Evictions, hunger, wage theft: pandemic triple threat to workers
By G. Dunkel posted on May 11, 2021
It’s hard to put food on the table when you don’t have a home where you can put the table. The poorest workers in the United States disproportionately people of color rent their homes. During the current COVID pandemic, millions of them are at risk of losing their housing.
On May Day, the Laundry Workers Center protests wage theft, New York City.
Estimates on the amount of back rent currently owed range from $8.4 billion owed by 1.4 million households, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; to $24.4 billion owed by 14.2 million households, from the U.S. Census Bureau; to $52.6 billion owed by 9.4 million households, from Moody’s Analytics.
May Day 2021 – International Workers’ Day!
By Martha Grevatt posted on May 4, 2021
May Day began in the U.S. in 1884 after labor federations called for worker strikes and protests for the eight-hour day. 400,000 workers answered the call countrywide on May 1, 1886. That year eight worker organizers, some immigrants, were arrested and framed for the May 4 bombing of a Haymarket Square rally in Chicago. Five were sentenced to death; four were executed and a fifth died in his cell. An 1889 international socialist conference declared May 1 International Workers Day, in part to honor the Haymarket Martyrs. The day was revitalized in the U.S. in 2005 by the Black-led Million Worker March, and in 2006 by the Latinx immigrant workers’ mass strike. In 2021 the day was commemorated around the world; Workers World Party helped organize a number of actions across the U.S.
Groundbreaking victory for Wash Supply workers
By Mahoma López, LWC, and Yuriana Sanchez, LWC Leader
On Jan. 29, the Laundromat Wash Supply workers scored a groundbreaking victory against their employer. For many years, the employees of Wash Supply have faced precarious working conditions at the workplace. The workers believed that the best tool they had to change the workplace was organizing and forming an independent labor association.
In New York City and other parts of the country, the retail laundromat industry is plagued by precarious working conditions. Laundromat industry employees have suffered from abuses by employers and the negligence of governmental institutions to investigate and enforce the existing laws that protect workers.