Third Speak Out on Wednesday Oct. 5th
We’re hosting our third of six UH Student Speak Out! (<- click for the facebook page) events going into issues like:
+Corporate tax evasion and Pasadena public school funds going in the pockets of oil companies.
+The corruption of the food industry and how it exploits animals, workers and consumers.
+The 10 year invasion of Afghanistan, US militarization and how UH is tied with the armed forces and war profiteering.
+Many other issues!
If you can make it and speak, we welcome any and all students and community members. If you just want to come out and hear what we’re learning and speaking about that’s great too!
Made in LA Screening Tonight!!
Tonight, the Women’s Resource Center is hosting a screening of a great documentary about Sweatshops behind the UC (on the patio near the business school). We’ll be giving a presentation about the gains made on campus in the fight against sweatshops before a presentation by the Houston Interfaith Workers Justice Center’s presentation and the screening.
Tomorrow @11am, UH Student Speak Out!
Tomorrow at the UC Satellite we’ll host the first of 6 Speak Out! events where students and other community members can come to listen and/or participate in progressive political issues like corporate corruption, war and militarism, feminism, racism, workers rights, student movements, immigrant rights and many others.
It will be from 11-2pm right in front of the Satellite.
Back to School!
The Fair Labor Action Committee is ready to go back to school tomorrow.
It’s been a long and hot summer, with some amazing stuff going on in the labor movement. From the Verizon strike that ended in a big victory over the weekend, to the NFL lockout that ended in a victory for the workers (players of the NFL) to the recent campaign by student exchange workers in a Hershey’s factory in Pennsylvania, and all of the other actions that didn’t garner as much press.
There’s plenty to to at UH, and we’re gonna be hosting meetings at 3:30 pm in the San Jacinto Room of the UC second floor, and we hope to see you there.
Tuesday April 5th-FLAC Will Host Fight Back USA! Teach in
This coming Tuesday, April 5th, from 1-3pm, we will be hosting a video lecture by Cornel West and Francis Fox Piven, followed by a discussion. The lecture and discussion will be about:
Austerity, Debt, Corporate Greed (and what YOU can do about it)
This will be in the Bayou City Room, (at the University Center’s 2nd floor).
Come out and Fight Corporate Greed! And tell your friends how they can get involved too! More info at : http://fightbackteachin.org/
Download the Full and 1/4 page fliers below:
The lead organizers of the Day of the Fallen were the members of the worker center in Austin called The Workers’ Defense Project.
This is their report from the day of the fallen.
On March 2, 2011 138 coffins covered the lawn of the Texas state capitol.
The Day of the Fallen was a great success, bringing together members of the community and beyond for a powerful display of unity at the steps of the State Capitol. With Texans converging in Austin traveling from El Paso to Houston and San Antonio, Dallas to the Valley, it was truly a statewide show of solidarity.
With over 100 community members busy educating legislators in the afternoon and asking for better protections for construction workers, 138 coffins were laid onto the lawn of the capitol in memory of the workers that died on the job in 2009 in Texas. With around 500 in attendance, Texans came out in full force for workers yesterday.
Please see below for press coverage links.
Best,
Workers Defense ProjectAsk for your legislator’s support!
We have two new bills that have recently been filed and need the support of your local legislator. Please, use this link to find your state senator and representative and ask your legislators to support…HB 2196 / SB 1024 to prevent wage theft
Authors: Rep. Eddie Rodriguez & Sen. Jose Rodriguez
This bill will clarify the language in Texas Penal Code 31.04 (Theft of Service) which will enable local law enforcement to enforce the law against employers who do not pay their workers.HB 1739 / SB 938 to provide workers compensation for all construction employees
Authors: Rep. Armando Walle & Sen. Eddie Lucio
This bill will require that workers compensation be provided for any and all construction employees in Texas; thus, reducing Texas’ uncompensated care costs in hospitals, lowering property taxes, and lifting the burden off of taxpayers.Thank you!
Here are some of the first stories reported:
Austin American-Statesmen (Website)
Day of the Fallen
La Prensa San Antonio (Newspaper)
March highlights Texas’ problem with construction site deaths
Rio Grande Guardian (Newspaper)
Protests over large number of construction workers killed in Texas
La Voz (Newspaper)
Day of the Fallen
KVUE (Website)
Texas Construction workers march for better wages, safer working conditions
Texas Student TV (Website)
Day of the Fallen rally at the Capitol
Last Tuesday, we hosted a die-in in front of the PGH building on campus, to raise awareness of the extreme issues facing construction workers in Texas.
Our Die in was successful. We handed out over 200 fliers, and had an audience somewhere between 500 and 1,000 students who came by and saw the action.
Day of the Fallen in Two Days!!!
Did you know that every 2.5 days a construction worker dies on the job in Texas? Or that construction workers laboring in the Texas heat do not legally have a right to a rest break?We all have the right to come home safe at the end of the day. Join us on the bus to Austin to march, rally, and meet with legislators to demand basic protections for construction workers.
Register online by going to www.hiwj.org and clicking on the Day of the Fallen link, or if you can’t join us physically that day, please sign our online petition at www.buildtexas.org.
Report Back from USAS National Conference in Ohio
At the beginning of February, some of our membership was able to attend the National Conference for United Students Against Sweatshops, with several hundred other representatives from universities all around the country. This was a weekend of political action, collective learning and the opportunity to meet and hear stories of struggle from Honduran, Virginian, North Carolinian, and even Domincan Workers (from the Alta Gracia Factory!!!!!)
The conference Kicked off with an amazing action aimed at the University of Ohio’s foodservice provider, Sodexo. They are a multi-billion dollar international company with human rights abuses all around the world, who are currently keeping Ohio foodservice workers in poverty. The Ohio administration has refused to cooperate with workers or student allies, so we took to the library and streets to make our voices heard about the importance of workers’ rights.
Following this, we attended a variety of workshops ranging from basic education about organizing (how to organize a campaign for policy change, how to host a meeting, how to write a press release, etc.) to more in depth workshops about the history of exploited labor and sweatshops, and the current trends in national campaigns.
We got to meet Maritza and Jenny from the Alta Gracia factory in the Dominican republic, who were strong, wonderful, warm human beings (on top of being amazing organizers, let’s see if we can bring them to Houston…), and got to learn from their struggles and work.
The conference wrapped up with a concert by Rebel Diaz (an awesome political hip-hop collective from Chicago) and a local performer. Check out more on the conference at: http://kickoutsodexo.usas.org/2011/02/21/hundreds-march-ohio-state-flash-mob/, and you can see the video from the action below (one of our members was on the boombox team)
