28 April activities in Philippines will remember health workers killed by Covid 19

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Save the Date! IOHSAD Philippines will mark this year’s Workers’ Memorial Day by remembering all the doctors and health workers who have died saving the lives of others. They will also call for the protection, safety and health of all the frontliners who continue to report to work despite the threat of COVID-19.

Join them in their Workers’ Memorial Day activities. Come together on April 28 and fight for mass testing and protection to our health workers and frontline workers.

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#IWMD20 #ProtectFrontliners #ProtectHealthWorkers #MassTestingNowPh

USA: Massachusetts Worker Memorial Day Commemoration

MassCOSH, the MA AFL-CIO, the Greater Boston Labor Council, Jobs with Justice, and Community Labor United are hosting a Virtual Workers’ Memorial Day Commemoration on April 28 at 12pm.

The bilingual event (Spanish and English) will include a special tribute to our frontline and essential workers who continue to risk their lives in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic, including five essential workers who  passed away from Covid-19 and were likely exposed to the virus on the job. Our event will close with a call to action for stronger workplace health and safety protections so that one day we will no longer need to hold this event.

The event will be broadcast via Facebook Live from the MassCOSH Facebook page. To be notified when the livestream begins, please RSVP on Facebook. And please invite your friends, families, coworkers and comrades to join with workers across the world in honoring all who needlessly died on the job.

Resource: Covid-19 Tool Kit for Essential Workers: Health and Safety Protections and How to Make them Happen

English: https://bit.ly/workertoolkitCOVID19

Spanish: https://bit.ly/derecholaboralCOVID19

Worker Memorial Day is April 28thRSVP here!

 

USA: Protecting black workers in the time of Covid-19

To remember and raise just demands for workplace safety and health and freedom from all forms of discrimination, the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights invites you to attend their Webinar: Dark Work—Devalued and Unprotected: Protecting Black Workers in the Time of Covid-19, Wednesday April 29th 6pm CST/7pm EST.  Read their message below.

Dear Friends, Partners and Allies:

For the past 20 years, on or around April 28th (Workers’ Memorial Day), the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights, has held its Annual Workers’ Memorial Day Rally (WMD) to honor Workers who lost their lives, while trying to make a living. As Black “essential”  Workers continue to die at beyond alarming, disproportionate rates in the time of Covid-19, during this year’s memorials we must remember them and in their names, we must fight harder for all those forced to risk their lives to feed and house their families.   To remember and raise just demands for workplace safety and health and freedom from all forms of discrimination, we invite you to attend our Webinar: Dark Work—Devalued and Unprotected: Protecting Black Workers in the Time of Covid-19, Wednesday April 29th 6pm CST/7pm EST.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Our program is part of a weeklong series of WMD events. Hear the stories of Black Workers, who are forced to work in life-threatening conditions with little or no protection. Hear from advocates and organizers who are standing in solidarity with them and their families.

Support WMD Week, April 25-May 2, 2020

I have attached two promotional flyers to this email (Flyer 1 and Flyer 2)

“No one should have to die to make a living”

Participating Organizations:

Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights
Resist the Rona
National Employment Law Project
Concerned Citizens for Justice
National Domestic Workers Alliance
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
LA Black Worker Center
Southern Human Rights Organizers’  Conference (SHROC)
Stand With Dignity of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice

Stand Up KC

Featuring stories from the frontlines!

Europe: ETUI coronavirus podcasts – voices on the world of work

New perspectives, debates and conversations about ongoing research and education on social Europe, worker participation, health and safety, the wider labour movement and the world of work.

Mauritius: Government urged to take measures to protect workers from Covid 19 risk | SEF/GSEA

The General President of the Mauritius government employees’ union SEF/GSEA, Radhakrisna Sadien, has written an open letter to the Mauritius Prime Minister urging the government to take appropriate measures to protect workers and their families with a view to prevent its propagation in the Republic of Mauritius.

Read the letter18 April update on Covid 19 in Mauritius 

Global: BWI Action Alert – International Workers Memorial Day ‘Protect Workers! Stop COVID-19’

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and that of the workers in our sectors, with new risks and fears not only for health and safety but for our overall wellbeing and that of our families and communities. Given that the pandemic is affecting all workers worldwide, including building and construction workers and wood and forestry workers, our work as a Global Union to be united has never been as relevant as it is today. International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) is on Tuesday 28th of April 2020 and the BWI will campaign theme is year is “Protect Workers! Stop COVID-19We encourage all affiliates to incorporate our theme in your respective campaigns so that your members can be part of the global campaign.

There are other serious health and safety issues continue to be important and should not be put aside this IWMD. We know that more than 100,000 construction workers die each year in preventable “accidents” on site. Forestry workers are also confronted with dangerous conditions that are notorious in the sector. Health and safety are undermined by the reliance of the forestry sector on informal and subcontracting work to boost their profits. The cement industry is also highly hazardous and accounts for hundreds of deaths in worksite accidents, and thousands of workers in the sector contract occupational diseases each year. The heavy use of outsourcing is also largely responsible for the lack of coherent management of hazards at work.

