[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 2.22.12-II

[Carlos Pelayo]

Rights Fight Unites Unions, Immigrants Larry Itliong: The Farm Workers' Filipino Champion‏'There's a Ripple Effect': A Chicago Librarian Speaks Out About Cutbacks‏Something else you can do to keep farm workers safe from methyl iodideWalmart - Alabama Anti-Immigrant Enforcer‏ Can Apple be ethical and innovative?‏ National LCLAA calls members out to Alabama‏Locked-Out Workers Journey for Justice‏Hershey's Packer Is Fined Over Its Safety ViolationsPoisoned: Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan, worked in an Apple factory in Suzhou, China cleaning iPhone touch screens‏  
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Feb. 21, 2012
Health insurance consumers will see $1 billion in premium rebates this year, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.The AFL-CIO stands “shoulder to shoulder” with immigrant workers to “beat back the enforcement of anti-immigrant initiatives on the state and local level that are a threat to the rights of all workers,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the National Day Laborer Organizing Network conference in Los Angeles this morning.
Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org. Affordable Care Act Means Premium Rebates for Consumers German Delegation Here to Support T-Mobile Workers Alabama Law Dictates ‘Who to Be Friends With’ Bill Closes Tax Loophole for the 1% Work—and Laughter—Connect Us All 1912 San Diego Free Speech Fight Has Lesson for Today 34th Great Labor Arts Exchange Set for June Advocacy Roundtable Rebukes Voter Suppression Laws The Draconian Effort to Impose Restrictions on Unemployment InsuranceRead more important news of the day on the issues working families care about.Follow the AFL-CIO:
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The Farm Workers' Filipino Champion

By Dick Meister

The birth date of Cesar Chavez, the late farm workers'
leader, will be celebrated next month, and rightly so.
But it's well past time we also celebrated the life of
probably the most important of the other leaders who
played a major role in winning union rights for farm
workers and otherwise helping them combat serious
exploitation.

That's Larry Itliong. He died 35 years ago this month
at age 63. Itliong got involved in the farm workers'
struggle very early in life, not long after he arrived
as a 15-year-old immigrant from the Philippine Islands.
He was among some 31,000 Filipino men who came to
California in the late 1920s.

They migrated throughout the state doing low-paying
farm work, isolated from the rest of society and
discriminated against because of their race.  They were
prohibited from marrying Caucasians, from buying land
and otherwise integrating into the community at large.

The Filipinos were perhaps the most isolated of the
groups of penniless workers that growers imported from
abroad. That, however, caused the Filipinos to band
closely together. They formed extremely efficient work
crews to travel the state under the direction of their
own leaders, at times even forming their own unions.

They actually struck - a rarity for farm workers at the
time   when grape growers in Southern California's
Coachella Valley rejected their pay demands in 1965.
The strike was led by Itliong, who was then working for
the AFL-CIO's recently-formed Agricultural Workers
Organizing Committee. The strikers got what they wanted
in just ten days.

Elsewhere, however, the Filipinos were forced to accept
growers' terms, initially after brief strikes at
several vineyards to the north.  But their fortunes
changed after they struck grape growers in the Delano
area of Kern County, where many Filipinos lived.

Again, they called on Itliong to lead them.  He clearly
understood the deep anger and frustration that
motivated his fellow Filipinos   an understanding based
on his own long experience. Soon after he came to
California from the Philippines, he turned to farm work
and, while still in his teens, was involved in an
unsuccessful tomato pickers strike in Washington State.

After that, Itliong traveled up and down California,
trying, as he said, "to get a job I could make money on
. . . Whatever money I made from one job was not enough
for me to live on until I got to the next job." He
barely made enough to pay for food and the cigars he
seemed to be endlessly chomping. School was out of the
question. But Itliong did learn plenty.

Like Chavez, he said he learned that farm workers could
not improve their wretched working and living
conditions, could not win any rights, if they did not
band together to demand decent treatment.

