Global Supply Chain Workers Pressure Walmart to Get Serious About Labor Conditions – 4/9/13

Tuesday, 09 April, 2013 12:15 Written by Davin

Global Supply Chain Workers Pressure Walmart to Get Serious About Labor Conditions

Workers Release Core Principles to Ensure Safe and Legal Working Conditions

LOS ANGELES, April 9, 2013—In an unprecedented meeting, workers from Walmart’s global supply chain gathered in Los Angeles Tuesday to release core principles (PDF) that would ensure basic labor standards in the megaretailer’s global supply chain.

The meeting included two Bangladeshi garment workers, one of whom, 24-year-old Sumi Abedin, jumped out of a burning factory that produced clothes for Walmart to save her life. The November 2012 fire killed 112 people. The New York Times reported that Walmart played the lead role in blocking increased fire safety protections at Bangladeshi garment factories the year before, claiming the cost would be too high.

Over the course of 2012, guestworkers, factory workers and warehouse workers exposed deadly, unsafe and illegal conditions inside Walmart’s contracted facilities. In response to pressure from workers’ groups, Walmart has accepted responsibility for conditions on its supply chain, but the company’s own solutions fail to uphold its basic standards and the law.

“Walmart must work with workers in each facet of its supply chain to ensure dignity and safety,” said Mike Compton, a warehouse worker from Illinois who traveled to Los Angeles for the meeting. “There is nowhere for workers to go right now – a complaint to Walmart goes into a black hole. There are so many workers laboring to make Walmart successful, the company has to engage with us to make sure working conditions are safe and legal.”

Workers across the Walmart supply chain agreed that standards must be enforceable and credible, and that workers must have a voice in the process.

“We faced brutal conditions, including threats of deportation and violence against us and our families if we complained,” said Ana Rosa Diaz, a former guestworker at Walmart supplier C.J’s Seafood in Louisiana and a member of the National Guestworker Alliance. “When we went on strike, Walmart tried to cover up the abuse. Only after hundreds of thousands of people stood up to support us, Walmart ended its contract with C.J.’s.”

Workers modeled today’s international convening and the release of their core principles as a response to Walmart’s own “Standards for Suppliers.”

“What workers have shown is that Walmart’s standards are nothing more than a sheet of paper,” said Guadalupe Palma, director of Warehouse Workers United. “Today workers have put forward a solution that would lift working standards globally and create enforceable, credible standards that are centered around workers.”

Tuesday’s meeting included workers from the National Guestworker Alliance, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, Warehouse Workers United, New Labor, Warehouse Workers for Justice and Jobs with Justice, along with professors, community leaders and others.

DOWNLOAD CORE PRINCIPLES (PDF)

Contacts: Elizabeth Brennan at 213-999-2164
Stephen Boykewich, stephen@guestworkeralliance.org, 718-791-9162

###

Deal Pending on Immigration Reform – KCRW – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 19:20 Written by Davin

0 Comments

Deal Pending on Immigration Reform
KCRW

Warren Olney
April 1, 2013

Just as Senators of both parties were announcing that “comprehensive immigration reform” was finally a done deal, it turned out that it might not be after all. Will a guest-worker program for unskilled immigrants kill it again, or will it be border security, a “path to citizenship” or one of the other complications that have scuttled it in the past? NGA Executive Director Saket Soni discusses the proposed expansion of the guestworker program and the labor protections that need to be included.

Skip to 8:00 for the immigration piece.

http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp/tp130401deal_pending_on_immi

They’re Not Lovin’ It: Striking Workers May Be McDonald’s Worst Nightmare – Huffington Post – 4/1/13

Monday, 01 April, 2013 11:27 Written by Davin

0 Comments

They’re Not Lovin’ It: Striking Workers May Be McDonald’s Worst Nightmare
Huffington Post

Elizabeth Parisian
April 1, 2013

Over the last decade, McDonald’s has had to deal with its share of negative publicity. From the 2004 documentarySuper Size Me, which argued that the company’s menu and portion sizes are essentially killing its customers, to outcry over its marketing practices to children, to the recent “pink slime” controversy, the fast food giant has been sporting a face full of Egg McMuffin.

