Class Struggle

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Mon, 2022-09-26 12:40
epaulo13

Labour group uses social media, protests to recoup $250K in unpaid wages to international students

Dozens of protesters outside calling for action and talking about wage theft is a scary sight for businesses — but has become an effective tactic for one Ontario collective action group in Brampton and Mississauga.

For nearly two years, Rupinder Singh felt like he had been stiffed.

The international student from India says he was out more than $4,000 after his employer, Sukh Auto, allegedly never paid his wages and vacation pay. The experience was haunting and involved Singh allegedly being struck by a shovel by the owner of the auto body shop, Sukhdeep Hunjan.

At that point, Singh, not entirely clear on the labour laws, knew the only shot to get the money he thought he was owed back would be with support.

So, he turned to Naujawan Support Network (NSN), a group mainly comprised of students, often international and immigrants based in Peel Region. Naujawan means a young person in Punjabi, the language spoken by many of the international students. They target employers they believe are exploiting workers’ rights to take collective action. The network also helps the students learn about their rights as tenants and what landlords can and can’t make them do.

“When international students or workers, primarily immigrants in Brampton, have faced exploitation in the workplace or through their landlord, they usually come to us,” said Simran Dhunna, a member of NSN.

“When a worker isn’t paid their regular paycheque, it destroys a person’s mental health, ability to pay their rent and groceries, ability to provide for their family.”

Given their track record of success, which Dhunna said totals over $250,000 recouped from employers in just over a year of operations, NSN has become a mainstay in the community.

“We initiate a public campaign to pressure the employer to pay their former worker so that the community and other workers are aware of the exploitative practices,” she said.....

Naujawan Support Network holds a sign reading “justice for our workers” in both Punjabi and Urdu at a protest in front of Sukh Auto. Naujawan Support Network

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Wed, 2022-09-28 11:17
epaulo13

Four straight years of non-stop street protest in Haiti

A cycle of protests began in Haiti in July 2018, and—despite the pandemic—has carried on since then. The core reason for the protest in 2018 was that in March of that year the government of Venezuela—due to the illegal sanctions imposed by the United States—could no longer ship discounted oil to Haiti through the PetroCaribe scheme. Fuel prices soared by up to 50 percent. On August 14, 2018, filmmaker Gilbert Mirambeau Jr. tweeted a photograph of himself blindfolded and holding a sign that read, “Kot Kòb Petwo Karibe a???” (Where did the PetroCaribe money go?). He reflected the popular sentiment in the country that the money from the scheme had been looted by the Haitian elite, whose grip on the country had been secured by two coups d’état against the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (once in 1991 and again in 2004). Rising oil prices made life unlivable for the vast majority of the people, whose protests created a crisis of political legitimacy for the Haitian elite.

In recent weeks, the streets of Haiti have once again been occupied by large marches and roadblocks, with the mood on edge. Banks and nongovernmental organizations—including Catholic charities—faced the wrath of the protesters, who painted “Down with [the] USA” on buildings that they ransacked and burned. The Creole word dechoukaj or uprooting—that was first used in the democracy movements in 1986—has come to define these protests. The government has blamed the violence on gangs such as G9 led by the former Haitian police officer Jimmy “Babekyou” (Barbecue) Chérizier. These gangs are indeed part of the protest movement, but they do not define it.

The government of Haiti—led by acting President Ariel Henry—decided to raise fuel prices during this crisis, which provoked a protest from the transport unions. Jacques Anderson Desroches, president of the Fós Sendikal pou Sove Ayiti, told the Haitian Times, “If the state does not resolve to put an end to the liberalization of the oil market in favor of the oil companies and take control of it,” nothing good will come of it. “[O]therwise,” he said, “all the measures taken by Ariel Henry will be cosmetic measures.” On September 26, trade union associations called for a strike, which paralyzed the country, including the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.

The United Nations evacuated its nonessential staff from the country. UN Special Representative Helen La Lime told the UN Security Council that Haiti was paralyzed by “[a]n economic crisis, a gang crisis, and a political crisis” that have “converged into a humanitarian catastrophe.” Legitimacy for the United Nations in Haiti is limited, given the sexual abuse scandals that have wracked the UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, and the political mandate of the United Nations that Haitian people see as oriented to protecting the corrupt elite that does the bidding of the West.

quote:

Haiti’s crises

An understanding of the current cycle of protests is not possible without looking clearly at four developments in Haiti’s recent past. First, the destabilization of the country after the second coup against Aristide in 2004, which took place right after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010, led to the dismantling of the Haitian state. The Core Group of countries took advantage of these serious problems in Haiti to import onto the island a wide range of Western NGOs, which seemed to substitute for the Haitian state. The NGOs soon provided 80 percent of the public services. They “frittered” considerable amounts of the relief and aid money that had come into the country after the earthquake. Weakened state institutions have meant that the government has few tools to deal with this unresolved crisis.

Second, the illegal US sanctions imposed on Venezuela crushed the PetroCaribe scheme, which had provided Haiti with concessionary oil sales and $2 billion in profits between 2008 and 2016 that was meant for the Haitian state but vanished into the bank accounts of the elite.

Third, in 2009, the Haitian parliament tried to increase minimum wages on the island to $5 per day, but the US government intervened on behalf of major textile and apparel companies to block the bill. David Lindwall, former US deputy chief of mission in Port-au-Prince, said that the Haitian attempt to raise the minimum wage “did not take economic reality into account” but was merely an attempt to appease “the unemployed and underpaid masses.” The bill was defeated due to US government pressure. These “unemployed and underpaid masses” are now on the streets being characterized as “gangs” by the Core Group.

Fourth, the acting President Ariel Henry likes to say that he is a neurosurgeon and not a career politician. However, in the summer of 2000, Henry was part of the group that created the Convergence Démocratique (CD), set up to call for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Aristide. The CD was set up in Haiti by the International Republican Institute, a political arm of the US Republican Party, and by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy. Henry’s call for calm on September 19, 2022, resulted in the setting up of more barricades and in the intensification of the protest movement. His ear is bent more to Washington than to Petit-Goâve, a town on the northern coast that is the epicenter of the rebellion.

