Urge them to vote NO on Fast Track.

Tell Congress No Fast Track at 888-804-8311

Dear FRIEND,

Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) is pushing to bring Fast Track legislation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to a vote in the House. Please call your representative now at 888-804-8311 and urge them to vote NO on Fast Track.

Representative Ryan’s Fast Track bill has already passed in the Senate, and if approved by the House, would allow secretive trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to be rushed through Congress, with little or no substantive debate.

The negotiation of the TPP has been shrouded in secrecy and the text of the agreement has never been made public. If the lack of transparency is not enough of a warning sign, a quick review of what we do know about the trade deal raises serious concerns:

• Undue corporate influence: While the public and the press have been kept in the dark, a select group of over 500 corporate “advisers” have been given special access to the text, even drafting provisions on intellectual property and other controversial issues.
• Weak environmental protections: The TPP’s environmental chapter is expected to be weaker than previous agreements and will include commitments that are not enforceable through dispute resolution.
• New rights for corporations: The TPP will provide multinational corporations with the right to sue states over alleged acts of discrimination that reduce their profits. Using similar rights in other FTAs, multinationals have filed over 600 cases against over 100 governments, challenging everything from clean water laws to an increase in the minimum wage. All of these investor-state disputes are heard in private tribunals closed to the public.
• Bad for development: Development groups warn that the intellectual property and pharmaceutical pricing provisions are a step backward for public health, reducing developing nations’ access to life-saving medications. They also raise concern about how the agreement’s provisions on agricultural market access will hurt small farmers in developing nations and threaten food security in rural areas.

Granting a Fast Track rubber-stamp for the TPP would accelerate a global race to the bottom in wages and working conditions that nobody wins — except, of course, for large, transnational corporations.

We need our elected officials looking out for us, not corporate elites. TAKE ACTION NOW: please call your Congressperson at 888-804-8311 and urge them to vote NO on Fast Track.

The good news is that, together, we can win this fight. Thousands of organizations — representing the environmental, family farm, civil rights, consumer, Internet freedom, LGBT, student and other movements — have united with labor in saying NO to Fast Track. We need your voice, too.

This really is the time for action. Fast Track proponents are trying to move quickly. Please call your Representative now.

Many thanks,

Eric Gottwald
Legal and Policy Director
International Labor Rights Forum

PS. For more on ILRF’s perspectives on the TPP, check out my blog “The TPP’s dirty labor laundry.”

