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FIFA Uses Slave Labor For World Cup

By Joseph Rosen

Fans looking forward to the Men’s 2022 World Cup ought to know about and show their outrage over the conditions of slavery that many of the workers suffer from in Qatar. Construction work for the World Cup in Qatar is mainly carried out by so called guest-workers who make up over 90% of the country’s workforce.

Mainly migrating from South Asia, these workers are tricked into paying high recruitment fees and then are forced to work in order to pay off the impossible debts that their companies saddle them with. Held against their will, workers often have their wages withheld and are denied exit visas by their bosses. An investigative report by the German broadcaster WDR recorded the testimony of some of the workers: “We are captured,” said Nepali worker Dil Prasad.

“Every day we nourish ourselves on water and bread. Without money we can’t do anything else. Month on month our situation gets worse and worse.”

The hiring companies often warehouse these workers in crowded, dirty and unsafe labor camps. Many of the enslaved workers are forced to work in the extreme heat without the proper safety precautions. The Nepali government reports that 1,426 migrant workers in Qatar have died between 2009 and 2019. This year, at least 111 workers have already died, many on the job.

In 2016, the Global Slavery Index estimated that on any given day there were 403,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in the United States.

Of course slavery is not unique to Qatar. In 2016, the Global Slavery Index estimated that on any given day there were 403,000 people living in conditions of modern slavery in the United States. Many of these people care for the sick and harvest our food. Many labor in detention camps and prisons.

In Louisiana less than 10 years ago, more than 350 Filipino guest-workers were defrauded and held in debt bondage by labor contractors. These workers—many teachers in the East Baton Rouge Parish School District—had their passports and visas confiscated by their recruiters. They were forced into unfair contracts under threat of deportation.

In Mississippi more than 590 Indian welders were lured to work for Signal Corporation, a company that got contracts to repair oil platforms in the gulf that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Promised permanent resident visas by their recruiters, many of these workers took on debts that were equivalent to two or three years’ salary in India. They were housed in guarded labor camps on the company’s property—24 men to a 24-by-36-foot trailer. For “room and board” each worker had more than $1,050 per month deducted from their pay. The company never delivered on their permanent residency visas.

If you are worker trapped by your employer, contact the New Orleans Workers Group for help.

None of us are free if one of us is chained!

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Uber, Lyft Drivers Organize for Recognition as Employees Not Contractors

Uber and Lyft drivers are using strikes to win gains.

The CEOs of Uber, Lyft, and Juno (another “ride share company”) have gone into panic mode as the California legislature considers amending state law to reclassify drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. The heads of the three companies wrote a joint statement that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, arguing that drivers do not want to be employees, but instead prefer the “flexibility” that precarious gig work affords! The fact that the CEOs of competing companies collaborated on an op-ed is remarkable, but it shows how vulnerable they feel. Their entire business model revolves around denying workers rights and benefits, precisely because drivers are misclassified as contractors.

The other legal sleight of hand involved in their model is the “ride share” concept itself. These companies run taxi services, which look somewhat different because of the advent of mobile phone technology, but they are taxi services nonetheless. Corporate backers threw money at these companies when they were starting up, enabling them to monopolize the industry without being subject to the same regulations as taxi companies.

The model of precarious gig work is a threat to the entire working class. We should make no mistake: every single capitalist living off workers’ labor would be pleased to misclassify their workers as independent contractors—that way they wouldn’t have to pay benefits or a minimum wage.

Workers are organizing to put an end to this race-to-the-bottom business model. Back in February, New York City passed a ride share driver minimum wage of $17.22 an hour. In reality, this is equivalent to $15 an hour, accounting for the fact that drivers have to cover payroll taxes and do not get paid time off. Still, it is a major gain. When the enemy attacks, you know you are doing something right. Lyft and Juno both filed suits against the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission in an attempt to block the minimum wage law.

This progressive legislation is happening against a backdrop of increasing struggles led by drivers. In March, hundreds of drivers in Los Angeles turned off their apps for 25 hours in protest of low wages after Uber decided to reduce per-mile pay in Los Angeles County and parts of Orange County by 25 percent. The strike was spearheaded by Riverside Drivers United.

On May 8, drivers went on strike in at least 10 U.S. cities, and in locations worldwide—for example, in Melbourne, Australia, and in cities across the U.K.

These protests make it more likely that legislation benefiting drivers will be passed, and that the companies themselves will make concessions. Without struggle, there is no forward movement.

And before we start feeling too bad for the company heads who are playing the victim, we should note that Uber paid its top five executives $143 million in 2018; its CEO got $45 million. Their revenue in 2018 was $11.27 billion, with total assets of $23.99 billion. (And it’s not like they have to use that money to maintain fleets of cars…) They may act like they can’t afford to pay workers or give them the benefits they deserve, but this is just another sleight of hand.