Precarious work in the sectors organised by the BWI affiliates is being paid for by workers with their health and their lives. Thus, the BWI supports IWMD campaign actions taken by affiliates on the need to prevent the loss of lives in these sectors. For example, affiliates active on our Lafarge Holcim campaign are likely to protest together on worker deaths at the company and outsourcing which is a contributing factor. Also, the BWI Youth Committee is organising its IWMD campaign under the sub theme “Life before Profit”.

The BWI also supports continued campaign actions on our longstanding Ban Asbestos campaign; meanwhile, two million tons of chrysotile asbestos is being put into the built environment every year – guaranteeing a deadly legacy for building workers and the public.

We encourage all IWMD campaign actions by affiliates to be shared with the BWI. Please send photos, statements/messages and videos to info@bwint.org

The BWI has put together seven-point 28 April 2020 action list  that affiliates can consider which we will be able to incorporate under our global campaign theme. We suggest that campaign actions are carried out between 20 to 28 April 2020.

BWI has developed posters that can be printed and shared online in various languages

United Kingdom: 28 April social media campaigning graphics | Hazards Campaign

As a part of their International Workers’ Memorial Day 2020 call to action the Hazards Campaign has produced a series of social media graphics (below) for you to share in your networks. The Campaign wants trade unions and activists  to flood Twitter, Facebook  and  other social networks with these images and,  include the hashtags  #iwmd20, #covid19 and tagging @hazardscampaign

Sample graphics scaled for Facebook

 

Sample graphics scaled for Twitter

Campaña 28 Abril USO España STOP a la pandemia en el trabajo

Un año más, desde USO conmemoramos el Día Internacional de la Seguridad y la Salud en el Trabajo, denunciando que, en 2019, tenemos que lamentar y denunciar que  621 trabajadores y trabajadoras perdieron la vida en su jornada laboral o en el trayecto de ida o vuelta del trabajo en nuestro país.

Debido a la crisis sanitaria que estamos sufriendo, en la que los trabajadores y trabajadoras están en primera línea expuestos al contagio del COVID-19 en condiciones precarias y de carencia de equipos de protección, desde USO nos unimos al llamamiento de la Confederación Sindical Internacional (CSI) y dedicamos nuestra campaña del Día Internacional de la Seguridad y la Salud en el Trabajo, con el lema “STOP a la pandemia en el trabajo”  a los que están exponiéndose en sus puestos de trabajo haciendo que todo funcione y para recordar a todas las personas que han enfermado, lesionado o muerto realizando su trabajo.

Adjunto el cartel, manifiesto (páginas 1 y 2) y guía de PRL ante el COVID-19.

Recibe un cordial saludo

 

UK: Coronavirus minute’s silence to honour workers

A minute’s silence will be held across the United Kingdom on 28 April to remember all the health, care and other key workers who have lost their lives to coronavirus.

The campaign, launched by the health unions UNISON, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives – who between them represent more than a million NHS and public service workers, including porters, refuse collectors and care staff – are urging politicians, employers, people at work and those on lockdown at home to join the tribute at 11am.

The minute’s silence – held on International Workers’ Memorial Day #iwmd20 – will allow everyone to pay their respects and give thanks for the lives of those whose work involved caring, saving lives, keeping key services running and the rest of the country safe, say the unions. The tribute is also a show of support for the families of those who have died.

The three unions are hoping the government and other organisations will get on board and join the campaign for there to be a minute’s silence on the day, which every year commemorates workers who have died around the globe.

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “This is the ultimate tribute to remember workers who’ve lost their lives and put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe and vital services running. Every year the sacrifice of workers around the world is recognised, but this year has a special significance because of the pandemic.

“Thousands of key staff are on the frontline while the rest of us are in lockdown. That’s why we’ve issued this call for the whole country to take part and remember the sacrifices they’ve made. The best tribute we can all pay them is to stay inside to protect the NHS.

“The minute’s silence is a thank you to all the workers including nurses, midwives, cleaners and care staff who’ve died from this devastating virus.”

Royal College of Nursing general secretary and chief executive Donna Kinnair said: “We’ve become used to hearing a great roar on a Thursday night for key workers, but this respectful silence will be a poignant reminder of the risks they run to keep us safe. I hope the public gets behind this with the same affection they show when applauding our people.

“The silence is a simple show of respect for those who have paid the very highest price, but their loved ones must know the levels of gratitude we feel as a nation and take some comfort from that.”

Royal College of Midwives chief executive and general secretary Gill Walton said: “We had expected 2020 to be a celebration of the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife but, although we actively applaud their service, this is not what we had imagined. Instead, across the country, midwives and maternity support workers are seeing the impact of coronavirus not only on the women in their care, but on their colleagues as well.

“We are proud to join UNISON and the RCN in this campaign and to recognise and remember those who we have lost.”

The minute’s silence will be held at 11am on Tuesday 28 April. The campaign hashtag for the minute’s silence is #neverforgotten.

UNISON news release.

UK: Organising through the coronavirus crisis – TUC

Here are the UK national union confederation TUC’s top organising tips. The TUC says “whether it’s saving workers’ jobs or protecting their health and safety, it’s essential we organise. Social distancing measures just mean we need to do it a little differently.”

Read the full article here.

 

Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living