Itliong did not have the intellectual and philosophical
bent of Chavez. Nor did he share Chavez' deep distrust
of outside unions and their orthodox tactics. But
Itliong was as convinced as Chavez of the need for
unionization. And the depth of his conviction made
Itliong a natural leader among the Filipinos.

He was readily hired as a full-time organizer by the
AFL-CIO's Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee,
eventually leading the strike against Delano grape
growers that drew worldwide attention, much of it
focused on Chavez.

The vineyard strikers were seeking no more than a pay
raise of 15 to 20 cents an hour. But growers refused to
negotiate with Itliong and meanwhile evicted strikers
from the grower-owned camps where they lived.

Growers relied on animosity between Mexican-American
and Filipino workers, caused in large part by the
growers' practice of setting up separate camps and work
crews for various racial and ethnic groups.

But Chavez, who was then forming a union in Delano for
Mexican American workers, did not hesitate when Itliong
asked him for help.  Chavez felt that his group, then
called the National Farm Workers Association, wasn't
ready to strike itself, but would honor the picket
lines of the striking Filipinos.

Yet if they were to honor the picket lines of Itliong's
group, Chavez' members asked, Why not strike
themselves? Why not? And so they did.

That became the grape strike of 1965 that drew
worldwide attention and support and ultimately led to
the unionization, at long last, of California's farm
workers. It was Larry Itliong and his Filipino members
who started it all, and who played an indispensable
role throughout the struggle.

Without them there could not have been a strike.
Without them, there could not have been the victory of
unionization, without them no right for the incredibly
oppressed farm workers to bargain with their employers.

Within a year of the strike's launching, Chavez and
Itliong's organizations merged to form what became the
widely acclaimed United Farm Workers union the UFW.
Chavez was president, Itliong vice president. Chavez
and the UFW's far more numerous Mexican American
members were in firm control.

Itliong never really accepted this situation. He
finally resigned from the UFW's executive board in
1971. He complained that the union's outnumbered
Filipinos "were getting the short end of the stick"
from the Anglo lawyers, clergymen and other activists
who were Chavez' chief advisors.

Itliong preferred the more orthodox tactics of the
AFL-CIO organizing committee, apparently not realizing
it was the unorthodox tactics of Chavez' group that
finally led to unionization   boycotts, non-violence,
use of religious and student groups and all manner of
other help from outside the labor movement.

But this is not to detract from the extremely important
role Itliong played in bringing farm workers a union of
their own. He may not have clearly understood the need
for new tactics, but he most certainly understood the
paramount need of farm workers for unionization, and
the great needs of Filipino Americans generally.

Larry Itliong devoted most of his life to seeing that
they got much of what they badly needed.


Dick Meister has covered labor and politics for more
than a half-century. He's the co-author of, "A Long
Time Coming: The Struggle To Unionize America's Farm
Workers." Contact him through his website,
www.dickmeister.com

__

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.
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'There's a Ripple Effect': A Chicago Librarian Speaks
Out About Cutbacks
BY KARI LYDERSEN
TUESDAY FEB 21, 2012 12:40 PM
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working

"John," 67, has been a librarian since 1973, much of
that time spent in Chicago's currently embattled library
system. Working in a branch in a low-income
neighborhood, John--who asked his real name not be used
since he's not authorized to speak to reporters--sees
firsthand the important role the city's libraries play
and how library workers and residents have been affected
by more than recent 100 layoffs and cuts in service
hours.

As I wrote previously, the libraries have become one of
several high-profile battlegrounds between Mayor Rahm
Emanuel and public-sector unions, including AFSCME
Council 31, which represents library workers. Although
past retirement age, John keeps working in part because
he loves the job and the interaction with local
residents. He especially enjoys working with youth--"they
keep me feeling younger than my actual years," he says.
But he's frustrated that the city's administration
doesn't seem to respect the importance of libraries
today, or the needs and well-being of library workers
and patrons. I recently talked with him about the
issues:

How have the layoffs and cuts affected librarians who
are still working?