This month, the public scrutiny of McDonald’s continued when a group of Latin American guestworkers at a central Pennsylvania McDonald’s went on strike over unpaid overtime, horrific living conditions and other serious labor violations. Now touring the country to shine a light on both their own plight and on the poor working conditions faced by all McDonald’s workers, the guestworkers won a victory when the multinational corporation forced the offending franchisee to close the doors of all of its locations.

While McDonald’s no doubt hopes that swift punishment of one franchisee in central Pennsylvania will sweep the issue under the rug, the labor issues facing the company right now have gotten too big to ignore. The 16 guestworkers on strike represent a small sliver of the thousands of workers across the country exploited by the company on a daily basis. And as they tour the country to visit other fast food workers who are organizing for fair wages and better working conditions, bad press for McDonald’s will continue to snowball.

This week, the striking guestworkers came to Chicago, in support of the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago (WOCC). WOCC is a newly formed union of downtown Chicago low wage retail and restaurant workers who are waging the Fight For 15 campaign, demanding a living wage of $15 an hour and the right to join a union without employer interference. The campaign includes many McDonald’s workers, whose own stories of not making ends meet on minimum wage are all-too-similar to the guestworkers’ nightmarish experience.

“We are here today because your struggle is our struggle,” guestworker Jorge Victor Rios told a crowd of over 50 who gathered at Chicago’s iconic Rock N Roll McDonald’s for a workers’ rights teach in, organized by WOCC. “At first, I thought we were being exploited because we were guestworkers, but the more I spoke to others about my experience, the more I realized that McDonald’s workers all across the country are facing the exact same work conditions that I did. The only difference is, I can return to my country soon and this nightmare will be over. For the tens of thousands of other McDonald’s workers right here in the U.S., the nightmare never ends.”

As workers stand together to exposing the exploitation lurking in the shadow of the golden arches, the nightmare for the corporate heads and board members of the huge multinational is just beginning.

All seems well on the balance sheet. Financially, the company is experiencing unprecedented success, with the New York Times reporting in 2012 that sales were up 13 percent from 2008, when the Great Recession began, with the company now dominating 17 percent of the limited-service food industry in the country — more than its next four largest competitors combined.

But these high financial times depend upon the economic suffering of its largely contingent, part-time and low-wage workforce. And it is clear that these workers have had enough. From the WOCC in Chicago to the Pennsylvania guestworkers to the Fast Food Forward campaign in New York City, McDonald’s workers across the country are demanding that the company take responsibility for the working conditions it puts in place, and begin paying workers a living wage.

After Monday’s teach-in at McDonald’s flagship store, a delegation of WOCC workers and the student guestworkers delivered a petition with over 60,000 signatures to the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook Terrace, IL, asking the company restore the striking guestworkers’ lost wages, as well as offer full-time hours to all of its U.S. workers and reveal the names of all franchisees participating in the guestworker program.

Tuesday, the delegation drove the message home — literally — delivering an assortment of food from the guestworkers’ countries to the multi-million-dollar estate of CEO Don Thompson.

Whether McDonald’s is listening remains to be seen, but as worker organizing continues to gain momentum at McDonald’s workplaces across the country, the company soon will have no choice but to pay attention to their workers and address their concerns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-parisian/mcdonalds-striking-workers_b_2979237.html

VIDEO: Foreign worker hoopla forces McDonald’s franchisee out – CNN Money – 3/14/13

Saturday, 16 March, 2013 16:23 Written by Davin

0 Comments

Foreign worker hoopla forces McDonald’s franchisee out
CNN Money

Emily Jane Fox
March 14, 2013

McDonald’s has cut ties with a Pennsylvania franchisee embroiled in a controversy over a temporary work program that employed foreign students.

The fast food company said Thursday that Andy Cheung, the franchise owner, has agreed to leave the McDonald’s chain of restaurants. Cheung, who will be selling his restaurants in Harrisburg, Pa., did not respond to requests for comment.

The move comes after students, who came to work at his restaurant as part of a three-month visitor work program, filed a complaint with the State Department, alleging that Cheung exploited them and housed them in poor living conditions.

Roughly 15 students protested outside of the Harrisburg McDonald’s last week, and about 10 came to New York City Thursday to demonstrate outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Times Square.