Waves of invasions

At the UN, Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus said, “[T]his dilemma can only be solved with the effective support of our partners.” To many close observers of the situation unfolding in Haiti, the phrase “effective support” sounds like another military intervention by the Western powers. Indeed, the Washington Post editorial called for “muscular action by outside actors.” Ever since the Haitian Revolution, which ended in 1804, Haiti has faced waves of invasions (including a long US occupation from 1915 to 1930 and a US-backed dictatorship from 1957 to 1986). These invasions have prevented the island nation from securing its sovereignty and have prevented its people from building dignified lives. Another invasion, whether by US troops or the United Nations peacekeeping forces, will only deepen the crisis.....

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Wed, 2022-09-28 11:19
epaulo13

A man holds a weapon next to burning barricades during anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 14, 2021. Photo courtesy Catholic News Service.

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Wed, 2022-09-28 15:34
epaulo13

Garment manufacturing workers at Winnipeg plant hit picket line

Garment manufacturing workers at a Winnipeg plant hit the picket line Monday, citing inflation as a need for higher wages.

Forty-eight sewing machine operators for Freed & Freed, a jacket manufacturer, want to boost their minimum wage earnings — a 30 cent per hour increase, now and when the current minimum wage hits $13.50 in October, said Workers United Canada Council representative Andrew Spence.

The union and Freed & Freed have been in contract negotiations since December of 2019 — with pauses during the pandemic — Spence said.....

“This is a company that’s been around for… 100 years, and they were able to survive,” Spence said. “The employees have to be able to survive.”

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Tue, 2022-10-04 17:05
epaulo13

Ontario CUPE education workers vote 96.5 per cent in favour of strike mandate

quote:

Walton has said the government's offer amounts to an extra $800 a year for the average worker.

She suggested that workers can't afford to strike and lose those wages, but they also can't afford not to, after years of wage freezes and one per cent increases to low pay.

“We can't afford not to fight any longer. We are literally on the brink of poverty,” Walton said.

“At this point workers cannot afford for us to come down (on our wage proposal). We are losing workers daily. People have come to me and said, 'I can no longer afford to keep doing the work I love.”'

The government has noted that CUPE is also asking for five additional paid days before the start of the school year, 30 minutes of paid preparation time each day, and increasing overtime pay from a multiplier of 1.5 to 2.

Ontario's opposition parties placed the blame for the looming possible strike at the feet of the government they say is refusing to ensure proper services in schools.

“This Conservative government has dragged our children to the brink of more school disruption,” NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said in a statement.

“Premier Doug Ford and Minister Stephen Lecce have been using our children's school year as a bargaining chip, to bully the lowest-paid education workers.”

All five major education unions are in the midst of bargaining with the government after their contracts expired Aug. 31.

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Wed, 2022-10-05 10:47
epaulo13

How 165 Workers Parked Tugboats and Froze a Shipyard

Nearly 1,000 employees in North Vancouver’s docks are off the job as a battle between tugboat operators and their employer paralyzes one of the country’s largest ship-building operations.

The federal government has stepped in to try and resolve a dispute between Seaspan and 165 striking tugboat staff, who have been joined at picket lines by other unions at the maritime monolith’s North Vancouver shipyard and drydock.

The vast majority of those workers are not on strike themselves but have refused to report to work in solidarity with tugboat captains and engineers at the Canadian Merchant Service Guild, who declared an impasse at the bargaining table in late August.

Since then, the company has gone to the BC Labour Relations Board and the B.C. Supreme Court in an effort to have the picket declared illegal, without any success. The result is that work at the shipyards, where employees were completing billion-dollar contracts for the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Coast Guard, has ground to a halt.

So while other tugboat firms have largely taken up the slack by the striking operators for Seaspan, it’s the company’s ship-building arm that’s taking the big hit from the job action.

For weeks, neither the company nor the guild spoke publicly about exactly what went wrong at the bargaining table. The Tyee has learned the parties could not reconcile differences on wages, a new shift scheduling system and safety concerns, festering into a dispute that now affects roughly 1,000 staff and one of the largest shipbuilding and tugboat operations in the province.

“It’s not the resolution that we want,” Seaspan communications director Ali Hounsell said. “It’s not where we want to be. It’s not where anyone would prefer to be.”

Trouble on the waterfront

There is no normal day for a tugboat crew.

Seaspan’s 30 boats haul cruise ships to harbour. They transport massive shipments of chemicals and oil. They are the worker ants of Vancouver’s port, a vital link in Canada’s supply chain.

Seaspan, one of the Washington Companies, is nicknamed “the big red machine,” in part because its tugboat fleet is one of the largest and busiest in the harbour. The job takes years of training and experience and workers are in short supply.

Those workers’ last collective agreement with Seaspan expired three years ago. Negotiations began in early 2020 and were delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.....

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Wed, 2022-10-05 10:49
epaulo13

Doug Healey, Natasha Healey and Allan Hutchison stand at a picket line outside Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards on Wednesday, Sept. 28. They are shipyard union workers who’ve refused to report for work in solidarity with striking tug boat operators. Photo for The Tyee by Zak Vescera.

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Sun, 2022-10-09 11:15
epaulo13

Thousands march on Hungary's parliament as teachers' crisis continues

At least 35,000 Hungarian students, teachers and parents blocked a Budapest bridge before filling the main square outside parliament on Wednesday evening, in support of teachers fighting for higher wages and teachers sacked for protesting.

The crowd occupied Margaret Bridge, one of the traffic hubs in the capital, in a bid to force the government to reexamine the current workload on teachers.

Carrying banners with the words "Do not sack our teachers" and "No teachers, no future" the crowd grew into the country's biggest anti-government demonstration since Prime Minister Viktor Orban was reelected last April.

Demonstrators called for civil disobedience and said increasing their wages would serve as a solution to a deepening shortage of teachers. The "I want to teach" campaign is also maintaining its right to strike.

Wednesday's rally started with students who formed a chain stretching for kilometres across Budapest in the morning.

quote:

Hungary's two main trade unions, the PDSZ and the PSZ called for the demonstration.

"I find the current situation in Hungary disheartening and if I could, I would flee... if I could. But now I feel that this is where I belong at the moment and this is my way of showing that it's terrible", said one teacher.

Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony, said he was on the side of the Hungarian teachers, so the capital’s community support officers would not interfere with the protesters.

