2011- 2012 Training Dates

Enlace Institute Peer Training Series Schedule
Our trainings are designed for people working in organizations striving for labor and social justice.
Read More >

2009 Action Alerts

D5: Mobilization Against the World Trade Organization

Saturday, December 5th * Downtown Portland

12:00 Noon:: Gather at Tom McCall Waterfront Park (under the Hawthorne Bridge)

1:00 pm:: March to the World Trade Center, Federal Building and Wells Fargo Building

2:00 pm:: Indoor Rally and Concert at Portland State University’s Hoffman Hall

As part of the global days of action against the new World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial, people from across the Pacific Northwest will be converging in downtown Portland to speak out against the proposed expansion of failed “free trade” policies and to demand the prioritization of human needs over corporate greed.

That week, the World Trade Organization will be holding its largest negotiations on international trade and investment in many years.  During the new WTO conference, government officials and corporate lobbyists will be promoting the expansion of business-as-usual trade policies as a solution to, rather than a cause of, the global economic crisis.  On their agenda is the expansion of 21 different trade pacts that would:

  * Cause further off shoring of local jobs
  * Prohibit new banking regulations designed to prevent the next financial crisis
  * Force global warming policies to conform with restrictive commercial agreements
  * Expand agricultural practices that push small farmers off their land and force migration
  * Require countries to accept imported foods and consumer goods that fail to meet local safety standards

We need to fight back.  This latest WTO Ministerial, only the fourth in the past decade, falls on the exact 10-year anniversary of the hugely-successful Seattle WTO protests.  It is time to reclaim the “Spirit of Seattle,” come together as affected communities and take control over the policy decisions that affect our economic future.  As part of this resistance, a broad coalition of over 65 labor, environmental, faith, human rights and community organizations across Oregon has organized a large-scale march and indoor rally in Portland for Saturday, December 5, 2009. 

The day’s fantastic line-up of speakers includes Lori Wallach (Global Trade Watch), Tom Chamberlain (Oregon AFL-CIO), Francisco Lopez (CAUSA Oregon), Barbara Byrd (Oregon Apollo Alliance), Brent Foster (Oregon Department of Justice), Ken Allen (Oregon AFSCME) and Vandana Shiva (via video), as well as musical acts by Jim Page, Dr. Atomic’s Medicine Show and others.

This is one of more than 200 events across the country, and hundreds more throughout the world.  Join the global movement saying “NO” to the WTO by participating in the “D5” march and rally.  For information on caravans from around the state, volunteer opportunities and other background items, please visit: http://www.december5.org

On Wednesday October 28 the actions against JP Morgan Chase in Seattle, Portland, and Bend, Oregon, were a success.

Some members of the public told us they would close their accounts.  JP Morgan Chase and its cohorts are the real cause of the financial crisis we’re in.  We are demanding that our states adopt legislation to charge a fee to recipients of more than 1 billion dollars in tax-free federal subsidies within their jurisdictions and use the proceeds for public health services.

Check out photos by clicking here.  Thank you to all the participants and organizations for your support, including SEIU Local 49, SEIU Local 775, Jobs With Justice Portland, Jobs with Justice Central Oregon, Recursos para Derechos Humanos, Rural Organizing Project, and ACORN!

If you couldn’t attend the actions, there are still ways to support:
• Move your bank account from JP Morgan Chase to a locally accountable financial institution.
• If you live in Oregon or Washington, Call/Email/Write your state legislature to adopt legislation to charge a fee to recipients of more than $1 billion dollars in tax-free federal subsidies.

Join Enlace in Supporting L.A. Carwash Workers in a Picket at Vermont Hand Wash!

When: Wednesday July 29, 2009
Time: 12pm-1pm
Where: Vermont Hand Wash
1666 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Car wash workers throughout Los Angeles have formed the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee of the United Steelworkers (CWOC), with the support of the AFL-CIO, to raise their standard of living, to secure basic workplace protections, and to address the serious environmental and safety hazards that exist in their industry.

