May 1st is International Workers Day!
This day began to commemorate Chicago workers’ fight for the eight hour work day and the right to organize.
In Haiti, garment workers are fighting for these essential rights.
Batay Ouvriye, an independent workers’ movement in Haiti, and their affiliated textile unions – SOTA, SOKOWA & SOVAGH – are mobilizing for demonstrations across the country.
Workers at H&H Textiles factory just had a victory after striking for over two weeks!
SOKOWA union in Ounaminthe continues their battle for an increased wage and against a corrupt wage tax.
In the face of debt, hunger and repression, these workers are pushing forward and amplifying their fight!
Read below for a May Day statement from SOTA union in Port Au Prince, and the call to action from PLASIT – the textile trade union coalition.
For May Day, let’s stand with these workers!
Here in the US, we are the consumers of goods inevitably produced through a process of exploitation. At this moment in time, when so much seems so wrong in the world, when we often feel powerless, let’s build people’s power!
Take an active stand with workers fighting exploitation, with people fighting for their rights.
The RRN is collecting donations to help these garment workers build a strike fund, and to go towards their May Day mobilizations.
Make a contribution of any amount. It all adds up to help fuel the fight for justice.
Your dollars will help:
- Print leaflets
- Pay for meals for meetings
- Pay for transportation costs of organizers traveling between Port Au Prince, Carrefour, Ounaminthe & Caracol
- Help workers pay their rent and feed their families when they strike and have no income
Here are ways you can give to the Strike Fund:
** All funds will be wired to Batay Ouvriye in Haiti
** The RRN is not a 501(c)3. Donations are not tax deductible.
1. Venmo – www.venmo.com/RRNsolidarity
2. Paypal – RRNsolidarity@gmail.com
3. Send a wire transfer directly to Batay Ouvriye. Note “RRN Strike Fund.”
Account’s name:
ENTESENDIKAL PREMYE ME BATAY OUVRIYE
Account No.:
45-1100-989-8
Bank’s name:
SOGEBANK S.A. Route de Delmas, Port-au-Prince, Haiti (509) 2815 5595
Swift Code for Sogebank:
SOGHHTPP
Corresponding banks in the US:
BANK OF AMERICA/MERRILL LYNCH, New York, N.Y. USA
Swift Code: BOFAUS3N
Or
Bank of New York Mellon, New York, USA
Swift Code: IRVTUS3N
4. Mail Checks to:
Frantz Wainwright*
35 NW 195 ST
Miami, FL 33169
* Please write check out to Frantz Wainwright & note RRN Strike Fund.
5. Email the RRN if you’re in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, and you’d like to send cash/check to be wired to Haiti – RRNsolidarity@gmail.com.
Be sure to Follow, Like & Subscribe to the RRN for ongoing updates and campaigns to support independent and autonomous workers’ struggles.
Twitter: @RRNsolidarity
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RapidResponseNetwork/
Newsletter/updates sign up: http://goo.gl/Me35SH
Thank you for your solidarity!
#RRNsolidarity
#RightToOrganize
#800Gourdes
#SolidarityForever
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TEXTILE AND GARMENT WORKERS UNION (SOTA-BO)
MAY FIRST 2017: STAUNCH RESISTANCE AND ORGANIZATION!
Worker comrades, all categories of laborers (public sector, peddlers, artisans, teachers, transport drivers, pulley, etc,…
Lavish waste is going on in the state. The Executive and parliamentarians are boosting their privileges and power while purchasing power of our wages decrease everyday; the high cost of living and extreme hunger are accelerating and we are being asked to pay a 13% tax for IRI, CFGDCT, FDU, CAS without getting such public services as electricity, roads, schools, hospitals etc. In addition, the capitalists are consolidating themselves while they are attacking union members who are fighting for their rights or are making attempts to break up unions. There is also the law on the 8-hour work shifts capitalists and corrupt parliamentarians are proposing to take away the 50% differential the labor code provides for workers who work the night shift or overtime while they are about to let the tripartite negotiations to review the labor code die. Street vendors are being harassed by municipal agents when the municipality does not provide them a marketplace to carry out their activities for a living with a loan debt on their backs.
In the face of all these political manipulations, mystifications and vicious attacks against our interests as dominated and exploited workers, we must raise our voices in response. It is in this context, the Textile and Garment Workers Union (SOTA-BO) is organizing a March on Monday May First, 2017/DAY OF THE COMMEMORATION OF WORKERS STRUGGLES ON EARTH, for all workers, laborers in private, public sectors, the informal sector, the unemployed, sub-proletarians to come out with their demands and in solidarity with the Grandans, South and lower-Northwest population who still have a hard time coping after the passage of Hurricane Matthew in the country.
We are rallying beginning at 8:00 A.M. in front of the SONAPI industrial park going through the airport route, turning on the Pis route, take Delmas 3, Delmas 18, Sanfil, for a turn on Lamarre Street toward Champs-de-Mars to Dessalines Park. We should all take the streets to show we disagree with the way the country is getting worse for us and tell the authorities, the ruling classes and their foreign allies, we are RESISTING against all their projects and policies which are against our interests as workers, against our interests as offsprings of the masses.
LONG LIVE A MAY FIRST OF RESISTANCE AND OUR COMBATIVE ORGANIZATIONS! NO SERVICES, NO TAXES! AT THE LEAST 800 GOURDES* (US $11.11) MINIMUM WAGE FOR AN 8-HOUR WORKDAY WITH SOCIAL BENEFITS!
TEXTILE AND GARMENT WORKERS UNION (SOTA-BO)
APRIL 27, 2017
*US $1 = 70 GOURDES (800 GOURDES = US $11.42); US $1 = 72 GOURDES (800 GOURDES = US $11.11)
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Read the PLASIT May Day Call to Action below
http://rapidresponsenetwork.info/2017/04/17/strike-fund-for-may-day/
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