While the protest was peaceful, teachers have become increasingly more frustrated since the government restricted industrial action after a nationwide protest was announced by teachers last March.

The government issued a mandate to make strikes in public education almost impossible -- a move which came under criticism from the public sector.

"The fluctuation is extremely high, especially in the last two or three years. One-third of the teaching staff is constantly leaving. There are hourly lectures and an awful lot of overwork" said another teacher.

While the government cited coronavirus restrictions as their reason for banning such protests last spring, the decree has yet to be lifted......

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Sun, 2022-10-09 11:34
epaulo13

When workers go on strike, it's amazing how few capitalists want to leave things to the free play of market forces.

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Sun, 2022-10-09 14:40
epaulo13

More than 500,000 International Students Win Right to Work And Protect Themselves from Exploitation

Move comes after three years of campaigning by Migrant Workers Alliance for Change; Permanent Changes and Fairness for All Migrant Student Workers Still Needed

Current and former international students (Migrant Student Workers) are claiming partial success today after Immigration Minister Fraser announced a temporary removal of the 20 hour work limit on study permits, which gives them the power to protect themselves from exploitation, abuse and mistreatment at work. The change will be in effect from November 15, 2022 to the end of 2023, and will impact more than 500,000 current international students who are in Canada, or have already applied for a study permit. The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change’s Migrant Student United campaign has been organizing against the 20 hour work limit since 2019 when international student Jobandeep Singh Sandhu had his immigration status revoked and was eventually deported for working more than 20 hours driving trucks. Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is reiterating our call for permanent changes, rather than temporary and partial programs, including permanent resident status for all migrants in the country and those who will come in the future. 

“Today’s announcement isn’t about labour shortage, it’s about labour mobility and rights, and it’s a direct result of years of tireless organizing by current and former international students. Removing the limit on hours of work while studying gives migrant student workers the power to leave bad jobs, speak up against exploitation and mistreatment, and freedom and flexibility to make decisions about their work,” says Sarom Rho, organizer for Migrant Students United at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “It’s a step in the right direction but much more needs to be done for migrant student workers, particularly those who have been excluded, this change must be made permanent, the post-graduate work permit (PGWP) scheme which students enter into upon graduation must be transformed, and most importantly all migrants including migrant students must have permanent residency so they can protect themselves.”......

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Sun, 2022-10-09 14:45
epaulo13

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Tue, 2022-10-11 10:28
epaulo13

Railroad Workers Reject Proposed Union Contract, Setting Stage for November Strike

In labor news, unionized railroad maintenance and construction workers have rejected a tentative deal with railroad carriers, renewing the possibility of a nationwide strike. The tentative agreement between unions and railroad carriers was brokered last month with the help of the Biden administration’s Presidential Emergency Board. It would add one additional paid day off and allow workers to take unpaid days to get medical care without being penalized by their employers; workers have denounced a lack of any paid sick time. The deal also included a pay raise of about 20% by 2024. Rail carriers have seen their profits soar in recent years while workers’ wages remained stagnant.

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Fri, 2022-10-21 13:32
epaulo13

Chadian Security Forces Kill Protesters Demanding Return to Civilian Rule

In Chad, security forces shot and killed dozens of anti-government protesters Thursday in the country’s two largest cities. Some 50 people were killed and hundreds injured. Protesters were demanding an end to transitional military rule and a return to democracy. Chad has been mired in a protracted political crisis following the death of former President Idriss Déby, who was killed on the battlefield in April of last year. This all comes as Chad declared a state of emergency over catastrophic flooding that has demolished crops and livestock, worsening food insecurity in the region.

Fatimé Tchari: “We subsist on selling milk to the surrounding population. But now there is not even enough to eat. Last year we saw our cows starve to death before our eyes. This year we are facing another disaster.”
The U.N. says 5.5 million people in Chad are in need of emergency humanitarian aid.

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Sat, 2022-10-22 09:16
epaulo13

Democratic Socialism and Civilizational Crisis Conference (Vancouver)

The conference will consider what role democratic socialism could have in addressing our current situation. Environmental crisis, climate emergency, pandemics, neofascism, unjust and destabilizing inequalities, and the escalating threat of nuclear war pose existential challenges to global civilization. It seems clear that that the gaps between party politics, social movements and intellectual life have widened, and that the political system is not responding adequately. In that light, can the practices and philosophy of democratic socialism offer a way forward? Does the project of democratic socialism require radical renewal if it is to have any relevance today? How do we address the legacy of colonialism? What could the future of democratic socialism look like? These questions will be addressed by activists, academics and parliamentarians in the form of discussion and debate from a variety of perspectives.

  • Panel 1, October 21, 10am: “The politics and philosophy of democratic socialism” Speakers: Mary Mellor, Roberta Lexier, Natalie Fenton, Steve McBride
  • Panel 2, October 21, 2pm: “Democratic socialist approaches to the environment/economy relationship” Speakers: Bill Carroll, Shannon Daub, Marjorie Cohen, Bianca Mugyenyi, Jim Stanford
  • Panel 3, October 22, 10am: “Facing New Realities in an Era of Crisis and Reckoning” Speakers: Glenn Coulthard, Matthew Green, Anjali Appadurai, Avi Lewis
  • Panel 4, October 22, 2pm: “Roundtable: Moving Forward” Speakers: Dimitri Lascaris, Ben Issitt, Libby Davies, Ashley Zarbatany, Bob Williams (all times are local Vancouver)

    The conference is sponsored by the SFU Institute for the Humanities through the Joanne Brown Symposium on Violence and Its Alternatives endowment, the SFU Labour Studies Program, and the SFU VanCity Office of Community Engagement.

Website:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdi5ge8NIfAnX1fzwlcjCHj7o3jJLAyuJRZhHvsyLSmdkBj4Q/viewform

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Sat, 2022-10-22 14:14
(Reply to #115)
Pondering

Defending the rights of Canadian men to have brothels filled with minority women to fulfill their sexual desires. That isn't at all colonialist.

Escort services and massage parlours are functioning without any problems. Women can hire receptionists and guards. Women could open a co-op escort service cheap with an online presence only. Why haven't sex workers used the past 8 years to organize themselves co-ops? Don't they have an association?