Almost all the library staff at all levels feel somewhat
demoralized. There's seeming indifference, and a lack of
appreciation of the important role libraries have in the
city and their communities.

What role do libraries play in Chicago communities these
days, especially low-income communities like the one
around your branch?

In the economically depressed areas there's an even
greater need for the services libraries provide. I have
community college students and elementary and
high-school students who come in to do their homework
assignments. We serve preschoolers up through community
college and college graduates and beyond.

People are increasingly turning to libraries to borrow
books instead of paying at a bookstore--people say they
don't have money in their budget for buying books
now--it's a symptom of the economic times. Over the past
few years, increasingly people are turning to the
library as a cheap resource for just recreational
reading or viewing of movies.

Does the library provide a refuge for youth, given the
violence in many neighborhoods?

It's a place where young people trying to get away from
activity on the street come in after school. They find a
relatively safe environment until a parent who's working
gets home. We do care for a fair number of students who
aren't able to go straight home because a parent is at
work.

We also have older users who are a little
needier--especially in a community like mine, some people
are feeling a little out of place in the library
setting. They have to be helped along a little more than
if you were working in a different community with a
higher education level.

Citywide, how have the cuts affected the public?

It has an impact in so many ways. In the morning many
branches would have preschool story hours--in my branch
we'd have 10 to 20 kids for each story hour. Now because
we don't open until 12 on a couple days, story hours are
being reduced. In some places the librarian conducting
story hours was laid off, so that's had an effect.

I've got a concept I call "intellectual capital."
There's frequently talk about how there's need for
capital expenditures, the mayor is talking about the
need for infrastructure. Well there's also the
intellectual infrastructure--libraries are part of that.
It's another resource being diminished by this reduction
in hours and by lesser staff, lesser service.

We also have a lot of community groups we serve, we have
CAPS (Community Alternative Policing) meetings. These
have all been hampered by the reduction in library
hours. There aren't as many evenings we can offer up for
meetings.

Each year we have a summer reading program to help
students on summer break continue reading...it's an
attempt on the part of libraries with the schools to
maintain a level of retention. That is being scaled back
considerably this year. There are a lot of things that
are not going to get done just because of lack of
staffing.

What do you think of hours being restored on monday
afternoons?

Since the library staff is being asked to volunteer to
work that sixth day in a week--I volunteered for the
first one - according to our union contract we're being
compensated in overtime. That's one of the advantages of
having a union contract. But from an economic standpoint
it makes no sense to be paying overtime when you had
your lower-paid workers and part-timers (before the
layoffs) to open the branch.

You have to have a certain number of people in a branch
to open up each day. After the layoffs they couldn't
open up each day because of the reduction in numbers. At
the West Pullman branch, where the mayor announced we
would open Monday afternoons, there are only two
regularly assigned people. In order to open they'll have
other people substituting from other branches.

But that means the branches they're coming from are a
little short-changed--you're robbing from Peter to pay
Paul. We're getting by on a shoe-string budget at this
point. It's only because most of the staff is
cooperating and trying to provide the library services.
Library employees are very dedicated and want to provide
the best level of service possible.

A page who has been laid off told us that Monday
mornings--when libraries are now closed--were the most
popular time for people to come in searching for jobs.
Is that true?

The 9 o'clock opening for Mondays was really important
for the adult users. We would have people lined up
outside the library in the morning; now they have to
wait until 2. We have a lot of adult users who would
prefer to be able to get on computers when children are
not around. Access to computers is crucial for those who
are jobless -- you can't apply for a city job without
getting on a computer; libraries are primary job search
areas now. Books have become somewhat secondary; access
to the computers, especially for those who don't have a
computer at home--this is maybe their only way of getting
free access to a computer.

People can bring in laptops for access to Wi-Fi if don't
have an Internet connection at home. Increasingly even
in economically depressed areas like my branch, people
will bringing laptops and use. Some branches have a
position called cyber-navigator where individuals can
get private classes--how to set up an email account, how
to use the computer for searching on the Internet, even
helping getting directions through Mapquest.