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Honduran Workers Fight Back Against Cuts, Demand Removal of U.S. Puppet

Honduran educators and healthcare workers lead a general strike. Tegucigalpa, May 27, 2019.

U.S.-Backed Dictator’s War on the People Drives Emigration

By Joseph Rosen

Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans are rising up against the corrupt and repressive U.S.-backed government of president Juan Orlando Hernández. The united effort continues daily despite the Honduran government ordering country-wide police and military attacks. Some of the worst repression has come from the U.S.-trained and supported Honduran special forces known as TIGRES.

The police state over which Juan Orlando Hernández rules came to power in 2017 through a rigged election that was met with widespread national protests and international condemnation. The demand to remove the president—”Fuera JOH”— is now heard daily across the country.

Hernández’s regime continues the legacy of the government that was installed in 2009 when the U.S. State Department under Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama used the CIA to orchestrate a coup that forced out the popular elected government of Manuel Zelaya. Under Zelaya the government was shifting funds to meet people’s needs. This is why the U.S. carried out the coup. In only one year after the coup, the national education budget was cut in half and public healthcare spending was cut by 20 percent. In the two years after the coup, more than 100 percent of all income gains went to the wealthiest 10 percent of Hondurans.

Thousands protest cuts to social programs, layoffs

The current surge of protests began after trade unions of health and education workers called for strikes and mobilizations to protest widespread layoffs and cuts to social programs. These attacks were forced on the people as a condition of loans that the government receives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a consortium of banks dominated by the U.S. and its imperialist partners.

Hundreds of thousands of workers, Indigenous people, peasants and students heeded the unions’ call to action. Because of these massive mobilizations, the National Congress of Honduras was forced to nullify the law that would have enacted the cuts. The masses have been emboldened by this win; now they’re marching with even more determination to take down the illegitimate president.

Mobilizations will continue to swell as Honduras approaches the ten-year anniversary of the U.S.- orchestrated military coup. The Platform for the Defense of Health and Education, a driving force behind the protests, has demanded that the government withdraw its military forces and guarantee that healthcare and education workers not face retaliation for the strike.
New Orleanian and Honduran workers are in the same struggle

The struggles of workers in New Orleans and in Honduras are connected.

In 2010, Hernandez’s predecessor and U.S. puppet Porfirio Lobo Sosa made a visit to New Orleans to sign a memorandum of understanding with former mayor Mitch Landrieu to partner on healthcare and public education “reforms.” The post-coup Honduran government has modeled its attack on public education on the privatizations carried out in New Orleans after Katrina.

More Honduran-born people live in New Orleans than anywhere else in the United States; many of these refugees have migrated because of the difficult conditions forced on their country by U.S. imperialist intervention. Many of the same Honduran workers who helped to rebuild New Orleans after Katrina now face harassment, deportation and concentration camp detentions.

Workers can show their solidarity with our Honduran sisters and brothers by demanding an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. military and intelligence personnel from Honduras and by demanding an immediate end to all U.S. funding and support of the Honduran security forces and government, which are terrorizing the Honduran people.

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Cab Drivers Take a Stand: “The Load Is Too Heavy for Us.”

by Joseph Rosen

As permitting fees, insurance and other compliance costs go up, and business is increasingly lost to Uber and Lyft, cab drivers and their families are finding it hard to survive in New Orleans. These drivers kept the city going for decades, and now they are being discriminated against.

On Jan. 4, several dozen cab drivers working at Louis Armstrong International Airport decided they’d had enough. That morning the City of Kenner’s Dept. of Inspections and Code Enforcement showed up to issue citations for alleged violations of a city permitting law. One worker refused to comply; within minutes, dozens of other workers were protesting by his side. They insisted that there was no legal basis for the citation, that the workers had already paid the fees. When the inspector called in Kenner cops for “backup,” the workers stood their ground. When he finally gave up and drove away from the lot, the workers cheered.

These cab drivers were not merely contesting an unjust fee; they were protesting the lack of respect for their hard work. These cab drivers can lose a day’s work or more if, for example, an inspector decides their vehicle’s tires don’t pass muster. In addition to inspection fines and the cost of repairs, every hour that the vehicle is in the shop is an hour of potential income lost. This can mean the difference between making rent or not. As cab driver Jean Ligonde put it: “Our job is very stressful: every time you see a city inspector, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“They’re trying to squeeze us out.” This was how a cab driver named Nadgi put it. He was referring to Uber and Lyft which are not subject to these regulations. Their armies of high paid lobbyists and lawyers have bribed the city into granting them special status as “Transportation Network Companies” as opposed to “Taxicab or For-Hire Vehicles” which is what they obviously are.