Men buy the propaganda on this because they want to believe that indigenous women want the right to serve them sexually. That is so much better than sexually exploiting minority women. They WANT to do it so really men are protecting the rights of minority women. Such heroes.

epaulo13 wrote:

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Sat, 2022-10-22 14:35
epaulo13

pondering...

..there is a huge gap between your desciption and how sex workers and other women view this struggle.  

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Sat, 2022-10-22 14:38
epaulo13

..i am especially supportive of this statement

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Sat, 2022-10-22 14:49
epaulo13

..video report.

France begins nationwide strikes, copes with major disruptions

French trade unions have begun a nationwide strike to demand higher salaries amid the highest inflation in decades, one of the biggest challenges to President Emmanuel Macron since his reelection in May.

Tuesday’s strike, which primarily affects public sectors such as schools and transportation, is an extension of the weeks-long industrial action that has disrupted France’s major refineries and put petrol stations’ supply in disarray.

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Sat, 2022-10-22 14:57
epaulo13

A French Lesson on Inflation and Social Class

quote:

Here in France, however, where they invented class consciousness in 1789, there is a great deal of attention to who is helped and hurt by inflation. Two weeks ago, the largest union federation, the leftist Confédération Générale du Travail, called a strike of oil refinery workers.

With the worldwide cut in crude oil production, refinery profits have been exorbitant. At TotalEnergies, which booked a $10.9 billion profit in the first half of 2022, CGT demanded a wage increase of 10 percent, 7 percent to compensate for inflation plus 3 percent for “wealth sharing.”

The companies refused wage increases on this scale, and workers have shut down six of France’s seven refineries. Paris is literally out of gas, and frantic motorists are driving to the far suburbs in search of fuel. On Friday, two of the more moderate unions reached a deal with Total for a 7 percent increase plus bonus payments of 3,000 to 6,000 euros per worker, but the CGT is continuing the strike.

The government is prepared to fine resisting workers and bring in scab labor. French railway workers and civil servants plan a one-day solidarity strike next week.

For now, public opinion is divided. A French friend observes that strikes like this begin with sympathy for the strikers, but where vital services are affected, public sentiment often turns in favor of just getting the strike over.

But this very French strike has accomplished two things, one of which has yet to be achieved in the U.S. First, it has made very clear the class implications of the current supply-driven inflation. In this case: windfall profits for the oil companies and real-wage cuts for workers.

Second, it’s a reminder of the urgency of moving to a post-carbon transition.....

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Sat, 2022-10-22 20:09
(Reply to #120)
Pondering

epaulo13 wrote:

pondering...

..there is a huge gap between your desciption and how sex workers and other women view this struggle.  


Some do but not survivors. I'd be in favor of giving migrant workers a path to citizenship. I don't believe that they prefer sex work to other forms of labor. If sex work is so lucrative women should have no trouble setting up escort services. Why aren't they doing it?

New Zealand doesn't allow migrant workers. Germany does. Guess who has all day specials with as many girls as you want cheap?

I'm sure there are many migrants who would come here willingly to be abused if that was the price they had to pay. Is that the price we want to charge?

Asian dolls! Voluptuous Blacks! Indian Princesses! Take your pick! That is the reality.

The truth is every aspect of sex work in Canada is legal for the worker. Completely decriminalized. No health checks. No licencing. Only the customer is taking a chance and not much of one if they use an escort service which is legal to advertise. Women can rent clusters of apartments on the same floor or even downtown office space.

All I see being blocked is street-walking and open advertising or brothels. The fact that I do not see the sex worker activists taking advantage of these business opportunities leaves me wondering why.

A sex worker co-op could advertise openly with a a wink-wink. The co-op clears the identity of the client and puts the client in touch with an escort. From there on the escort does the negotiating. They could open a dining club with private rooms which allows for reception and guards, or a members only spa. The possibilities are endless. Sex workers themselves can organize openly. After eight years the movement should be better organized to take advantage of all the ways the laws protect them.

It is an inherently dangerous and damaging job to women who participate willingly only to learn in hindsight that they are traumatized by it.

It harms women in general because there are only two ways to read it. Either there are two kinds of women, or there are women who are refusing even though it is not that big a deal. If you can buy it is it really rape or is it theft? I'm not saying technically, I'm saying in the minds of many men. No damage done. The woman just didn't get paid, even if that woman is a date not a sex worker.

So what do we have then? Two kinds of women? Women for whom sex is no big deal and they might as well get paid for it, and women for whom sex is a big deal and reserved for men they feel comfortable being intimate with and that they are sexually attracted to.

Seems to me it entrenches the double standard.

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Sat, 2022-10-22 21:59
epaulo13

..you saw the poster when you made your original comments. you said nothing about approach based on fighting for safety. with rights not rescue. nor did you comment on the preceding comments that led to this conclusion by harsha walia. 

..that means looking at the sex worker struggles differently. that means not all sex workers see it the way you do pondering and want rights that everyone else enjoys. that means seeing this struggle in a broader context. 

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Sun, 2022-10-23 01:13
(Reply to #122)
Pondering

epaulo13 wrote:

..you saw the poster when you made your original comments. you said nothing about approach based on fighting for safety. with rights not rescue. nor did you comment on the preceding comments that led to this conclusion by harsha walia. 

..that means looking at the sex worker struggles differently. that means not all sex workers see it the way you do pondering and want rights that everyone else enjoys. that means seeing this struggle in a broader context. 

Sex workers have a right to see it differently but that doesn't mean their will should prevail. Their desire to make money selling sexual services does not supercede the rights of other women not to be victimized or of society to decide what is and isn't destructive behavior. Selling sex is not a sexual orientation or race. It is a choice. One which I have pointed out they are very free to make. Canada's Nordic Model has protections the orginal does not that makes it easier for workers to band together and hire receptionists and security and makes clear that family and gift giving are protected.

My question isn't rhetorical on why they haven't set something up for themselves after 8 years. I'm not seeing female empowerment.

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Sun, 2022-10-23 01:59
epaulo13

..my years as an activist in van kept me in touch with what was happening on the downtown eastside. although it wasn't the main focus of my activism i often went there to support various struggles going on at the time. one of my last demos i attended there were sex work demonstrating along side everyone else. 