Currently the campaign is boycotting Vermont Hand Wash and five other carwashes owned and/or operated by Benny Pirian and/or members of his family.  Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has filed 220 counts of criminal misconduct against owners Benny and Nisan Pirian, four of their carwashes and Vermont Hand Wash manager Manuel Reyes, which include grand theft, conspiracy, and failure to pay wages.  Reyes personally has been charged with two counts of sexual battery, brandishing a semi-automatic weapon, and false imprisonment.  Benny Pirian has been charged with intimidating a witness.

Enlace is a member of CLEAN, the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network created to educate the public and build support for the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee, or CWOC.  CLEAN is a diverse coalition of labor, immigrant rights, religious, environmental, and community organizations. For more information, go to the campaign website: http://www.cleancarwashla.org.

What: Delegation and Picket at ASSI

When: Saturday July 18, 2009
Time: 3pm- 4pm

Location: ASSI Market
3525 W 8th St Los Angeles, CA 90005
On July 8th we picketed ASSI and asked them to stop selling Hanjin products and they agreed to call back with a decision by 5:30pm that day.  It seems that Assi Market get our message, they did not call us back.

This 18th of July we will show this market that we mean business, that the seafood workers have allies that will be by their side until victory.  JOIN THE ACTION and Rosa Ceseña Ramirez, a Fired Hanjin Worker from Mexico and President of independent union SINTTIM, who will be in Los Angeles.  We will demand that the owner of Assi Market stop selling Hanjin, Orion, Taemin, CW,  Lotte, Well-Liking, DUCSAN, and Crown products that Hanjin Trading USA Co and Taemin International Trading supply until the labor dispute between Hanjin and its employees in Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico, is resolved fairly and justly.

Follow this link to see pictures of Hanjin products: http://www.flickr.com/photos/enlaceintl/sets/72157619961603614/

Come out and support the workers who are organizing for justice in the Seafood Industry in Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico!

Date:
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Location:  ASSI Market
Street:   3525 W 8th St
City/Town: Los Angeles, CA

Meet us on Oxford St., on the north side of 8th St.

Hanjin, a transnational company, operates as a distributor for major Korean food brands in the US, operates as seafood distributor and processor in Korea, and operates a seafood maquila in Mexico.
Hanjin fired workers organizing to unionize and improve working conditions in the industry.

On Wednesday, July 8th, Seafood Workers in Santa Rosalia will be organizing an action against the maquila Hanjin. In Los Angeles, we will be picketing Assi Market demanding that they stop selling Hanjin and Taemin products (Taemin is owned by the wife of Hanjin’s owner). Other Korean Markets have already agreed to stop selling Hanjin products thanks to the support of our allies in actions.

Join us in an Internationally Synchronized Action against the transnational Hanjin, as workers and allies pressure the company to improve working and living conditions in Santa Rosalia.

Follow this link to see pictures of Hanjin products:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/enlaceintl/sets/72157619961603614/

For more information please visit our website: http://www.enlaceintl.org

Western Regional Summer Institute on Union Women 2009

Calling all activist members and staff of labors unions, community-based organizations, independent worker organizations, worker centers, and allies from the western region of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico who are fighting for justice for workers around the world!

August 11 – 15, 2009
DeNeve Plaza, UCLA

Early-Bird Registration deadline is June 11! Register now and spread the word!
Limited space is available!

LEARN about the history, struggles, and achievements of working women;
SHARE successful strategies and techniques for organizing workers and winning progressive change;
CREATE a network of global solidarity and sisterhood around working women’s issues

Registration information is available online or contact Lanita Morris at 213-480-4155 x 212 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

PLUS: Volunteer community service project, Labor & Community Allies reception, BBQ lunch, and Social Night

URGENT

Dear Sisters and Brothers

The Independent Union of Workers in the Maquila Industry (SINTTIM) and the seafood workers in Santa Rosalia need your support.  Please send letters to the government officials of Baja California Sur.

After 7 years the workers were able to meet with the governor of the state and were able to personally explain all the violations that are occurring in the industry and present a list of demands.  The governor listened to them and indicated that he would take their situation into consideration; the workers are now waiting for the governor’s intervention in providing a Korean translator which is needed to hold a labor hearing with Hanjin over the 96 fired workers.  If we do not pressure the governor to address the list of demands presented by the workers, he will forget about them.  We need to remind him that the world knows about these violations and that he needs to act now.

