (5/15/1942);
Minneapolis general strike backs Teamsters, who are
striking most of the city’s trucking
companies (5/16/1934); U.S. Supreme Court
issues Mackay decision, which permits the
permanent replacement of striking workers. The
decision had little impact until Ronald
Regan’s replacement of striking air traffic
controllers (PATCO) in 1981, a move that
signalled antiunion private sector employers
that it was OK to do likewise (5/16/1938);
Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip
Randolph dies. He was president of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and first
black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a
principal organizer of the 1963 March on
Washington (5/16/1979); First women’s
anti-slavery conference, Philadelphia
(5/17/1838); Supreme Court outlaws segregation
in public schools (5/17/1954); Amalgamated Meat
Cutters union organizers launch a campaign in
the nation’s packinghouses, a campaign that
was to bring representation to 100,000 workers
over the following two years (5/18/1917); Big
Bill Haywood, a founding member and leader of
the Industrial Workers of the World (the
Wobblies), dies in exile in the Soviet Union
(5/18/1928); Oklahoma jury finds for the estate
of atomic worker Karen Silkwood, orders
Kerr-McGee Nuclear Company to pay $505,000 in
actual damages, $10 million in punitive damages
for negligence leading to Silkwood’s
plutonium contamination (5/18/1979); More info
& ammo for unionists is available online
from Union
Communication Services.
2008 EVENING
WITH
LABOR PHOTOS
Events
WPFW's Gloria Minott "Metro Watch" Radio Show with Jos Williams
Metro Council President Jos Williams discusses the latest labor news with WPFW's Gloria Minott
· May 16, 2008
AFGE's "Inside Government" Radio Show
Weekly labor radio show produced by the American Federation of Government Employees
· May 16, 2008
Walk to Beat the Clock DC 2008
Second annual event raises awareness and funds for fight against cervical cancer
· May 17, 2008
Maryland Labor Walk for 2008 Elections
Labor walks to talk to Maryland union members about worker issues at stake in 2008 elections
· May 17, 2008