Has your job become more taxing since the cuts?

Every single library page was laid off, so the other
staff have to take away from their normal
responsibilities to shelve books. I shelve books on a
daily basis. That means I'm taking away from my
day-to-day responsibilities. We're being forced to do
the work of other people who were laid off. It's become
more stressful because we all want to do the best job we
can. If I choose to do one thing, it means I'm taking
away from another.

Have you heard what kind of effect the layoffs are
having on pages and other staff?

Oh yeah, there's a ripple effect. The library has a
private security firm. Because their hours are being
reduced, you have one security officer talking to me
about how she only got 17 hours in that week because of
the reduction in library hours. Not only are library
employees being affected, other companies that provide
services to libraries are being impacted. She was
talking about how she'd have to move to Indiana or
someplace else because she can't afford the rent now.

What do you think of the high-profile battle between the
mayor and AFSCME on this issue?

The union is trying to stand up for the employees. My
own perspective is the mayor doesn't seem to recognize a
lot of the issues involved here--he seems to be blaming
the union for the problems. It's really not the union
creating the problems, it's the layoffs and the attitude
that libraries aren't that important.

The mayor is talking about his commitment to children
and trying to lengthen the school day. I don't think a
day goes by without one library user saying it doesn't
make sense to cut library hours while they're increasing
school days. Almost all librarians feel we supplement
and work together with the schools in providing
educational resources.

Many of the schools don't even have adequate school
libraries--that includes the community colleges--so
students come in for resources they don't have at their
own library. It's all connected, and now we're just
weakening one of those strands that holds the whole
community together.

____________________________________________

PortsideLabor aims to provide material of interest to
people on the left that will help them to interpret the
world and to change it.
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Something else you can do to keep
farm workers safe from methyl iodideAs the UFW begins our 50th anniversary year, we want you to know how much we appreciate the crucial role you have played in the work of the United Farm Workers. Together, we face many challenges and see important opportunities on the horizon. A critical challenge is to protect workers and their families from the pesticide methyl iodide—which has been called one of the most toxic chemicals on earth.In December 2010, under pressure from the pesticide industry, this poison was approved for use in California agriculture. It is an equally objectionable substitute for methyl bromide, one of the five deadly pesticides that César Chávez fought so hard to get banned.When the UFW spoke to strawberry workers who will be among those most seriously affected, we found them to be well-informed and afraid.Oscar Soriano stated: “Farm workers like me, who work in the strawberries, are the ones who are going to be exposed; we will be more likely to get cancer...I understand that this chemical is so toxic that it is being used in labs to create cancerous cells to be studied.”As Oscar’s brother, Abel Soriano, pointed out, “This chemical will contaminate water and may cause pregnant women to have premature babies and may even cause malformation of the fetus....Even if people don’t work in the strawberries we are all at risk... Here in Monterey County it’s almost all strawberry cultivation and it’s around the schools. I think that it’s very bad and damaging to the community....We all breathe the air that’s around us."Workers, scientists, and environmentalists are especially concerned about the potential effects of methyl iodide on children like Abel’s two-year-old daughter,Jackeline.Jackeline’s Uncle Oscar told us, “This chemical can get our children sick, especially the ones whose schools are close to the fields. It will contaminate the air and get to our cities.”Methyl iodide will be applied as a gas to fields from which it can drift onto nearby homes, schools and businesses. It will also likely pollute groundwater.We have been circulating a petition to California's new head of Pesticide regulation and Gov. Jerry Brown calling on them to ban Methyl Iodide. In addition, we have been taking local action, including being successful getting  the Santa Cruz and Monterey County Boards of Supervisors to pass resolutions calling for a state ban of Methyl Iodide. Keep the momentum going. Your contribution will help us keep up the pressure on growers and lawmakers alike to protect farm workers, rural residents and the environment from this deadly chemical.Farm worker families like Oscar, Abel and Jackeline will be deeply grateful to know that you continue to care about them and want to help. 