..it was there i began to understand that it was important that they were accepted into the fold..by the movements. and not stigmatized to the point of being isolated. these sex workers were financially desperate. some were drug addicts. and they were trying to make money, sometimes on dark corners where violence could and often did happen. as well they were abused by the police. 

..when the discussion around sex workers came to babble i argued this point. i argued that safety comes first. i argued that the women's movement could take them into their fold. and that this is where you have the conversation. the conversation that you seek pondering. about the harm it causes all women.

..my position holds to this day. safety first. which is why i supported that poster. much has to be changed in the world we live in before there is any real justice for these women.  

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Sun, 2022-10-23 03:51
Left Turn Left Turn's picture

US Railroad Workers Threaten to Strike and Call for Public Takeover of the Rails

A potential showdown between organized labor and Wall Street looms over the world of freight trains: An influential railroad workers group is urging fellow union members to reject a tentative labor agreement that has prevented an industry-wide strike, and to fight for public ownership of railroads. Negotiations are tense, and the unions are telling members that every vote counts.

Fearing further stress on supply chains and the economy ahead of the midterm elections, President Joe Biden convened an emergency board to negotiate a tentative agreement between rail carriers and unions threatening a nationwide strike. Railroad Workers United (RWU), an advocacy group of rank-and-file workers, recently called on fellow union members to reject the tentative agreement in a vote scheduled for early December, and to strike if necessary.

The tentative agreement announced in September by two major unions calls for an immediate 14 percent wage increase, but concerns over working conditions, health insurance and medical leave remain. SMART, a union representing sheet metal, air and rail workers, recently told its members that the tentative agreement is still being finalized, and it will be up to the rank and file to vote yes or no on the deal.

A nationwide rail strike would incapacitate shipping and force rail companies and the public to contend with the demands of railroad workers, who say their employers have maximized profits while safety and working conditions deteriorate. BNSF Railway, one of the top freight rail operators, made $23 billion in revenue in 2021 alone.

While RWU is urging the rank-and-file to fight for a better contract with their employers, the group says the ultimate solution to the problems raised at the negotiating table is a public takeover of the railroads for freight trains.

Ross Grooters, a co-chair of the RWU steering committee and a locomotive engineer out of Iowa, said rail workers are facing off against billion-dollar companies that run one of the most profitable industries in the nation. Rail companies, such as Union Pacific and BNSF Railway, have prioritized profits over their workers, leaving skeleton crews to operate massive and potentially dangerous freight trains.

“These companies are making decisions based on speculative financial investment versus running a freight system for what it needs to be run for, which is our supply chain that keeps the economy running,” Grooters said in an interview with Truthout. “When we see that affects workers, we know there are other ways of running infrastructure where you can put those resources into ensuring that you can have adequate safe staffing, ensuring that it is collectively the country or the world benefiting versus just a handful of very rich shareholders.”

RWU is a militant, rank-and-file advocacy group, not one of the multiple craft unions negotiating with rail companies for a new labor contract. RWU panned the tentative contract deal that railroad workers will vote on in December, arguing there has been little improvement to a set of recommendations brokered by the White House. Disputes over staffing and extremely limited paid sick leave remain, and the four major unions party to the tentative agreement are preparing their members for an up or down vote.

“If we are going to win the kinds of things we want to see in the workplace, to make it a better and more healthy place to work, where we can live lives outside of the railroad, we need to think very differently in how we approach our position in contract and bargaining,” Grooters said. “We need to be thinking about these big and bold things, how the ownership model is just extracting wealth and making railroads more unsafe and harming the long-term health of the industry.”

RWU says its call to reject the tentative agreement is based on overwhelming opposition expressed by the rank-and-file. For RWU members, even striking for a better contract is not the long-term solution. Their “big and bold” idea is a public takeover of the railways, which are currently owned and run by private companies that have plenty of financial incentives to reject the efforts of unions to improve staffing and safety conditions.

“The [freight] rail industry is alone as the sole means of conveyance that is held privately. Highways, inland waterways, seaports and airports are all in public hands,” said Paul Lindsey, a RWU member and locomotive engineer, in a statement. “Given the industry’s inability to grow and expand and to adequately meet the needs of shippers, communities, passengers, commuters and workers, it is time that it too become a public entity.”

Taking the rails public — and defeating Wall Street — would likely require an act of Congress and support from Biden, who was known for riding passenger trains during his many years in the Senate. The proposal could also draw support from myriad shipping and industrial companies that rely on freight trains to transport critical fuels and other products. They want to know that their freight will get to its destination on time and safely.

RWU is also asking for support from the public and social movements, as we all depend on railroads and railroad workers to keep the economy functioning. Grooters said public ownership would not just benefit consumers at the end of the supply chain, it could also lead the way for public investments and improvements in infrastructure that would help the U.S. catch up with most other wealthy countries, where pollution and traffic jams are reduced by modern, high-speed passenger trains owned by the public.

“It’s a lot of work, there is no easy path to this, but if there are organizations that want to support us and build a campaign, we at RWU are willing to be partners and pull everything in that direction,” Grooters said.

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Sun, 2022-10-23 23:06
Pondering

For most women forcing themselves to have sex with any man who walks in would be incredibly degrading, even more degrading and dehumanizing than rape. Sex work will always be stigmatized because it will always be seen as either desperate or hardened. Sex workers themselves don’t see it that way but at the very least they are “different” from other women.

Safety for all women including sex workers and prostitutes comes first and foremost. Neither decriminalization nor legalization has been proven to increase safety for women. It has been proven to increase trafficking and increase the number of women prostitutes and sex workers. That means more women being harmed not fewer women being harmed.

 these sex workers were financially desperate. some were drug addicts. and they were trying to make money, sometimes on dark corners where violence could and often did happen. as well they were abused by the police.

These are not the women that would end up helped by legalization they would likely be harmed by it. Legalized prostitution means men will go to cheap brothels not street-workers. The only kind that would have to turn to street workers would be those looking for a victim or too drunk or stoned to be let into a legal establishment. Women will have to do more for lower pay as bargain mega brothels and chains would dominate the market. Legalization would increase competition lowering prices.

Police haven’t been cracking down on johns cruising. Women aren’t breaking the law so they can always call for help. It seems the primary point of contention is the desire to advertise freely and open brothels. Massage parlors can be low-key brothels and women can advertise as escorts.

