{news} Fw: Take Action in Support of Immigrant and Workers Rights-1.ICE RAIDS; 2.EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT; 3.NYC MARCH
edubrule
edubrule at sbcglobal.net
Sun Mar 1 12:24:13 EST 2009
6-Story Newsletter Template + Images
----- Original Message -----
From: AFSC Connecticut
To: edubrule at sbcglobal.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 7:53 PM
Subject: Take Action in Support of Immigrant and Workers Rights
American Friends Service Committee Connecticut
In This Issue: Feb 25 2009
. URGENT ACTION: Call President Obama and Congress: Demand an End to ICE Raids & Abuses
. Support Worker Justice - Join the Millions Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act!
. March with UFPJ on Saturday, April 4th New York City: Beyond War, a New Economy is Possible
URGENT ACTION: Call President Obama and Congress: Demand an End to ICE Raids & Abuses
Please call President Obama and your Representative and two Senators to denounce the brutal ICE raid against immigrant workers that took place yesterday in Bellingham, Washington (see background information below).
Raids hurt our businesses, our communities, all workers and immigrants. Raids victimize the very people that helped to bring change to the White House and elect President Barack Obama.
Yesterday, 28 workers, incuding 3 mothers, were chained and arrested in a factory in Bellingham, WA as part of ICE enforcement operations.
In this time of economic hardship it is completely unacceptable for the Obama administration to be executing raids on our workers, businesses and communities- it is time for him to hear from us.
Call (202) 456-1414 and tell President Obama:
* The ICE raid yesterday in Washington state violates the rights of immigrant workers, harms the economy and makes our communities vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
* You must end all raids and suspend all detentions and deportations.
* Restore and protect our Constitutional rights
* Please investigate ICE abuses and end the inhumane treatment immigrants are suffering in detention and deportation.
* Support Secretary of Home Land Security Napolitano's call for oversight of the Bellingham raid and
* Urge the Administration to stop the raids and pass humane immigration policy with Congress
You can also send fax President Obama at: (202) 456-2461
Call (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Representative's and Senators' offices, tell them:
* The ICE raid yesterday in Washington state violates the rights of immigrant workers, harms the economy and makes our communities vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
* End all raids and suspend all detentions and deportations.
* Restore and protect our Constitutional rights
* You must hold hearings to investigate ICE abuses and end the inhumane treatment immigrants are suffering in detention and deportation.
You can also get full contact information for your Congressional delegation at:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
BACKGROUND: ICE Raid & Immigrant Protest Brutal Treatment in Detention
ICE Raid in Bellingham, WA
Yesterday morning, the Department of Homeland Security sent some 75 agents from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Yamato Engine Specialist plant in Bellingham Washington. With a typical overwhelming show of force, the ICE agents arrived in SUVs accompanied by buses and a hovering helicopter.
The ICE agents, dressed in riot gear and heavily armed, invaded the plant and terrorized all. ICE agents interviewed all the workers and arrested 28 for immigration status. ICE agents handcuffed the immigrant workers and chained together at the ankles before boarding them on buses. The immigrant workers are now in detention.
Immigrant Prisoners Rebel against Inhumane Treatment and Abuses
Also, in January, immigrants serving sentences for being undocumented or deportable in the Reeves County Detention Facility Complex, in Pecos, Texas, began a protest after prison officials refused to take a gravely ill prisoner out of solitary confinement to the hospital.
The protest began after a group of immigrant prisoners attempted to meet with the detention facility's authorities, demanding that a gravely ill detainee be released from solitary confinement and be taken immediately to a hospital. The prison authorities refused to listen and did not take action. The detainees responded by protesting after being ignored.
After the detainees began a spontaneous protest, a melee ensued. A fire broke out during the protest and guards immediately left the premises, locking in the prisoners behind. Some prisoners broke windows to get to other detainees who were choking and fainting, overcome by the smoke.
Then the guards got into SWAT vehicles (or some type of armored vehicle described as a "tortuga," a turtle, by an inmate) and began firing teargas and rubber bullets at the prisoners who had been abandoned in the facility that was on fire.
Afterwards, the prison guards forced the immigrant inmates to stay outdoors in the prison facility yard on Saturday night. Since then, they have only been fed once a day; they have little or no water and have only three restroom facilities for almost 3,000 prisoners.
The prison authorities only let the inmates back into the facilities after a week. But the prisoners are being forced back into a smoke-damaged building contaminated with carbon monoxide from the fire. The facility now has little or no ventilation since windows have been boarded up.
The Geo Group already has more than 2,800 prisoners in a facility meant to hold 2,400 in Pecos.
http://www.nnirr.org/
Support Worker Justice - Join the Millions Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act!
Quality employment opportunities and paychecks are shrinking, the cost of fuel and health care continue to skyrocket, and working families are struggling to make ends meet. In these harsh economic times, workers and our communities need fair opportunities to get ahead.
