On the picket line

Celebrate year of struggle at Stella D’Oro!

The workers at Stella D’Oro will mark one year since they walked off the job against unfair concessions and launched what has become a focus of struggle throughout the labor movement in New York City and beyond. Supporters from community and labor activists are coming out to rally with them on Saturday, Aug. 15, from 12 noon to 2 p.m. at 237th Street & Broadway. The message to the financiers at Brynwood Partners that we are united behind the workers at Stella D’Oro and will not rest until their jobs — good union jobs — have been secured.

The message to Brynwood — and to any potential buyers who would relocate production — is simple: “Keep Stella D’Oro in the Bronx: No layoffs, no concessions, no closure!” (From a message from the Stella D’Oro Solidarity Committee.)

Farm Workers demand heat safety

The Farm Workers union sued the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health on July 30 because it’s not obeying the law. Regulations were passed in 2005 aimed at stopping deaths from heat illness of farm workers, who are overwhelmingly Latinas/os. Farm workers often work in heat exceeding 100 degrees. But 11 farm workers have died since the 2005 law was enacted; six of the deaths came in 2008. The union says the regulations are too weak and DOSH is not investigating enough farms. Last year, DOSH found that more than 35 percent of growers it investigated violated the regulations. Since a heat wave started July 11 this year, DOSH has conducted 167 inspections and found more than 200 violations. While several workers have been taken to the hospital, no one has died this year—yet. The union’s lawsuit contends that the regulations must be changed because they place a burden on the workers. “It’s extremely difficult for workers to step forward, especially because they often work at piece rates, and they’re not paid when they take a break,” Catherine Lhamon, assistant legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told the July 31 New York Times.

Latina/o worker deaths up 76 percent since 1992

No wonder the Farm Workers are outraged! The number of Latina/o workers who died on the job has risen by 76 percent, even as the overall number of workplace deaths has declined, reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest tally shows an increase in Latina/o deaths on the job from 533 in 1992 to 937 in 2007. Meanwhile, total fatalities in all jobs nationwide fell from 6,217 to 5,657. The record in Latina/o deaths on the job was 990 in 2006. The most were in construction, transportation and warehousing, natural resources, mining and farming. There are more Latina/o workers in the labor force today, rising from 10.4 percent in 1998 to 14 percent in 2007, notes Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO safety and health director. She says lack of training, employers failing to communicate with workers in Spanish or to provide Spanish-language safety instructions, and exploitation of workers lead to accidents and deaths.

CIW targets Chipotle

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been waging a campaign since 2001 to get fast-food chains to pay a penny a bushel more for Florida tomatoes. That’s needed to help end sub-poverty wages and put pressure on growers to end back-breaking labor and vicious exploitation in the fields of mostly Latina/o and African-American workers. An impressive list of chains, including Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway, has signed on. Now CIW is focusing on the Chipotle restaurant chain. While Chipotle has been sponsoring screenings of the new documentary “Food, Inc.,” which shows injustices in the food system, CIW activists have been demonstrating outside to expose Chipotle’s hypocrisy. To support this campaign, sign the petition posted on the Action Center at www.americanrightsatworks.org. And boycott Chipotle while you’re at it!

Minimum wage raised—not enough!

On July 17 the minimum wage crept up to $7.25. Even the July 18 New York Times reported it “is still no higher now, after inflation, than it was in the early 1980s, and it is 17 percent lower than its peak in 1968.” In her article posted on ZNet on July 24, Holly Sklar writes: “In today’s dollars, the 1968 hourly minimum wage adds up to $20,634 a year working full time. The new federal minimum wage of $7.25 comes to just $15,080. That’s $5,554 in lost wages.” She also points out, “It would take $9.92 today to match the buying power of the minimum wage at its peak in 1968.” When we demand jobs for all, we also need to demand the minimum wage be at least $10 an hour!