In 2012, the New Orleans city council passed 24 ordinances requiring cab drivers to purchase new vehicles, buy and install new meters, surveillance cameras, credit card machines, and GPS systems. Apart from the thousands of dollars cost to upgrade each cab, these changes increased maintenance costs and added items subject to inspection. The drivers are being assessed a 4.5% reduction in their fares for every payment made through the credit card machine company that the city contracts with.

Less than two years after the city passed these ordinances, and after months of lobbying city and state officials, Uber entered the New Orleans market.  Uber and Lyft now have most of the ground transportation market. This is bad news for all workers in the taxi industry, “gig” and career alike: last year an MIT study concluded that more than 50% of Uber drivers were making less than the minimum wage in their state. No worker should tolerate poverty wages.

Driver Jean Ligonde sees a lesson in the Jan. 4 protest at the airport: “I think if we’d started earlier, a lot of the things we have on our back would have gone away. They keep taking advantage of us because we do not have unity, and they exploit that weakness.” In order to defend ourselves against the enemies of the working-class, whether they sit in city councils, on the boards of Uber and Lyft or in the cab of a cop car, taxi drivers must stand up for taxi drivers, must stand up for Uber drivers, must stand up for workers. We should all support them.

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150 Million Workers Strike in India

Kerala, India

On Jan. 8 and 9, between 150 and 200 million workers and peasants in India participated in a general strike that affected the entire country. Although ignored by Western corporate media outlets like CNN and FOX News, this was likely the biggest strike in world history. To put the sheer number of participants into perspective, this is equivalent to half the population of the United States participating in a strike.

In Mumbai alone, it is estimated that 12 million people participated. But the strike also affected many rural areas. Most sectors of the economy experienced slowdowns and even shutdowns. Farmers carried out road and rail blockades in support of the strike. The strike featured broad participation of women who have led many struggles against the current government of the reactionary Narendra Modi. Student and other non-union organizations also joined in on a mass scale.

The strike was organized by 10 different trade unions spanning many sectors of the economy including farmers, bank, factory, and transport workers. Prominent among these were the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), associated with the Communist Party of India. In the crowds of people, many could be seen carrying the flags of communist parties and affiliated workers’ organizations.

The 10 unions produced a 12-point charter of demands, summarizing many of the demands of the masses who are resisting the austerity policies of the Modi government. In the five years of Modi’s rule, the top 1% of the Indian population has increased its share of all household wealth by more than 20% while unemployment is at record heights and more than 90% of Indians make less than 10,000 rupees a year (US $143). The unions’ demands include a stop to “all pro-corporate, anti-worker amendments to Labour laws,” and the implementation of “a national common minimum wage of Rs.18,000/month for all workers.”

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New Orleans: We Must Fight Get the Stolen Taxes Back

Every year non-elected commissions of capitalists steal $180 million in taxes. These commissions include the Convention Center, the Superdome, Tourism Commission and others. Every year, the city of New Orleans brings in billions because of the hard work of hospitality workers. That labor also brings in the $180 million in taxes. But instead of this going into the city budget and set aside for workers’ benefits and community needs, they are used to produce more profit for the white capitalist hospitality owners.

The Hospitality Workers Alliance, Peoples’ Assembly and a coalition of organizations representing the working women of New Orleans are demanding these stolen taxes be used to support the workers with childcare resources, healthcare, and other services that are needed for our survival. For months, the HWA has been protesting this theft and highlighting the lack of benefits workers in the city face, including protesting at the Tourism Commission and the Convention Center. Together with the Peoples’ Assembly, they are calling for a March 16th protest.

Recently, Mayor Cantrell has requested $12 million of these tax dollars be returned to the city for infrastructure. This is a small request and doesn’t acknowledge the workers or community needs. Even this minor request was met with racist arrogance by Stephen Perry, head of the Convention Center, who earns $500,000 a year from the stolen taxes. Governor Edwards and reactionary state legislators also dismissed Cantrell’s modest demands, once again denying right of home rule to the people of New Orleans.

While it’s good that Mayor Cantrell is even raising this demand, at a recent meeting she stated that she is not trying to start a fight or divide the city. Well, the city is already and increasingly divided between the rich, majority white ruling class who owns everything and the majority Black working class who struggle with low wages and gentrification. The city should be calling the people out to fight for not only $12 million but the whole $180 million that rightfully belongs to the people.

The racist attitudes of the hospitality bosses and state legislature are reflected in the treatment of workers in the city. Recent studies from the Data Center report that people of color, especially women, are paid less, intentionally hired for lower paying positions while white men are given better paying jobs. Big Easy Magazine cites that 68% of hotel housekeepers, 81% of whom are Black and LatinX, earn an average of $10.60/hr. Over half of all hotel workers are women, but the majority earn much less than $15/hour. It is widely acknowledged that at least $19 an hour is necessary to live in the city.

Although hospitality workers are responsible for the city’s wealth, they see little of it themselves. This is our city. This is our money. We demand that it be used to serve us, not the super-rich.