Facts:
Two weeks ago our sister secretary general of SINTTIM and a group of workers met with the governor of the state of Baja California Sur. In this meeting the workers spoke about all the violations that exist in the industry, and they presented a list of demands that included:

  1. Government participation in the open forum organized by local political officials to attempt to pressure Hanjin Mexico S.A. de C.V. to reach an agreement with the workers fired in 2002.
  2. Assign a lawyer to be available to consult and monitor the lawsuit of the workers fired in 2002.
  3. Support and designate a Korean translator to move forward with the lawsuit process of the workers fired in 2002.
  4. Pressure the fishing subcommittee to accept SINTTIM workers as members, and also include them in the negotiation for the price of squid.  We believe that it is really important that workers be directly represented in this committee, in order to discuss the actual cost of fishing and increase in cost of living. (Workers have more than 7 years with the same salary).
  5. Stricter monitoring of the squid plants to detect labor and human rights violations.
  6. Provide copies to workers of the value of Infonavit, IMSS, and Sar (Retirement and Health Benefits) since 2002.
  7. Legal follow up to the criminal lawsuit against a representative of Brumar, for physically beating a worker.

This is our opportunity to unite with workers so that they can win justice and a job with dignity.  Please send a letter to the governor to inform him that you are supporting the workers.
Justice will only be gained through the intervention of all of us.

Made in L.A. and Immigration

Between April 15th and May 31st (and beyond), national organizations, grassroots groups, faith-based congregations and individuals across the country are coming together in a nationwide effort to share Emmy-winning Made in L.A. and put a human face on the issues of immigration, immigrant workers’ rights, and supporting humane immigration reform.  Made in L.A. follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer.

Join the campaign and let your representatives and community leaders know how you feel about this issue. By creating a climate of empathy and understanding around the issue of immigration reform, we can lay the foundation for change.

For more information, visit the Made in L.A. website.

Dear Sisters and Brothers

We write to you to inform you about the Labor Hearing of the Seafood Workers on February 26th in the city of La Paz and also ask that you participate in an Action to support the workers.

This date was full of hope for the 92 illegally fired workers, that finally they would have a labor hearing where they expected to negotiate a settlement.  But this labor hearing was a huge deception for the workers as the hearing had to be postponed because Hanjin Korea was not notified about the labor lawsuit and so they did not attend the hearing in La Paz.

It seems that the squid plants, lawyers, and the bureaucracy that exists in Mexico are intentionally delaying the hearing in hopes that the workers will grow frustrated and lose hope. The hearing is now scheduled for October 13th. The Labor Board now has eight months to find a Korean translator and to notify Hanjin Korea.

However, this blow did not weaken the workers’ resolve. They continue to organize. A couple of days before the hearing SINTTIM leaders went to Hanjin Mexico to demand that SINTTIM be recognized as the authorized union representing the workers.

Now the workers are asking for our help. Please send emails to Lic. Diódoro José Siller Argüello, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) , Controller of the Interior and CC the Secretary of Labor and Social Prevention, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) , demanding that they provide a translator for the workers’ labor lawsuit. Also please CC Enlace, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

City Market Action a Huge Success

Los Angeles—Our January 30 action was a huge success!  Rosa Ceseña Ramirez, Secretary General of SINTTIM, Enlace staff and many supporters converged at City Market in Koreatown to demand that the store stop selling Hanjin Trading USA Co. products until the company settles the claims of workers who were illegally fired for organizing a union at Hanjin’s Seafood Maquiladora located in Santa Rosalia, Mexico.  After only picketing about 15 minutes, the general manager of the store came out and agreed to our demand.  Not only would he stop selling Hanjin Trading products at that store location, but also at the other three markets that he manages.
  The day before the action, another major Korean ethnic market agreed to stop selling Hanjin products as well!
  Thank you to the individual community members and to the allies from the following groups who came out and contributed to our quick victory on Jan. 30:
•  Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), which helped us to organize the action and to contact Korean ethnic press
•  AFL-CIO
•  IDEPSCA
•  El FAT
•  SEDEPAC
•  ProDESC
•  Comité Fronterizo de Obreros
•  Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT)
•  Association for Intervention and Innovation in the Social Sciences, A.C., (AIISSAC)
•  SEIU 721
•  Korean Democratic Labor Party
•  Frente Indígena Oaxaqueño Binacional (FIOB)
•  Chinese Progressive Association
•  Cure CVS Now
•  Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council
•  Pomona College

For pictures of the action, courtesy of Ben Davis of the AFL-CIO, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/enlaceintl/.