https://secure.ufw.org/page/contribute/methyliodide
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National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP)25 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011800-590-2516info at latinopolicy.org
www.latinopolicy.org  Board of DirectorsJosé R. Sánchez   ChairEdgar DeJesus   SecretaryIsrael Colon   TreasurerMaria Rivera   Development ChairHector FigueroaTanya K. Hernandez Angelo Falcón   President 
 To make a donation,click here  Follow us onTwitter andAngelo's Facebook Page.  
Immigration lawA state of enforcersby J.F. | ATLANTAEconomist (February 15, 2012) JACK HITT had a wonderful, chilling piece on "This American Life" a couple of weeks back, about Alabama's immigration law, a subject we've written about before. Mr Hitt calls laws such as this a "third way", between those who want to create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and those who want to chuck everybody out. The part of the piece you may have heard before (especially if, ahem, you've been reading us) concerns the unintended consequences of the law: the burden placed on police officers, the frightening away of foreign investment, businesses deciding to locate elsewhere, fruit rotting in the field, Latino children being kept home from school. David Bronner, who runs the state's retirement system, claims that a Spanish bank cancelled an $80m office tower in Birmingham, while Chinese owners of a new copper mine in southern Alabama were reconsidering. The chief of police in Tuscaloosa, where the law ensnared a German Mercedes-Benz executive, all but called it a waste of his time and resources, which of course it is: there is actual crime, the kind that hurts people, in his city. Gerald Dial, the Republican Senate whip, helped shepherd the bill through Alabama's legislature; now he says he would support repealing it. All of that is old news. The chilling part comes from interviews with Latinos in Alabama. A woman called Carolina complains that clerks at Wal-Mart refused to give her money that her mother had transferred to her-money she used to get just by showing ID and typing in a PIN number-unless she proved she was in the country legally. She also said the Wal-Mart cashiers refused to sell her groceries without proof of her legal status. Wal-Mart is a private business; they are not bound by Alabama's immigration law to check customers' legal status, and yet their clerks seem only too happy to do so, knowing that those to whom they deny service are hardly in a position to go to the police. Then there is the provision of the law making contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable in court; employers have used that provision to deny payment for services rendered. Others, says Mr Hitt, "said they've created an underground railroad of information about sympathetic folks." Yes, it's 2012, and Alabama is still forcing a group of its most vulnerable citizens to rely on an underground railroad. Defenders of the law may claim such attitudes are themselves a regrettable, unintended consequence. They are not. They are, to use a phrase well on its way to cliche status, a feature, not a bug. If the goal is "self-deportation", then anything is fair. The idea is to make life so intolerable for illegal immigrants that they simply leave; anything to further that goal must be worthwhile. Mr Hitt asks Kris Kobach, the law's creator, whether he accepts that it has unleashed some ugly racial attitudes in Alabama. His response is revealingly blithe: "You can't legislate what is in people's hearts. And if people have those twisted ideas of the world and have those ill feelings toward people who have a different skin colour, I don't think you can say that the law has caused that. And I don't think you can say that the law can ultimately stop that." Well, no. But laws can certainly encourage such bigotry, by implicitly encouraging the citizenry to pick on one class of people: in this case, Latinos. Yes, we know Mr Kobach insists the law targets illegal immigrants of any shade, but as the women interviewed by Mr Hitt can testify, we also know how it is applied in practice.

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  Apple is under intense scrutiny right now. But rather than genuinely addressing the problems in its supply chain, we believe the company is trying to stop the outcry by brushing its problems under the rug.

We’re demanding that Apple do what it takes to ensure the people who manufacture its products are treated ethically. And we’re joining a global movement to deliver hundreds of thousands of petitions from activists worldwide at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting this Thursday. 

Sign our petition: Tell Apple to transform its industry by being ethical and innovative.  

Not that long ago, I switched from a BlackBerry to an iPhone. It’s been a great switch. The iPhone is intuitive and powerful—it’s an incredible piece of machinery. If you don’t use an Apple product yourself, you probably have friends or family who do.