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Amazon Warehouse Workers Push for Unionization

New York workers at Amazon’s Staten Island fulfillment center have publicly launched a campaign to unionize. Employees backing the union have come forward with many concerns about wages and work conditions. These include safety issues, inadequate pay, grueling 12-hour shifts with unreasonable hourly quotas and insufficient breaks, as well as humiliation and abuse.
Warehouse worker, Rashad Long, said, “They talk to you like you’re nothing—all they care about is their numbers. They talk to you like you’re a robot.”

This push comes at a time when Amazon is expected to get more than $1 billion in tax breaks and grants from New York City as part of the Long Island City deal. Tax breaks for corporations come at the expense of the mass of working people. A city’s budget should reflect the pressing needs of the people for affordable housing, childcare, education, health care, and more. Working class New Yorkers (as elsewhere) are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table. Amazon, on the other hand, already enjoys massive profits gained from the sweat of its global workforce (and an army of workers in the U.S. Postal Service, USPS, etc); Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the richest man in the world.

As the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) president, Stuart Appelbaum recently said, “If the taxpayers are giving Amazon $3 billion, then taxpayers have the right to demand that Amazon stop being a union-busting company.” The RWDSU is the union that the Staten Island workers are organizing with. The union has also backed the organizing push among workers at Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired last year. As of now, Amazon’s U.S. workforce is not unionized. These initial organizing efforts are, therefore, highly significant.

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Charter School Workers Strike, Get New Contract

In December, teachers and other employees in Chicago’s Acero charter school network went on strike for five days. Acero encompasses 15 campuses across the city. The workers are members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Over the five days, hundreds of teachers and other Acero workers took to the streets along with parents, students, and other allies. The strikers demanded a contract that would guarantee better conditions for teachers and students.

On December 14, the union vote for the new contract took place across all 15 schools. Union members voted overwhelmingly for the new contract (98%).
The contract provides for smaller class sizes, a reduced school year and equal pay with district [non-charter] teachers.

Significantly, the new contract also includes sanctuary school language, which bans Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from school property, denies ICE access to student records without a legal mandate, and more.

The wave of teacher strikes that spread through many states (and Puerto Rico) earlier in 2018 affected mainly public schools. The strike in Chicago, however, is the first example of a charter school worker strike in the country. This should send a message not just to charter school executives in Chicago, but to charter school employees all over the U.S. that they can organize just like public school employees, and with the support of students, parents, and other community members, they can win.

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Domestic Workers Push to Pass Bill of Rights

The National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) has introduced new legislation at the federal level that could be game-changing for domestic workers across the country. This National Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, if passed, would dramatically increase legal protection for domestic workers, as well as increase potential earnings.

The U.S. has some 2 million domestic workers, including caregivers for children and the elderly, as well as house-cleaners. Although domestic workers greatly contribute to the economy, they are currently excluded from most protections that have been won by other sectors of workers. Conditions for domestic workers are currently dismal. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the mean hourly wage for housekeepers is only $11.84 per hour. A major 2013 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that 23.4% of domestic workers live below the poverty line, and 93.1% are women. Domestic workers are also disproportionately immigrants.

The new bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Kamala Harris, but the momentum has come from the grassroots. The legislation is based upon recommendations from domestic worker organizers, and is similar to bills that have already been passed in eight states and in Seattle.

If passed, the Bill of Rights would include domestic workers in Civil Rights and Occupational Health and Safety Act protections. It would also create requirements for fair scheduling, meal and rest breaks, written contracts and protection from employer retaliation. It would also increase access to retirement benefits, paid sick leave, healthcare, and occupational training programs. The bill would make live-in domestic workers eligible for overtime pay. Importantly, domestic workers would also be given increased collective bargaining rights, making unionization easier.

It should be noted that the potential power of domestic workers is tremendous and growing. For example, by 2030–because of an aging population—caregiving is predicted to represent the largest segment of the U.S. workforce.

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Proposed Bill Good for Workers

A new bill introduced in both the House and the Senate could bring an end to employers forcing workers to sign non-arbitration clauses. Many workers do not even know what these clauses are, but about 60 million U.S. workers have already signed them as part of the hiring process.

Major companies like Walmart, Starbucks, Macy’s, Uber, Google, and McDonalds require all or some of their workers to sign them. Basically, what these clauses do is to prevent workers from suing a company that breaks the law, whether it has to do with wage theft, discrimination, or some other illegal practice. This forces workers to take their claims to private arbitration, where they are less likely to win and they generally get less money when they do win.

If it passes, the bill would bring an end to the practice. It has support among some Democrats in both houses of Congress, but, since the Democrats are the other party of capital, our best bet as workers is still organizing and causing a ruckus in the streets. Nevertheless, the new bill could help workers get some edge over the bosses, who currently are dominating the playing field.