Tag Archives: pandemic

Global: Graphic – Protect workers! Stop Covid-19 | BWI

Tunisia: Call to protect migrants and refugees

Tunisia’s national trade union center UGTT, together with civil society organizations, activists and members of parliament, has called on the government to take immediate measures to ensure that migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers enjoy full access to medical services, prevention measures and social support in the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the government agreed on April 7 to a limited number of measures including visa extensions, an April 10 appeal (available here in French) insists, in the name of solidarity, on targeted actions to fully protect the rights of non-citizens, including the right to medical services, regularization of migrants’ residency status and easing the population currently in crowded migrant detention centers with an elevated risk of contagion. Most migrant workers in Tunisia are from sub-Saharan Africa.

IUF news release.

Global: The right to refuse | IndustriALL

IndustriALL Global Union’s publication on the right to refuse or to shut down unsafe work.

http://www.industriall-union.org/right-to-refuse

Canada: Janitors’ union ‘invisible to essential’ campaign

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2 in Canada has launched an ‘Invisible to Essential’ campaign, calling on property owners, managers and cleaning contractors to work together to make immediate improvements to cleaner’s working conditions. SEIU Local 2 represents more than 10,000 janitors across Canada.

The campaign demands include an immediate Can$2 per hour raise; keeping cleaners employed during the crisis; and ensuring all cleaners are working safely with the required training and Personal Protect Equipment (PPE).

Local 2 represents janitors in  the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.

More information can be accessed at: www.justiceforjanitors.ca/campaigns/from-invisible-to-essential/SEIU

Canada: This national Day of Mourning, Tell your story – CLC

April 28th marks the National Day of Mourning, to recognise the hundreds of workers who lose their lives or have their lives changed forever because of something that happened in their workplace.

The vigils we hold this year to commemorate these workers will be virtual – yet another way COVID-19 has changed the way we live and work.

Tell your story and what this day means to you right now.

https://canadianlabour.ca/this-national-day-of-mourning-tell-your-story/

USA: USMWF- Workers’ Memorial Day Events

US campaign and support group Unite Support and Memorial for Workplace fatalities (USMWF) invites everyone to join them in a day of honoring, recognising and remembering fallen workers on 28 April. They hope you will help them get the word out and share with your family, friends and co-workers.

There will be a day of events;  in particular, they hope you will join them on April 28, 2020 at 7pm cst. for their ceremony LIVE on Facebook.

More details on USMWF’s 28 April activities

Enquiries Tonya Ford, Executive Director
USMWF.ORG, Inc (A 501 c3 non profit)PO Box 85171
Lincoln, NE 68501
402.326.3107

Facebook
USMWF Family Reunion/Support Group
Donate
Workers Memorial Day

UK: Coronavirus protest to mourn preventable construction deaths


11am Sunday morning, 12 April, flowers are laid to mourn construction workers who will lose their lives unnecessarily during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The respectful ceremony took place at the ‘Building Worker’ bronze statue at Tower Hill, which was commissioned as a memorial for all those who have died on building sites by the construction union UCATT (now a part of UNITE). The symbolic event was to mourn the dead, but also the fight for the living, and was carried out as part of the mass #ShutTheSites movement that has been trending on social media for the past 2 weeks, calling for non-essential building sites to be closed.

Video link: https://youtu.be/5zuNNCEijFo

A new Shut The Sites FaceBook page was launched on Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/ShutTheSites/

Shut The Sites issued the following statement:

“The Bronze Building Worker statue has for many years been a memorial for workers who have died on construction sites. Flowers have been respectfully laid today to mourn the dead. But in this time of crisis we should also fight to protect the living. None of us want to be here in 6 months time laying a bigger wreath to thousands of construction workers and their family members who may lose their lives unnecessarily.

If construction workers are building a Nightingale Hospital or carrying out emergency maintenance on vital infrastructure, that’s clearly crucial to fight this pandemic. But hundreds of thousands of building workers are being forced to continue working on building sites by greedy developers and employers in order to build luxury flats, hotels and powers stations that will not be completed for at least another 5 years. None of these are essential.

Construction workers often travel on packed public transport or in shared minibuses, eat together in site canteens, live in huge site accommodation blocks and generally work in close proximity. No building worker in the country believes that construction can continue in any meaningful manner while complying with the 2m social distancing rules. Major contractors also have an appalling track record on health and safety; over decades they have sacked and blacklisted those prepared to stand up for the safety of their fellow workers. By keeping non-essential building sites open, the government and businesses are prioritizing profit above public health.

No construction worker wants to put their families lives at risk or add more burden to the NHS. The UK government should immediately close all non-essential building sites. But they also need to ensure that every single worker, whether an employee, self-employed or an agency worker, is paid straight away. We need to protect our families, but we also need to put food on the table.

Rather than forcing construction workers to choose whether to protect their families or pay their bills, the government should suspend all mortgage, rent, interest payments and penalty clauses for the next 3 months (as has already been done in Italy) and pay everyone a universal basic income (as has occurred in Hong Kong and is being proposed by the Spanish government)”.

#ShutTheSites
#PAYEveryworker
#StayHomeSaveLives

The memorial protest comes at the same time as the government issued new advice that 2m social distancing will no longer need to be strictly applied in the construction industry, but instead recommends that workers are kept two metres apart “as much as possible”. This is in stark contrast to guidance from the Scottish Government, which has ordered the closure of all non-essential construction.

Construction workers have been voicing their opposition to keeping non-essential building sites open on social media and a number of videos from across the UK have been collated and now appear on the attached .

For press interviews contact: ShutTheSites@gmail.com

Note:

A full risk assessment was carried out before the protest which identified potential hazards and control measures were implemented to remove the risk

  • Only 2 workers involved to comply with government guidelines (many more wanted to attend)
  • Event coincided with a trip to buy food
  • 2m social distancing at all times
  • Participants arrived by private transport rather than the packed tube
  • PPE worn

The protest with two construction workers could be deemed unlawful. The irony being that thousands of construction workers, often lacking PPE, packed onto building sites across the UK is being actively encouraged by the government.

28 April: Malaysia designates COVID-19 as occupational disease

Malaysia’s Social Security Organisation (SOCSO) has moved to clarify that COVID-19 is recognised as an occupational disease under the country’s Employment Social Security Act 1969. Read more

USA: AFL-CIO COVID-19 Resources

The AFL-CIO has put together a list of resources for working people impacted by COVID-19. The site includes information about unemployment benefits, paid leave, health insurance and community assistance resources.  Find them here: aflcio.org/resources

USA: COVID-19 strike wave interactive map – Payday Report

Payday Report has launched an interactive Covid-19 strike tracking map so that workers can follow the wave of strikes hitting the country. Each point contains a link to more information on the strikes occurring. More