Strippers in Quebec were against the legalization of lap dancing. They failed to stop it but were told no stripper would be required to do lap dances. Now it is the only way to get paid. Money they used to get for dancing on stage became earned through table dancing. Then table dancing became lap dancing.

 If prostitution became legal I bet they couldn’t get 20$ for a lap dance anymore. They would have to do more for less. 

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Mon, 2022-10-24 10:27
kropotkin1951

Class struggle seems an odd place for your post.

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Mon, 2022-10-24 12:13
(Reply to #127)
Pondering

kropotkin1951 wrote:

Class struggle seems an odd place for your post.

It was presented in this topic presenting sex workers as a class which they are not.

Only the safety of willing sex workers is considered rather than considering the safety of women as a class, which we are. Women who would be sex workers under legal/decrim don't become sex workers because it is not legitimized as an industry. We know the high level of trauma that results for a significant portion of the population. We know that minority women and drug addicts populate the most dangerous street work. It is predictable harm. We know that trafficking increases overwhelming law enforcement's ability to deal with it.

Women are a class. Indigenous women are a class. Minority women are a class. Sex worker is not a class. The most valuable sex worker is a virgin.

Because sexual preference can never be challenged it is fine to pick women by race and to expect them to adhere to racist sexual stereotypes reinforcing them.

Women are a class currently suffering extreme violence and misogyny. Our vaginas should not be a business opportunity we are born with; a side gig we can always turn to if we are homeless so really there is no excuse. Poor women should look at the up side that they have a choice men are denied. Women are the real beneficiaries. Legitimization of prostitution is not about protecting women's rights or their atonomy.

Women as a class and individually are physically harmed by the legitimization of prostitution.

I have noticed a resistance from the male-left to accept that women remain a discriminated against class in North America not just in the rest of the world.

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Mon, 2022-10-24 12:15
Pondering

Post 112 raised the issue of prostitution not me. 

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Mon, 2022-10-24 12:27
epaulo13

..in a world divided into classes sex workers are definitely part of a class. 

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Mon, 2022-10-24 12:32
epaulo13

..i raised the issue of sex workers not prostitution. there is a distinction. you raised prostitution pondering.

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Mon, 2022-10-24 13:34
epaulo13

Hundreds walk out of UBC classes to demand university action on food insecurity

Hundreds of students walked out of classes at the University of British Columbia on Friday afternoon to tell the university it needs to do more to address food insecurity.

The protest came after sustained criticism from students who say the university cut funding to food security programs and students are struggling to deal with the rising cost of food.

Students at the event, which was organized by food cooperative UBC Sprouts, pointed out that the university has an endowment of over $2.8 billion, yet some students were struggling to survive.

"People I know spend up to $800 a month [on food]," said Nick van Gruen, one of the students who walked out. "I don't buy food on campus just cause it's too expensive. I've just ruled that out for me."

An Alma Mater Society (AMS) report said that visits to the AMS Food Bank had increased nearly 500 per cent over pre-pandemic levels, as rising costs continue to hit students hard.

A statement from UBC Sprouts issued before the protest said that the university's funding for food security programs had dropped 83 per cent during the current academic year compared to 2021/22.

Gizel Gedik, co-president of the cooperative, said she wants the university to restructure the way funding decisions are made.....

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Mon, 2022-10-24 14:10
epaulo13

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Mon, 2022-10-24 17:43
Left Turn Left Turn's picture

Jane McAlevey: It's Time for Unions to Go On the Offensive

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Mon, 2022-10-24 19:10
Pondering

epaulo13 wrote:
<p>..i raised&nbsp;the issue of sex workers not prostitution.&nbsp;there is a distinction. you raised prostitution pondering.

I don't mind referring to willing sex workers as sex workers but they are still participating in prostitution. 
Prostitution is the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity with someone for payment. That is the simple definition. 

If waiters, store clerks and delivery people are all separate classes then I suppose so are sex workers but I don't think that is what people usually mean when speaking of different classes of people. 

Selling sexual services is an activity not an identity or right. For example, if we outlaw salmon fishing it will not be discrimination against salmon fishers. They may disagree and think quotas would be sufficient but it isn't up to them. You could say they are minority but not in the sense of being a protected minority unless they are indigenous.

The same goes for sex workers and prostitution. We have the right as a society to deem prostitution as harmful to women individually, as a class and society as a whole. We can decide it is too expensive to police. 

People who want machine guns are a minority but they are not a protected minority. There is no right to own machine guns. We don't have the right to have sex in public for the sole reason that it makes people uncomfortable.

Sex work isn't illegal in Canada, only the acts of buying sexual services, advertising sexual services, or exploiting sex workers are illegal. Many sex workers want nothing to do with prostitution.

Elsewhere it was suggested that feminists should try to persuade sex workers but I think they have heard all the arguments and disagree which they have every right to do. 

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Mon, 2022-10-24 20:24
oldgoat

The discussion here of sex work/prostitution in a sense belongs here.  I believe sex trade workers are workers, therefore deserve a part of any discourse on class issues. It's taking on it's own dynamic in terms of sex work, prostitution, society and the law.  

We have a specific forum for sex trade work but it's a bit restrictive as it is by definition a pro sex trade safe space.  Does it belong in feminism?  I dunno, men are involved in the sex trade too.  I think, it's evolving as an interesting discussion on it's own. and probably deserves it's own thread.  Thoughts??

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Mon, 2022-10-24 20:29
(Reply to #136)
JKR

Pondering wrote:

If waiters, store clerks and delivery people are all separate classes then I suppose so are sex workers but I don't think that is what people usually mean when speaking of different classes of people. 

Are sex workers part of the working class and if so should they be covered by labour rights?

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Mon, 2022-10-24 22:06
laine lowe laine lowe's picture

I think sex workers have always been part of the working class and deserve to be recognized and covered by labour rights. I would even stray to say that in past centuries, some of those in the business were probably considered quite well paid courtesans and perhaps should be considered as part of the professional class given their social status and earnings. 

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Tue, 2022-10-25 19:30
Pondering

The conversation came here because sex workers who engage in prostitution are being framed as workers who should be protected under labour law and as a class or minority. I think it is very important to challenge that framing.