When it comes to technology, Apple has revolutionized its industry and set a standard other companies aspire to meet. The company has been richly rewarded for its success. It is now the biggest publicly traded company in the world, worth a whopping $465 billion. The company made $17.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone—just shy of a 40 percent profit margin.(1,2)

But Apple’s record-breaking success comes at a back-breaking price. According to news reports, workers who assemble iPhones, iPads and iPods at Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier in China, have needlessly suffered lifelong injuries and even died from avoidable tragedies, including suicides, explosions and exhaustion from 30- to 60-hour shifts. And there are stories of workers suffering such awful repetitive motion injuries that they permanently lose the use of their hands.(3)

Sign our petition to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. Tell him to ensure that people integral to Apple’s success—workers who manufacture Apple’s electronics—are treated fairly.

Apple is under intense scrutiny right now. But rather than deal with that by genuinely addressing the problems in its supply chain, we believe the company is trying to stop the outcry by brushing its problems under the rug.

Recently, Apple joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to arrange for inspections of its factories. We believe these inspections will not expose—or begin to solve—Apple’s problems. The FLA is funded and controlled by the multinational corporations it oversees, which means it is not at all independent. As Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) recently said, independence “means an organization is not funded and governed by the companies it is charged with investigating.”(4)

A couple days ago, Foxconn also announced a recent raise for some of its workers. But we believe that, too, is a PR smokescreen. According to Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, “The new basic wage…only applies to the workers in Shenzhen. In inland provinces, where two-thirds of production workers are based, basic salary remains meager. Given that the inflation in China is high, Foxconn is just following the trend of wage increase in the electronics industry in China.”

We call on Apple to immediately allow genuine unions, with truly independent factory inspections and worker trainings. Trying to brush this under the rug—or hide behind a front group like the FLA—only will make Apple’s PR problems worse.

Tell Apple’s CEO Tim Cook: Get to work to ensure people who manufacture Apple electronics are treated ethically.

One anonymous Apple executive told The New York Times there’s a trade-off between working conditions and innovation: “You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories,” or you can “make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards.”(5)

We disagree with the idea that Apple can’t be both ethical and innovative. Apple needs to ensure the quality of its working conditions matches the quality of its products. 

As one anonymous Apple executive told The New York Times, “[s]uppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice.”(6)

Please sign our petition to Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, urging him to treat all of the workers who make Apple’s electronics fairly—no matter where they live.

Thank you for standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in China.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
Twitter: @richardtrumka

P.S. What leaders do matters. And Apple is now the leader in its industry. That’s why the AFL-CIO will be watching Apple closely to make sure the company does right by the workers who make its products—no matter where they live. 

Apple has the resources it needs to do this right. Manufacturing costs are only a very small portion of Apple’s expenses: Workers are paid just $8 to manufacture a $499 iPad, for example, while Apple pockets $150 of the retail price. And the company is sitting on nearly $100 billion in cash.(7,1)

Sign our petition to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, telling him to make Apple’s products ethically.

