Category Archives: News

Tasmania: Every worker deserves a safe workplace, teachers too

As the debate about schools rage, it’s worth noting Tuesday is International Workers’ Memorial Day when we remember workers who didn’t come home.

Danish online action on Workers’ Memorial Day

Danish unions are to run a campaign on facebook and twitter, with the hashtags: #supportthefrontline and #iwmd20.

Safety reps, shop stewards and frontline members will post photos under the same hashtags. The pictures will show measures their workplace is taking to protect them during the corona crisis. Other workers who are not in the coronavirus frontline are being asked to post supportive messages.

Nina Hedegaard Nielsen
Arbejdsmiljøpolitisk konsulent, Organisation og Arbejdsmiljø
Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation / www.fho.dk

Tasmania: Unions to commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day – Tasmanian Unions

Union and community members are being urged to tune in online on 28 April this year as the Covid-19 pandemic prevents face to face commemorative services being held to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day. Read the details here

Philippines: KMU global solidarity to pay tribute to workers

As the world commemorates the International Workers’ Memorial Day on April 28, the national labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) joins the global solidarity to pay tribute to workers, particularly those in the health sector, who died in the service of the people as they battle in the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Philippines, 26 healthworkers—20 doctors and six nurses—have died due to complications brought about by COVID-19. The number of health workers infected with the dreaded virus has soared to over 1,100. These numbers indicate the weakness of the country’s healthcare system, the national government’s ill-preparedness to confront the pandemic and its failure to protect the health and safety of the health workers.

In honoring the memory of the health workers have died in the line of duty, we call on the national government to protect the health and safety of our frontline healthworkers.

We call on the people of every nation to hold their governments accountable for the neglect and inefficiency that put the lives of our frontline workers on the line.

We enjoin everyone in the households to remember each and every health worker who has sacrificed the life in the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 by lighting a candle on 28 April 2020, Tuesday, 6pm.

To show our solidarity with our brave and tireless healthworkers, kindly take photos of your family holding the signs with the following hashtags: #ProtectOurFrontlineWorkers #PublicHealthNotProfit

#IWMD20

Italy: FLAI-CGIL calls for regularisation of migrant workers and urgent measures to protect their health

The IUF-affiliated agrifood union FLAI-CGIL, together with numerous civil society organizations, has called on the government to take immediate measures to safeguard the health and safety of the thousands of irregular migrant workers and asylum-seekers living in the country. In an open letter of April 24, the union calls for solidarity with the irregular workers living in makeshift camps and ghettos, many of them employed in agriculture, without access to adequate water and sanitation. Government measures to tackle the health emergency do not reach these populations, putting lives at risk and threatening to transform them into pandemic hotspots.

The letter calls on the government to enable monitoring and prevention measures by requisitioning migrant housing and providing improvements to basic infrastructure. Interruption in the supply of migrant workers from Eastern Europe threatens farm production, while irregular workers are unable to fill the shortage due to their fear of the authorities. Migrants and asylum seekers, the letter states, must be allowed to emerge with confidence from their irregular situation by being given residency status.

The health emergency and threat to food production, warns the letter, can only be addressed by guaranteeing workers’ fundamental rights and strict application of the sectoral collective agreements.

 

http://www.iuf.org/w/?q=node/7631

Asia: ANROEV activities and initiatives for 28 April

ANROEV has supplied a list of some of their affiliates’ initiatives in various countries campaigning for the recognition of COVID 19 as an occupational and compensable disease.

ANROEV affiliates activities [pdf]

BWI global union resources for 28 April – English, French, Spanish, German and other languages

BWI global union resources for 28 April

Zimbabwe: ZCTU says stop the pandemic at work, protect workers’ rights and safety and save lives!

In this video message several officers of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) join to demand workers’ protection and workers’ rights, social protection, non-discrimination and non-stigmatising and the full payment of salaries and wages during the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown in Zimbabwe.

A ZCTU officer demonstrates effective hand-washing techniques and encourages social distancing.

In  the following clip ZCTU’s Nathan Banda calls to Stop the Pandemic at work, full rights for workers and practice good personal hygiene and a Regional Officer reaffirms the ZCTU’s demands for workers’ protection and workers’ rights during the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown.

The union confederation has also called for workers to report issues they are facing during lockdown by sending SMS or WhatsApp messages saying: “Provide as much details as possible including the nature of the issues, name of institution or company and location.”

ZCTU website

UK: TUC action call for 28 April

Video message for 28 April from Shelly Asquith – TUC Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy Officer

 

Asia-Pacific: On 28 April, take action to help combat COVID-19 – APHEDA

APHEDA Executive Officer Kate Lee reports on International Workers’ Memorial Day activities in the Asia/Pacific region.

“Tomorrow, on International Workers’ Memorial Day, we will be remembering our sisters and brothers around the globe who have died or been injured while at work.

“And in this time of crisis, we are highlighting the life-saving work of workplace health and safety campaigners who are stopping the COVID-19 pandemic in their workplaces and communities.

“Across the globe, our partner unions and community organisations are mobilising to help spread quality information on how to stay safe from the virus.

“In Indonesia, our partner organisation is working with low-income neighbourhoods of street vendors, waste pickers, and home-based workers, and they are providing life-saving protective equipment to high-risk workers.

“And in Thailand, our partner organisation is on the airwaves broadcasting crisis updates to communities of migrant workers who cannot otherwise access quality information in their own language.

“Tomorrow, you can take action on International Workers’ Memorial Day by sharing a social media message in support of the front-line workers who are helping stop the spread of the Coronavirus.

“You can also show your solidarity with workplace health and safety activists in vulnerable communities by contributing to the Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA Coronavirus Solidarity Fund.

“If you have already made a donation, tomorrow please share the appeal on social media with your workmates, friends, and family, as we remember our loved ones and our workmates who have lost their lives at work.

“In Unity,  Kate Lee
Executive Officer”