Manufacturing cocaine is work. Something being work doesn’t automatically mean it should be protected under labour law no matter how happy or well-paid the worker is if that work is considered detrimental to workers or society.

If people really need money they will work under the table in sub-standard conditions for less than minimum-wage. We don’t validate the exploitation because the worker is happy to do it even if that means the business is shut-down and workers are deported. We may fight to prevent deportation and to find them other jobs. We don’t fight to allow the exploitation to continue based on the needs of the workers or their willingness or even eagerness to comply with conditions. The worker will say this is my choice. I am not being harmed. You aren’t doing me any favors by taking away my income. This is how I pay my rent. Now I am at risk of deportation.

If rape against a male or female doesn't leave a physical injury why is it treated differently than simple assault? Why are rape and sexual abuse traumatizing? If a worker is forced to do tasks outside their job description it is wrong but it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal abuse, unless it is sexual. If it is just a job why can’t it be supervised?

Many women have been victims of prostitution that were not physically forced into it. They turn to it in part because it is billed as an easy way to make money fast. They tell themselves it is no different than having sex with a date; might as well get paid for it. Women that have exited sometimes slip like a drug addict. They regret it. They know they are damaging themselves. If you can’t make your rent and you have already done it the temptation is great  because it takes care of the immediate problem, just like taking below minimum wage, it feels like the better option in the moment.

Labour laws are intended to protect workers from exploitation even if they are willing to be exploited. Labour laws can't protect a streetwalker from emotional trauma or physical danger. Some sex workers argue that they would be safer if they had more time to negotiate with johns but sex workers had plenty of time to converse with Pickton. Sex workers don’t have some special antenna that warns them but nobody else that someone is a serial murderer or just gets off on hurting women. Negotiating no anal or requiring a condom doesn’t mean compliance. Paul Bernardo was a good looking guy. Beloved coaches abuse minors. So do priests. Bad guys don’t give off a special vibe.

When a john hires a sex worker the john is breaking the law. The person offering sex in exchange for money is rejecting the protection of the law and choosing to endanger themselves. The sex worker may not be harmed and may enjoy their work or at least prefer it to being a store clerk. That doesn’t validate the choice. Labour laws are intended to protect workers collectively. The workers that get harmed cannot be separated from those who are not prior to the harm. Every time a woman goes somewhere private with a man she risks rape and much worse. That cannot be made safe or safer through legalization.

I do make a distinction between different forms of prostitution. Street-walking cannot be made safe for any woman much less desperate women in need of drugs.

This is the form of prostitution the law is most designed to prevent. It is deliberately intended to reduce the number of johns in order to reduce the prevalence therefore the harm done to women. The below minimum wage worker will not thank you for your troubles and neither will women walking the streets. They are willing to be exploited and endangered because they desperately need money.

 

Most men going to brothels are not there for the girlfriend experience. Men go to brothels for the porn experience. They want what they can’t get elsewhere. Women voluntarily play out racist sexual stereotypes and will tell you they are fine. Women get hurt in brothels too and it doesn’t lessen the potential for trauma. Being abused is part of the job. Lots of men apparently enjoy calling women bitches whores and cunts and cuming in a woman’s face or peeing on her. It is degrading, dehumanizing. I’m not going to argue with sex workers that disagree. Maybe they are fine with it.

Of all the forms I think brothels are the worst for attracting women that need the money and for normalizing and promoting prostitution as a business opportunity and valid industry and no big deal. Brothels increase the number of johns and the prostituted. This level and the street level are where minorities land. Public brothels and advertising are the most harmful to women who don’t get involved. It commodifies sex and situates women as the providers in the minds of men. Rape becomes like stealing. After all some women do it for a living. It can’t be that big a deal if they leave no wounds.

Next level is the escort type. The law is a small fence discouraging it, making women think twice about endangering themselves, making it a little harder to get started protecting some of the women that would be traumatized. There is no labour law that could protect them. Women who give home haircuts aren’t protected by labour law.

Next up would be the Sugar Daddy websites. Like escorting there is no promise of sex but more relationship oriented with regular meetings. Above there would be a mistress. There are no labour laws that could be applied. It is likely the least harmful by far.

If lots of women are doing it as a job then isn't a woman who refuses an intimate partner just making a fuss when she could do it like a chore? It wouldn't take longer than doing a load of laundry so why not? Why make such a big deal out of it? Why not do the neighbour’s laundry while his wife is away? Why would most women choose breaking a bone over being raped? I sincerely cannot answer those questions. Throughout history rape has traumatized women because sex is different. It isn’t just like doing the laundry for most women and men know it.

I am not going to deny many sex workers simply don’t experience it that way but they are the exception not the rule. Sex workers are not a minority or a class and they are not being denied rights. That something is work doesn’t automatically mean it should be protected. If it is deemed too harmful to society or for workers it can be banned. Women are a class and are harmed by the commodification of sex in the way that it changes perceptions of women and sex and the expectations placed on us and how we view ourselves. Abuse is baked into prostitution at the street level and in brothels.

Canada’s model is superior to the Nordic model. It contains all kinds of protections for sex workers in terms of the people they support, give gifts to or hire which was one of the main complaints. Google escorts <your city>. There is no way to apply labour laws to these kinds of exchanges. Women can hire receptionists and guards and nobody is breaking the law. There are laws against exploitation. “Me too” doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Many men believe they have a right to access women’s bodies and they aren’t taking anything away from women.

Labour laws are difficult to impossible to apply given the circumstances of the exchange.

Scarcity due to lack of advertised brothels protects pricing. Buyers are forced to use the net to hire an independent or use an escort service or go to a massage parlour or the street. Law of supply and demand. Buyers are encouraged to form a connection so they don’t have to go through channels all the time reducing turnover.

The woman cannot be arrested and the buyers are breaking the law so a woman can call help any time giving her a bit more power over situations.

Labour laws are intended to protect workers from employment that would be harmful or exploitative. That workers are willing be paid less than minimum wage doesn’t mean it should be legal. That women are willing to have sex for money doesn’t mean it should be legal.

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Tue, 2022-10-25 23:50
(Reply to #139)
JKR

Pondering wrote:

Manufacturing cocaine is work. Something being work doesn’t automatically mean it should be protected under labour law no matter how happy or well-paid the worker is if that work is considered detrimental to workers or society.