(1) www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:AAPL&fstype=ii
(2) http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=f7428a06-dd15-4076-bec0-4204c437c814
(3) http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ethical-iphone/
(4) www.cnn.com/2012/02/17/opinion/nova-apple-foxconn/index.html
(5,6) www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html
(7) www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/02/15/chinese-workers-get-only-8-from-each-apple-ipad-2/To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.
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  Re-Enactment of 1965 Selma to Montgomery March & RallyAlabama has launched an all-out coordinated assault on our democracy by attacking workers’ rights, voting rights, public educationand comprehensive immigration reform. This is a crucial and opportune moment in history to remindthe nation that the rights of many in our community are under attack. National LCLAA calls for all LCLAA members to attend and support our fellow brothers and sisters on the Selma to Montgomery March and Rally in Alabama on March 7th- 9th, 2012. As you might already know leaders of several progressive state and national organizations including the AFL-CIO and other Labor Unions are planning to re-enact the historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, with all of its powerful symbolism.  Today, 47 years later, many states have launched an all-out coordinated assault on our democracy by attacking workers’ rights, voting rights, public education and comprehensive immigration reform. In 1965, the Selma to Montgomery March made history and changed America. In 2012, we march again…for the 99%. History will be on our sideThe National LCLAA Delegation is planning to be in Alabama on March 8th for the Immigrants’ Rights day and March 9th for the Rally. If you or your members plan to be there for any of the days and need LCLAA posters please contact our National Office at (202) 508-6919 and ask to speak to Diana Arguello or email her at darguello at lclaa.org . Schedule of Daily Events:Sunday, March 4, 2012  Commemoration of Bloody Sunday / Voting RightsMarchers will gather in front of Brown Chapel AME Church, 410 Dr. Martin Luther King Street at 1:30 for the pre-march rally. The march starts at 2:30. Travel to the Edmund Pettus Bridge crossing the Bridge at 3:30. Leave the foot of the Bridge mile marker 85 at approximately at 4:00. Travel east of US Highway 80 to Economy Inn, Essie’s Place Restaurant 2 ½ miles at mile marker 87 ½ . Monday March 5, 2012  Education / Voting RightsMarch starts at 9 at US Highway 80 east; just pass the intersection of US 80 and US 41 south, mile marker 88. Travel 11 miles down highway 80 east to mile marker 99. Stop at 3:00 p.m. (Landmark) Warren Oil and Industrial Park, left side of highway. Just inside Lowndes County line.Evening: Tabernacle Baptist Church, Selma.                Camp: John & Mary McGuire Farm Tuesday, March 6, 2012                Black Farmers / Healthcare – Child care / other / Voting RightsMarch starts at 9. from end point, mile marker 99. Travel 11 miles to mile 110, third small bridge highway 80 east, Lowndes County. Stop at 3 @ Viola Liuzzo Memorial one mile up mile marker 111, right side of highway.Evening: First Baptist Church, Selma.                                            Camp: Same as Monday Wednesday, March 7, 2012         Worker’s Rights / Voting RightsMarch starts at 9 from end point, mile marker 110. Travel 11 miles to mile marker 121, one mile inside Montgomery County line, 2 churches, one on each side of highway 80. Dowdle Gas one mile up highway 80. Stop at 3.Evening: Jackson-Steele Community Ctr., White Hall.                Camp: Robert Gardner Farm Thursday, March 8, 2012              Immigrant Right’s / Voting Rights (National LCLAA will be present)          March starts at 9. from end point, mile marker 121. Travel 7 miles down Hwy 80 East to mile marker 128. Exit Hwy 80 to US Highway 31 North Turn Left on Hwy 31 N and Mobile Hwy. Travel 2 miles on Mobile Hwy, turn into W Fairview Ave. Travel 2 miles on W Fairview Ave. to St. Jude’s Educational Institute 2080 W Fairview Ave. Stop at 3.Evening: St Jude Catholic Church, Montgomery.                          