The students, who came from several countries, including Peru, Chile and Argentina, claimed that they were forced to live in an overcrowded basement owned by Cheung. The workers also said that they were not given the opportunity to work enough hours at the burger and fries joint.

“We were living 6 men in a basement, on bunk beds that were clearly made [for] children and one tiny bathroom,” said Jorge Rios, a college student from Argentina who came on the program in December. “At work, I was only scheduled 25 hours per week, even though they told us we would be working 40 hours.”

Rios said he was making $7.25 an hour and had to pay $75 for rent each week.

The State Department is investigating the case and wouldn’t comment on it. However, Susan Pittman, a State Department spokeswoman said a situation where six people were housed in a basement with one bathroom would be “unacceptable.”

McDonald’s said it began investigating the case soon after learning of it, and is working with each student individually to address the situation. The fast food giant said it is also making sure franchisees who participate in the program understand “both the letter and spirit” of the State Department requirements.

Rios came to the United States under the Summer Work Travel Program, which gives students a J-1 visa and is intended to offer students the opportunity to live and work in the country for a short period of time. Last year, 91,600 foreign students participated in the the temporary cultural and employment exchange program, according to the State Department.

The Argentine student Rios first got to know of the program at his college campus via a poster he saw from Geovisions, a New Hampshire firm accredited by the State Department to sponsor students and place them with employers.

Rios applied and paid about $3,000 to participate in the program.

Geovisions’ CEO Kevin Morgan wouldn’t comment on the case. He said the company was still collecting data, and investigating all aspects of the case.

According the State Department, there are 46 other sponsors like Geovisions. All sponsors are responsible for working out living conditions, hours and wages with employers.

Last year, the department cracked down on sponsors, conducting 876 site visits to make sure that employers were looking after the health, safety and welfare of the foreign students.

Spokeswoman Pittman said the department issues sanctions if a sponsor or an employer doesn’t live up to its expectations. In 2012, three sponsors were revoked from the program.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/14/news/companies/mcdonalds-temporary-workers/

Union members help McDonald’s protesters take their message national – The Patriot News – 3/13/13

Saturday, 16 March, 2013 16:16 Written by Davin

0 Comments

Union members help McDonald’s protesters take their message national
The Patriot News

David Wenner
3/13/13

Some of the J-1 exchange students who walked off their jobs at several Harrisburg-area McDonald’s last week planned to take their protest to New York City on Thursday.

The trip was scheduled to include a stop at a McDonald’s in Times Square, where protesters planned to demand a meeting with the McDonald’s national CEO.

Since their Harrisburg-area protest last week, the protesters who remain in the United States have been working with union-affiliated groups and labor movement members who are helping them travel throughout the United States.

Some of their time will be spent with U.S. union members and laborers who are protesting the treatment of bottom-rung U.S. workers.

The J-1 students, who had been working at three Harrisburg-area McDonald’s franchises for about three months, are demanding that the national McDonald’s chain compensate them for wages and overtime pay they say they are owed, and the cost of their housing, for which they say they were overcharged.

They also want McDonald’s to pay them for the cost of coming to work in the United States, which is $3,000 per person or more.

They further want McDonald’s to give full-time work to more American employees, and to disclose how many foreign students are working at McDonald’s restaurants around the country.

A McDonald’s spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached on Wednesday. The company had said it was investigating the students’ claims.

The Harrisburg-area protest involved 14 J-1 students who were employed at three local McDonald’s franchises owned by Andy Cheung, who hasn’t commented publicly on the students’ claims.

Some of the students claim they were required to work excessively long hours, while others said they were given far less than the 40 hours per week they expected.

They also claim they were charged above-market rent to live in homes owned by Cheung, who they say deducted the rent from their paychecks.

The students, with the help of lawyers from the National Guestworkers Alliance, filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. State Department, which oversees the Summer Work Travel program that brought the students to the United States. The two federal agencies are investigating.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/03/mcdonalds_cheung_guest_workers_2.html

Posts Tagged ‘forced labor’

Global Supply Chain Workers Pressure Walmart to Get Serious About Labor Conditions – 4/9/13