Seafood Worker Tour

Rosa Ceseña Ramirez, recently elected Secretary General of SINTTIM, will be on tour from January 26th until February 4th.  Rosa was one of the 96 workers fired for starting a union and for denouncing the numerous child labor and inhumane worker violations at squid-processing maquiladoras in Baja California Sur.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
MONDAY, January 26th – Los Angeles
Wild Wood High School
11811 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Time: 9:30- 11:00am

TUESDAY, January 27th – Los Angeles

WEDNESDAY, January 28th – Los Angeles
Scripps College
Balch 220
1030 Columbia Avenue
Claremont California, 91711
Time: 12:00- 1:00pm

SEIU 721- Social and Economic Justice Committee
500 S Virgil Ave
Los Angeles, CA
Time: 6:00pm- 7:00 pm

Feminist Magazine Interview
KPFK 90.7 Listen Live!
Time:7:00pm- 8:00pm

THURSDAY, January 29th – Los Angeles
SEIU 1877
828 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
Time: 11:00am- 12:00pm
Reception at UCLA Labor Center
675 S Park View St
Los Angeles, CA
Time: 7:00 pm – 9:00pm

Nuestra Voz Interview
KPFK 90.7 Listen Live!
Time: 9:30pm- 10:00pm
FRIDAY, January 30th – Los Angeles
Harbor City Day Labor Site Visit
Time: 7:00 am – 8:15am
LA Country Federation
2130 W. James M. Wood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
Time:  10:00 am- 12:00 pm
NDLON Center Visit
675 S. Park View St. Suite B
Los Angeles, CA
Time: 3:00 pm- 4:30pm
Seafood Worker Justice Solidarity Action
Koreatown
Time: 5:00 pm- 6:00 pm
Pilipino Workers’ Center
153 Glendale Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, California 90026
Time: 7:00pm- 8:30pm

SATURDAY, January 31st – Los Angeles
Car Wash Picket Line
Vermont Car Wash
1666 N. Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Time: 12:00pm- 2:00pm

SUNDAY, February 1st – Los Angeles
Religious Activity (CLUE)
Place TBA
Time: TBA

MONDAY, February 2nd –NorCal
UC Berkeley
Heller Lounge, UC Berkeley
Time: 6:00pm- 8:00pm

TUESDAY, February 3rd –NorCal
Central Labor Council
2840 El Centro Red #111
Sacramento, CA
Time: 11:00am- 3:00pm

Casa Joaquin Murrieta
2336 Piedmont Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94704
Time: 6:00pm- 8:00pm

WEDNESDAY, February 4th – NorCal
La Raza Centro Legal
3358 Cesar Chavez St.
San Francisco, CA
Time: 12:00pm- 3:00pm

San Jose State University
Location TBA
Time: 5:00pm- 6:30pm
For more information about Tour events or to program an event with your organization, please contact Enlace at 213-284-3802 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

You are invited to a Town Hall on the Economic Crisis

First Unitarian Church, SW 12 and Main
Saturday, January 31 from 1:00pm -5:00 pm (Doors open at 12:30 pm.)

Delicious food and reception to follow
Donations welcome.
Please bring non-perishable food items for the Oregon Food Bank

While almost $2.5 trillion of our money was squandered on easy term loans to banks and investment houses, we lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008!  One million jobs were lost just between Nov. 1st and Dec. 31st of 2008.  With a good deal more suffering likely, we are in the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression.

* What are the root causes of the economic crisis?
* What should we fight for? What is a “recovery?”
* How do the millions of people who voted for change help make it happen?

Economists, labor leaders, and community leaders, experts in their fields, will share their perspectives on these questions.  We will have workshops and conversations about winning back the right to organize, the role of the labor movement, the kind of health care reform we need, creating a green economy, staying united, building a thriving local sustainable economy, and more.

It’s time for a change. Don’t miss this event!  Bring friends and family. Doors open at 12:30 pm. Come early to make sure you get a seat.

 

© 2012 Enlace|Site Map|Privacy Policy|Site by NetRaising