It's no coincidence that as union membership has declined, the gap between rich and poor has widened. Workers in unions earn 28% higher wages, and are 62 percent more likely to have employer-covered health coverage, and they are 386% more likely to have guaranteed pensions. Allowing more workers to freely join unions and bargain with their employers will help rebuild the middle class by expanding health care, improving retirement security, and raising the standard of living for all working families.
Sign up to support the Employee Free Choice Act! http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/jwj?source=a
In search of record profits, corporations and their high-paid CEOs often trample on the human rights of workers. While business executives demand high-dollar contracts to protect their pay and benefits, corporations routinely block employees' efforts to gain the same opportunity through a union. In fact, employers illegally fire workers in 25% of private-sector organizing campaigns; 78% require supervisors to deliver anti-union messages to the workers whose jobs and pay they control; and even after workers successfully form a union, they can't get a contract one third of the time. Workers deserve a fair chance to join a union.
Passing the Employee Free Choice Act is the chance of our lifetime to change the rules of the game. The Employee Free Choice Act will make it easier for women and men to form or join a union when they choose to in their workplace. This labor law reform legislation would provide workers the choice of how they want to form their union (a choice that corporate employers have enjoyed since the 1970's), helps employees secure a contract with their employer in a reasonable period of time, and strengthens penalties against employers who violate their workers' rights. With a free choice to join unions, working people can bargain for better pay, health care and pensions and build a better life themselves and their families.
There is no better time than now to hold decision makers accountable for staying true to the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech and association. We are the ones we've been waiting for!
Help us reach the goal of one million petition signers in support of the Employee Free Choice Act! The actual URL for the petition is: http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/jwj?source=a
For more information on the Employee Free Choice Act, and to endorse as an organization, visit: www.jwj.org or http://www.jwj.org/freechoice/index.html
Thank you for helping us build justice and power for workers, their families and our communities!
http://www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/jwj?source=a
March with UFPJ on Saturday, April 4th New York City: Beyond War, a New Economy is Possible
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967
AFSC-CT will be organizing to get Connecticut residents to this important mobilization in NYC on April 4th. Please contact us at Connecticut at afsc.org or 860-523-1534 to get more information on how you can participate
March with UFPJ on Saturday, April 4th
New York City
It is Time to End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
It is Time to Address the Economic Crisis by Cutting Military Spending
On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic speech against the war in Vietnam at NYC's Riverside Church. One year later, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis while there to support striking sanitation workers. Dr. King's work linked the most pressing issues of his day; his life was about taking public action in the service of the struggles for equality, freedom, justice, and peace.
Today, people from every walk of life and every corner of this country are both filled with the possibilities of hope and change and struggling under the worst financial crisis of this generation. This year, on Saturday, April 4, we call on all people to take up Dr. King's example of public action and join us in the streets of New York City's financial center as we renew our common commitment to move this country in a new direction.
We will march on April 4 because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan must be ended now! We will march on April 4 because a critical piece of addressing the economic crisis must be cutting military spending, starting with ending the flow of our tax dollars into these wars and occupations. We will march on April 4 because 'Beyond War, A New Economy Is Possible!'
We will march on April 4 filled with hope. Now is the time that our movements for racial justice and economic equality; our movements against the wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and elsewhere; our movements for a new economy based on people's needs, green union jobs and sustainability will ALL come together to say YES WE CAN! Yes We Can move beyond war! Yes We Can build a new world of justice, equality and peace!
Today, we ask you to join United for Peace and Justice as we prepare for this timely mobilization. Scores of organizations have already endorsed our call, and, in the coming weeks, many more will be signing on. Click here to read the full call for our April 4 mobilization. http://www.unitedforpeace.org/form.php?modin=159
Here's how you can help:
Share this message far and wide, help get the word out that we are marching for peace and justice on April 4 in New York City.
Make your plans now to join us in New York City on Saturday, April 4. In the coming days, we will have logistical details posted on the UFPJ website so be sure to look for that information.
If you are part of a group that wants to add your name to growing list of endorsing organizations, please click here.
Make the largest financial donation you can to help ensure the success of this mobilization! Over the past six years, we have counted on people like you to provide the money needed to organize our national mobilizations. Each time, you came through -- and now we hope we can count on you once again!
In these next six weeks, United For Peace and Justice will pour our heart and souls into the April 4 mobilization. We hope you, too, see the importance of this effort and that you will contribute time and energy to helping us build for April 4th!
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=4027
American Friends Service Committee
Connecticut Area Office
56 Arbor Street, Suite 213
Hartford, CT 06106
Phone: 860.523.1534
Fax: 860.523.1705
Email: connecticut at afsc.org Visit AFSC CT Online
Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Confirm | Forward
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20090301/f7977b3f/attachment.html>
More information about the Ctgp-news
mailing list