Camp: Same as Wednesday Friday, March 9, 2012                    Culmination of all issues / activities (National LCLAA will be present)March starts at 9 from St. Jude’s Educational Institute 2080 W Fairview Ave. Travel 4 miles to Alabama State Capitol, 600 Dexter Ave. Montgomery. ASU march from campus @ 11. State Capitol Rally @ 11:30.Evening: Dexter Av Baptist, Montgomery or ASU. March is 9AM-3PM each day. LODGING: Recommended Hotels in Montgomery, ALBoth Hotels are just 15 minutes from the airport. Online booking is recommended. HotelAirport ShuttleSelf-ParkingValet ParkingDistance to State Capitol“Corporate Account #” for 12% offHampton Inn & Suites Montgomery -Downtown100 Commerce St Montgomery, AL 36104N/A$5N/A0.6 miles560012406Embassy Suites Montgomery - Hotel & Conference Center300 Tallapoosa St Montgomery, AL 36104Complimentary$10$150.8 miles560012406 Discount codes available to use at other hotels in Montgomery and beyond: 10% off best available rate with AFL-CIO’s Intercontinental Hotels Worldwide Corporate Account Number (required at booking): 100199234Available at the following hotel brands:§  Holiday Inn®§  Holiday Inn Express®§  Staybridge Suites®§  Candlewood Suites®§  Crowne Plaza§  InterContinental§  Hotel Indigo Travelers can book with the discount through the following methods:§  www.IHG.com§  IHG call center: 877-424-2449 12% off best available rate with AFL-CIO’s Hilton Worldwide Corporate Account Numbers (required at booking):§  Conrad, Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Doubletree and  Waldorf Astoria hotels: N1016814§  Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites: 560012406§  International Hilton Properties: D000300438Travelers can book with the discount through the following methods:§  www.Hilton.com§  Hilton’s call center: 1-800-445-8667TO RSVP Contact:RSVP by 12pm Thursday, March 1st to Guadalupe Hernandez ● 202.508.6917 ● ghernand at lclaa.org  Guadalupe “Lupita” HernandezPrograms AssociateLabor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)Direct: (202)508-6917   Main: (202)508-6919   Fax: (202)508-6922Email: ghernandez at lclaa.orgwww.lclaa.org 
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Feb. 22, 2012
Workers at two more Southern California carwashes won their first union contracts through the CLEAN Carwash Campaign.Locked-out workers from American Crystal Sugar and Cooper Tire start a 1,000-mile Journey for Justice today from Fargo, N.D., to Findlay, Ohio. The journey, by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers and the United Steelworkers, will highlight the corporate greed that marks their lockouts and the growing drive by corporate CEOs to push down wages and benefits to pad their own pockets.
Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org. Workers at SoCal Carwashes Win First Contracts Join Occupy College Teach-Ins Colbert Will Have a Job After Family Medical Leave. Will You? Laughter and Activism Work Together in PortlandRead more important news of the day on the issues working families care about.Follow the AFL-CIO:
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Hershey's Packer Is Fined Over Its Safety ViolationsBy JULIA PRESTONThe Labor Department investigation was prompted by complaints from foreign student workers over conditions at the plant in Palmyra, Pa.
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The letter below was written by Guo Rui-Qiang and Jia Jing-Chuan, and translated from Chinese for SumOfUs.org members. They worked in an Apple factory in Suzhou, China cleaning iPhone touch screens until their nerves were permanently damaged by chemicals used during cleaning.Photos of Jing-Chuan (top) and 
Rui-Qiang(bottom).Add your name &
Share their messageDear SumOfUs.org Members and Friends -You don't know us but you have seen our work. Until recently, we worked long hours cleaning Apple’s iPhone touch screens in Suzhou, China.In early 2010, it was independently confirmed that 137 workers, including us, were poisoned by a chemical called n-hexane which was used to clean iPhone screens. N-hexane is known to cause eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation, and leads to persistant nerve damage. Apple admitted to gross labour rights violations more than a year later.If more people know about what we went through, Apple will feel pressured to change so other workers don’t have to suffer like we did.Can you join over 100,000 others in calling for Apple to reform working conditions at their factories, and then help publicize our story to your friends?We have been pressuring Apple, and its new CEO Tim Cook, for years to compensate those of us who were injured working for them, and demanding reform of working conditions at their Chinese factories so that their workers don’t suffer like we do. Now we need your help as customers or potential customers of Apple.It has been over two years since many of us were hospitalized and treated but our debilitating symptoms continue. Rui-Qiang still can't find work because he can no longer stand for the long hours most jobs require. Jing-Chuan has to spend nearly $100 a month on health supplements (in a place where workers make approximately $300 a month).Will you help us show Tim Cook we need real action to address working conditions by adding your name to the petition today?With all of us working together to pressure Apple to change, we can make sure what happened to us doesn’t happen to others too.- Guo Rui-qiang and Jia Jing-chuan 
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Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107..
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
 

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