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Join May Day Celebrations for Workers' and Immigrant Rights

Join May Day Celebrations for Workers' and Immigrant Rights

Around the United States and across the globe today, workers, unions, activists and allies are celebrating International Workers' Day. May Day is a national holiday in more than 80 nations that honor workers and workers’ rights and celebrates the significant role unions play. May Day actions in the United States this year will place a special emphasis on immigrant rights and the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

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Take Action in Honor of Bangladeshi Garment Workers

Photo courtesy United Students Against Sweatshops

After last week's Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, which killed at least 377 garment workers, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) started a petition calling on three of the leading users of Bangladeshi garment workers—Walmart, the Gap and H&M—to demand that factories in the country be made safe for workers. The building collapse is already the deadliest garment factory disaster in known history and the death toll is not yet final. USAS says the deaths could have easily been prevented, as cracks appeared in the structure the day before it collapsed. Workers were ordered to work in the building anyway, under threat of losing a month's pay.

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Bangladesh: Six Arrested in Building Collapse; Death Toll 377, but Hundreds Missing

Lily Gomes and Rukshana Yasmin, Solidarity Center staff in Dhaka, check on an injured garment worker. Photo courtesy of Solidarity Center

UPDATE 04/29/2013: The death toll as of this morning stands at 377 and hundreds of people remain missing, reports The New York TimesCNN reports that authorities have arrested six people: three factory owners, two government engineers and the owner of the building, Sohel Rana—a local-level leader of the ruling Awamil League— who was caught as he tried to flee the country.

More than 300 workers now have been confirmed dead from Wednesday’s building collapse in Bangladesh. Some 2,200 survivors have been pulled from the ruins of what is being called one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history. More than 3,000 garment workers were on the job when upper building floors pancaked on top of each other.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ordered the arrest of the building’s owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front, who told factory operators the building was safe. Hasina also has ordered the arrest of five garment factory owners.

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At Least 194 Dead in Latest Bangladesh Garment Disaster

 Dozens of Bangladesh workers in several garment factores were killed in a building collapse today. Photo: Bangladesh Federation of Workers Solidarity (BFWS).

Tragedy struck again in Bangladesh this morning when a building that housed several garment factories collapsed, killing at least 194 people, mostly garment workers, injuring hundreds of others and trapping an unknown number of people in the rubble. A number of shops were also in the building.

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Death Trap Plants Win ‘Safe’ Certifications, New AFL-CIO Report Reveals

Death Trap Plants Win ‘Safe’ Certifications, New AFL-CIO Report Reveals

Would you trust that your food is clean and uncontaminated, the plane you’re flying in airworthy or your workplace safe, if those were certified by companies counting on the profits they’ll make from your purchases, travel and labor? Of course not.

But that’s the dilemma millions of workers around the world face—often with deadly results—when it comes to their safety on the job, a new report from the AFL-CIO reveals:

www.aflcio.org/csr

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Mexican Union Leader Vindicated in Court, Launches New Book

Napoleón Gómez of Los Mineros (left) and USW Pres. Leo W. Gerard At Vancouver press call to launch the Los Mineros leader’s  new book, ‘Collapse of Dignity.’

Fresh from a series of resounding legal victories, Mexican mine workers leader Napoleón Gómez has written a book that exposes the Mexican government’s seven-year campaign to destroy democratic unions and drive down workers’ wages. Gómez won the AFL-CIO’s Meany-Kirkland Human Rights Award in 2011.

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Bahrain: Medics, Patients Persecuted in Ongoing Repression

Rula Al-Saffar (left) and Jehan Matooq are among medical professionals in Bahrain where medics continue to experience repression. Photo: Tula Connell

For sick or injured Bahrainis, going to the hospital means risking a prison term—or even death. Describing the “militarization of hospitals,” Rula al-Saffar, president of the Bahrain Nursing Society, said patients with “head traumas, broken bones or burns” are first interrogated by police to determine if they are involved in protests against the government. Health professionals are only allowed to treat patients after police investigate and clear them for treatment. For some, the delay means death.   

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