Manufacturing cocaine is illegal and a serious crime. It’s an indictable offence. Are you saying sex work should be an indictable offence in Canada? As it is, sex work is legal work in Canada, so why shouldn’t it be covered by labour laws?

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Wed, 2022-10-26 11:13
Pondering

 

Pondering wrote:
Manufacturing cocaine is work. Something being work doesn’t automatically mean it should be protected under labour law no matter how happy or well-paid the worker is if that work is considered detrimental to workers or society.

 

JKR wrote:
Manufacturing cocaine is illegal and a serious crime. It’s an indictable offence. Are you saying sex work should be an indictable offence in Canada?

I am saying just because something is "work" doesn't mean it is covered by labour law or that it is legal.

JKR wrote:
As it is, sex work is legal work in Canada, so why shouldn’t it be covered by labour laws?

Sex work is legal. Prostitution is not legal.

Those who sell their own sexual services are protected from criminal liability for participating in the commission of this offence if the offence relates to their own sexual services (subsection 286.5(2))

https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/c36fs_fi/

Labour law can’t protect street-vendors because there is no means of verification or enforcement and no employer. When the service is sexual the worker is required to go somewhere dark and private where the usually female worker is vulnerable to the usually male buyer.

That some workers would choose to work below minimum wage if that is the only job available to them doesn’t make the law against it unjust or invalid. The law is written to protect the majority of workers. That means some businesses aren’t economically feasible so those jobs go away. Many jobs have been off-shored based on the ability to pay lower wages. The rights of the minority of workers who would otherwise have those jobs are being overridden, contravened. Migrants who would happily take those jobs are being denied.

The minority of workers who want to work for less than minimum wage to keep the jobs here are not a “class” or a “minority” in terms of protected groups. They are a part of the working class that does not agree with the majority.

Laws against prostitution protect women from being tempted, lured or forced, including by economic necessity, into prostitution. There is a very small minority of women who would agree that prostitution is a job like any other and prostitution should be a developed industry. The majority of women know that prostitution hurts most women as a class and individually.

Minimum wage laws protect workers as a class and by extension individual workers although it disadvantages some workers, especially the most desperate, especially if it isn’t even harmful other than in the economic sense.

Prostitution is harmful, degrading and dangerous for the majority of women. It can’t be made safe through labour laws. That a tiny minority of women who consider prostitution an acceptable job for women think it should become an industry doesn’t override the dangers the industry poses to working class women pressured by economic desperation into endangering their own well-being in the hopes of crawling out of poverty.

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Wed, 2022-10-26 11:46
kropotkin1951

This is one of the places cocaine is made in the US. Do those workers have labour rights?

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Wed, 2022-10-26 12:32
Pondering

Okay substitute counterfeit money for cocaine. 

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Wed, 2022-10-26 12:38
kropotkin1951

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Wed, 2022-10-26 12:46
kropotkin1951

I am merely pointing out that illegality has nothing to do with morality or anything else. Sex work is either work or it is a crime just like printing fake money can be either be a job or a crime depending on the way the criminal code is written. There is nothing inherently different about sex work. Whether or not sex work is "work" is a different question.

Mushroom pickers only have protection under employment standards when they pick them for someone else. I can go out into the woods and pick and sell without having to comply with labour laws but the company I sell them to has to provide its employees with employment standards rights. In our employment and labour system the real question is do you work for your self or somebody else. That is what determines whether you are a "worker" or not.

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Wed, 2022-10-26 14:05
epaulo13

..safety 1st is the only sane approach. from this advantage options will open up. 

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Wed, 2022-10-26 15:29
epaulo13

..this poster is a key to understanding the context in which to view sex workers in a safety 1st approach. and the ongoing struggles that lie before us. sex workers will not be abandoned. 

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Wed, 2022-10-26 15:55
(Reply to #147)
JKR

Pondering wrote:

Sex work is legal. Prostitution is not legal.

What’s the difference between “sex work” and “prostitution?”

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Wed, 2022-10-26 15:59
epaulo13

Garment workers at Freed and Freed in Winnipeg have been on strike since September 26. They're fighting against poverty wages and for job security. Their union is WUCC Local 459.

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Wed, 2022-10-26 19:28
Pondering

Prostitution is a crime. Sex work is not a crime. There are strip clubs all over the place. 

 

epaulo13 wrote:
..this poster is a key to understanding the context in which to view sex workers in a safety 1st approach. and the ongoing struggles that lie before us. sex workers will not be abandoned.   

You are abandoning women to increased violence because of a catchy poster that has a message men like. There is no analysis applied as there would be for an industry that endangered men's well-being. You say it's work but then won't treat it as labour issue. You just buy the propaganda because women's issues are not worth the time and trouble to male leftists. You glibly claim that women are safer based on a slogan.

I never heard of racial capitalism before but commodifying the sexual services of mostly minority women would seem to fit that category. Men, mostly colonizers, having the right to hire indigenous women to sexually service them, is not what decolonization looks like. You need to check your logic if you think it does.

Why do you discount the words of Canada's indigenous women?

https://www.nwac.ca/assets-knowledge-centre/2014_NWAC_Human_Trafficking_...

 ...We need to decriminalize those in sex work and switch the focus of judicial weight onto the johns, prosecuting them, as well as being more active in the prosecution of pimps and madams. ...

...The over-representation of Aboriginal women and girls in sexual exploitation and trafficking in Canada has been explored on repeated occasion through a span of years. However, the identified root causes never seem to change. These are the impact of colonialism on Aboriginal societies, the legacies of the residential schools and their inter-generational effects, family violence, childhood abuse, poverty, homelessness, lack of basic survival necessities, race and gender-based discrimination, lack of education, migration, and substance addictions. ...

The reality of street prostitution is giving blow jobs in alley-ways to a succession of men or getting into their cars to be driven to a secluded spot. Access to sanitation is baby wipes. These are not adequate working conditions. Police wouldn’t follow women to these locations to protect them.

Turning prostitution into an industry endangers women. That is "safety first". When prostitution is legitimized and becomes an industry more women are harmed. 

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Wed, 2022-10-26 19:36
(Reply to #150)
JKR

Pondering wrote:

Prostitution is a crime. Sex work is not a crime.

Why should one be a crime and not the other?

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