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

DIGNITY AND JUSTICE FOR WORKERS WORLD WIDE_ILRF NEWSLETTER

May 2015 Contents:  >>  JOIN US ON JUNE 3RD! >>  REPORT-BACK FROM GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION: REMEMBERING RANA PLAZA >>  NEW FILM ON BANGLADESH GARMENT INDUSTRY: UDITA >> FACTORY FIRE KILLS AT LEAST 72 IN PHILIPPINES >> ILRF COMMENTS: PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT >> LIBERIA DECLARED EBOLA FREE! >> USLEAP SPRING NEWSLETTER & FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY
Join Us on June 3rd! Please join ILRF on June 3rd at the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. for two events: 9:00am-2:00pm | Our 2015 conference Hasta La Victoria! Farm Worker Justice in Global Supply Chains will bring together farmworker organizers from the United States and abroad to discuss the challenges faced by agricultural workers. They will explore policy options and grassroots strategies to improve working conditions in the agricultural sector and extend workers’ access to remediation. 6:00-8:30pm | This year at our Annual Labor Rights Defenders Awards we are honoring Senator Sherrod Brown, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and the Tobacco and Allied Workers Union of Malawi for their commitment to advancing workers' rights and working to end forced and child labor.  Call for Volunteers! We are looking for volunteers to help staff our evening reception. If you're interested, please fill out this form.  Even if you can't make it to D.C., please consider making a contribution to help honor the awardees. All proceeds will go to ILRF to support our efforts to defend worker rights around the globe.
Report-Back from Global Day of Action: Remembering Rana Plaza On April 24, the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, ILRF joined with our partner organizations in Bangladesh, the Clean Clothes Campaign in Europe, Workers United-SEIU, United Students Against Sweatshops, and many other organizations and unions around the world to call for justice for Rana Plaza victims and workplace safety for garment workers in Bangladesh. At least 50 actions were held, including a demonstrations at the Rana Plaza site and actions at storefronts and malls. For photos from the actions, click here.  Just before the day of action, The Children's Place made a significant payment to the Rana Plaza Trust Fund, bringing the company's total contribution to $2.5 million, and encouraged other brands to contribute additional funds. ILRF ended our Children's Place campaign and thanked them for making what is now the third largest contribution to the fund after Primark and Loblaws. We are now continuing to call on JC Penney - which hasn't contributed a single penny - to pay in, and we're urging companies like Mango, Walmart and Zara to increase their contributions. Take action here to urge these companies to pay the $2.7 million still needed to complete the $30 million fund.  During the second anniversary week, ILRF hosted a delegation of human rights and civic leaders in Bangladesh. Click here for a report from the delegation.
New Film on Bangladesh Garment Industry: UDITA Trailer | Full-length feature film Udita means "rising up," and that's what increasing numbers of garment workers are doing, against all odds. Subtitled, "Life, death, oppression and resistance - 5 years with the women of Bangladesh's sweatshops and their fight for a better life," the new documentary produced by Rainbow Collective and Openvizor follows a turbulent time in the lives of women at the grassroots of the garment workers struggle. 'UDITA' weaves together characters from acclaimed documentaries, 'The Machinists' [2010] and 'Tears in the Fabric' [2014] with new faces and scenes, filmed in 2015 with the women at the font line of the struggle.  Please consider screening the film in your community! For more information,contact the Rainbow Collective.
Factory Fire Kills at Least 72 in Philippines Our thoughts are with the workers and families affected by the May 13 factory fire at Kentex, a footwear manufacturer in the Philippines. 72 bodies were uncovered from the factory, and another 20 workers are still missing in the largest factory fire to hit the Philippines. According to a fact-finding team, the fire resulted from glaring violations of occupational health and safety standards.Filipino human rights groups and labor organizations are calling for holding accountable the government agencies that gave the company a compliance certification; imposition of criminal and administrative penalties on the factory owner; fair compensation for the families of victims, proper benefits for the survivors who lost their jobs, and long-term support for orphaned children; and the immediate passage of an occupational health and safety law.
ILRF Comments: Protecting Human Rights through Government Procurement No other consumer in the world has greater influence on human rights worldwide than the US Government. Yet, federal procurement policy is like a human rights sieve with gaping holes. It still allows US government agencies and entities to purchase goods made in deathtrap factories in Bangladesh or in other factories that do not comply with internationally-recognized human rights without investigating risk to workers or seeking remedy for workers who have been harmed. ILRF proposes five steps the US Government should take to exercise its duty to protect workers’ human rights through procurement.
Liberia Declared Ebola-Free! Just over a week ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the Ebola outbreak that had killed around 4,700 people in Liberia was finally over. Liberia had not reported any new cases of Ebola in 42 days. ILRF helped raise more than $4,000 in individual donations from supporters help our partner, the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, protect members against the epidemic. We received a message last week from FAWUL vice-president Edwin Cisco, who thanked us all for our part in helping them battle this deadly disease, "The support from ILRF was also pivotal to securing the Ebola-free status for Liberia by WHO. We therefore express our profound gratitude and thanks for this laudable undertaking by the ILRF family." And we thank all of YOU who helped make this possible!
USLEAP@ILRF Spring Newsletter & Fellowship Opportunity Read about our plans to file our first FTA complaint and our other reflections on worker rights in Latin-America, Fast Track, and TPP in our USLEAP program's spring newsletter. We are currently seeking applicants for the Stephen Coats Memorial Fellowship, a one-year position to promote workers’ rights in Latin America and build transnational support for worker organizers in the region. The application deadline is June 8.

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Take Action | International Labor Rights Forum

From : Brian Campbell, International Labor Rights Forum

Take Action | International Labor Rights Forum

Dear Antonio,

Trade unions and church groups in the Philippines have joined together in calling a boycott of Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines in solidarity with the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA).

I’m writing to ask you to make your voice heard in support of this boycott.Let Lucio Tan, owner of both airlines, know that you won’t fly PAL or AirPhil until locked-out workers have been reinstated to their regular jobs.

Philippine Airlines is putting into place a plan to outsource its ground crew, which would result in deep pay cuts and job insecurity with the downgrading of employees from regular to contractual hires. On September 27, the PALEA union launched a protest at Manila airport that paralyzed the operations of Philippine Airlines. In response, Philippine Airlines and the government forcibly evicted the protesting workers. Since then, Philippine Airlines locked-out 2,600 airport services, catering and call center workers, and terminated them from their jobs on October 1. The workers have set up protest camps and are running continuous picket lines. They are calling for our solidarity.

It’s time to up the pressure. The company’s line, as quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, is: “No amount of rallies, protest actions or letters of support/complaints from sympathetic groups both within and outside the country could change the fact that PAL has already spun off and outsourced its non-core businesses.” But we know that the airlines cannot withstand a boycott. PAL and AirPhil rely on end-of-year holidays travel for their profit line. If a large enough group of us join the boycott publicly, we will have an impact.

Take a moment to click here to send a letter to Philippine Airlines and the Philippine government.

The PALEA union likens its struggle to that of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) union in 1981. Those familiar with U.S. labor history will recall: when 13,000 air traffic controllers went on strike, Ronald Reagan fired the union supporters and broke the union. As a result, the bargaining power of American workers and labor unions was severely undermined. Let’s act together for a better future for airline workers who are facing job loss and state-sponsored repression today. Now is the time to join with PALEA in their call for justice.

In solidarity,
Brian Campbell
Director, Policy and Legal Programs
International Labor Rights Forum

The TRUTH will set you FREE.