|
|
 |
|
|
| Home | Ask Neale | Calendar | Links |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cleaners campaign globallyDate: 14 June 2005
Angry Canberra cleaners meet the Anglican Bishop of Canberra-Goulburn, George Browning, tomorrow to tell him the church is not matching its own high moral standards when they allow a cleaning contractor in an Anglican retirement home to cut their take home pay. Earlier in the day the Canberra cleaners will breakfast with the Acting Chief Minister ACT, where they will ask the ACT Speaker of the House to send a protest letter to the House of Commons in solidarity with Westminster cleaners. From Darwin to Canberra, and in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, low paid cleaners, and their union, are taking part in co-ordinated actions around the globe to commemorate International Justice Day - June 15. In Sydney LHMU Cleaners Union members will begin rolling meetings across the state to discuss a new and revitalised campaign to improve their pay and working conditions.
A delegation from these meetings will go up to the NSW Parliament and meet with the President of the NSW Legislative Council, Dr Meredith Burgmann, to ask her to write protest letters to the House of Commons about the treatment of cleaners in the UK parliament. In Darwin the LHMU Cleaners Union members will launch a campaign for portability of long service leave for NT contract cleaners with a blitz on major contract sites and petition launch. In Melbourne Victorian school cleaners and their supporters will proudly wear International Cleaners Day stickers at work. Cleaners are coming out as stong union members, celebrating their success in winning a new school cleaning system and more funds to keep schools clean, both due to begin on July 1st. In Perth a delegation led by LHMU Cleaners Union National President Helen Creed will meet with the British Consulate to protest the grossly unfair working conditions of the workers who clean the House of Commons.
Actions to support workers who clean British ParliamentCould globalisation become a tool for workers to win higher living standards? A new, concerted effort by low-wage cleaners, security officers and unions around the world is seeking to turn globalisation on its head.Workers in property services unions across the globe, many of them immigrants in their adopted countries, are coming together on June 15 in new ways to hold multinational corporations accountable to the concerns of working people. There will be actions by property services workers and unions in nearly 30 cities, and nearly a dozen countries on five continents, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia. LONDON -- A Global Call for Justice at the Houses of ParliamentJanitors throughout the world will hold actions to support the mostly immigrant workers who clean the British Parliament's House of Commons in London who barely eke out a living on the wages they're paid.At British consulates and embassies in Australia, the U.S., Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Africa and other countries, janitors will deliver the message -- they're united and standing with the cleaners in London, who will be holding their own demonstration outside the House of Commons.
Security Workers from U.S., South Africa, Indonesia to Attend Employer's Annual Shareholder MeetingGroup 4 Securicor, the world's second-largest security firm, is rapidly expanding its operations but at a cost to communities around the globe.So SATAWU, a union based in South Africa, ASPEK based in Indonesia and SEIU are working together to urge the company to act responsibly. Security officers and union representatives from all three unions will attend Group 4 Securicor's annual shareholder meeting June 30 in London. South African security officers are planning a fact finding mission in August to determine the conditions facing U.S. security officers and U.S. workers will travel to Europe later this year to share their stories with workers, elected officials, and others. In August, unions that belong to the global federation Union Network International (UNI), will meet in Chicago where they'll announce a new plan to create and finance global campaigns to help the employees of multinational corporations organize unions to win better living standards throughout the world.
About International Justice Day - 15 Years of Fighting for JusticeJune 15 has been observed for 15 years in the United States as "Justice for Janitors Day" following a successful strike in 1990 by mainly immigrant cleaners in Century City, a wealthy financial district in Los Angeles.Striking janitors, members of SEIU, were holding a peaceful protest against the multinational janitorial firm that employed them when they were savagely beaten by police. The incident provoked a public outcry in the U.S. and abroad. With the assistance of workers and unions overseas, many of whom worked for the same company as the Los Angeles janitors, the workers won their strike and secured better wages and benefits. Now observed across the globe as "International Justice Day," June 15 marks a day when janitors and other workers who secure, clean, and maintain office buildings demonstrate for justice.
For media commentNSW Sonia Minutillo, Executive Vice President NSW LHMU Cleaners Unions - 02 8204 7204Vic Jess Walsh, Victorian LHMU Cleaners Union - 03 9235 7777 ACT Lyndal Ryan, ACT LHMU Cleaners Union - 02 6273 1238 NT Irene Monro, NT LHMU Cleaners Union - 08 8981 5611 WA Helen Creed, LHMU National President, 0403 572 042
For further information
|
|
Privacy | Disclaimer | Sitemap |Feedback | Links |
|
© 1997-2002 LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW 10th Floor, 377-383 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Ph: (02) 9264 1691 Fax: (02) 9261 3505 http://www.labor.net.au/news/1118714966_6128.html Last Modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 18:35:15 EST
LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed |
    |
