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Growing Economic Justice in South Florida!
I. WORKING WOMEN
UNITE!
II. LOVE AND RESPECT FOR SELF AND COMMUNITY: A PHOTO EXHIBIT BY JWJ, POWERU, WECOUNT Residents of Little Havana, Overtown and Homestead
took vivid color photographs depicting how their neighborhoods
are impacted by development and neglect. Members of Vecinos
Unidos, PowerU and WeCount will be at the exhibit opening to
discuss their photographs and the challenges of living in an
ever-changing environment. They will also address their
struggles for fair and equitable investment in their
communities.
III. SAVE OUR SERVICES JwJ members employed by Miami-Dade County and in County-funded programs need your help! After the 'Pennywise, Poundwise' campaign with the Human Services Coalition, many community programs were restored in the budget hearing. Yet services provided directly by the County are being abolished.
Like your local park?
Want your garbage picked up? Have a question about your home?
Need to call 411? Then come out to support these services and the
workers who provide them! Tell Mayor
Alvarez and County Manager Burgess that pay hikes for top
officials cannot be paid for on the backs of our
neighbors. Cutting local
jobs and neighborhood services is not the way to a strong
economy--it is a road map to
disaster.
IV. FIGHTING TO STAYING
HOME Support mobile home leaders who are fighting to stay home. Come to the next County Commission vote on mobile home park preservation: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009 9:30 am Stephen P. Clark Bldg, 111 NW 1st Street
V.
SOLIDARITY WORKS!
Thanks to the
21 individuals and 8 organizations standing in solidarity with flower workers
on strike in Colombia! To date $1,120 has been donated to
Untraflores members. We are still gathering donations at
1671 NW 16th Terrace, Miami, FL
33125.
Fresh flowers
are a $7.2 billion industry in the US, and Miami is the portal
for North America. Over the last several years,
Colombian flower workers fighting to build a union have spoken
to and won support from unionists and community groups in Miami
and South Florida. They have also visited Washington DC,
Chicago, and New York City.
Over 400 brave, cut-flower workers (mostly women) from
the company Benilda, S.A. in Facatativa, Colombia are nearing
the one-month mark of their strike for justice and
respect. On September 10, 2009, workers took control of
the plantation where they work. Since then workers have had to
endure an aggressive response from the police in a
country that is known worldwide as the most dangerous place for
union activists. The mobilization efforts against the Benilda Company have been organized by Colombia's independent flower workers' union, Untraflores, and supported by other agricultural unions such as Sintrainagro (in Colombia) in the international union of food workers, IUF. Under the umbrella of Untraflores, Colombian flower workers, mostly women, have won 5 contracts. The failure to collect their wages and health coverage owed to them by the company, in addition to the already hazardous work of cut-flower cultivation and production has resulted in workers falling ill from cancer, thrombosis, carpal tunnel syndrome and other life long illnesses. Please take the time to spread the word of this struggle to others, and to donate any amount possible to the workers of Benilda and their families who are facing a very difficult economic situation. You can rest assured that your financial contribution will directly reach the workers and their families and help to continue their strike and demand for justice and respect. For more information, call Ricardo Ocampo (786-208-6015, ricardo3153@yahoo.com) or view: http://benilda.untraflores.org/ http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2009/09/400-cutflower-workers-strike-and-take-plantation-over-mistreatment.html |
