Labor & Employment Law

Don?t Forget Haiti?s Workers

By James Parks

Fire Fighters members of Fairfax County (Va.) Urban Search and Rescue conduct a rescue operation at the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince.

Despite reports of improved conditions in Port-au-Prince, two weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, workers still lack basic shelter, food, water and medicine, reports Cathy Feingold, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Feingold met with union leaders in Haiti last week and says:

…the majority of union leaders and members are sleeping outside their homes because many completely collapsed or became unstable as a result of structural damage. Direct access to international humanitarian aid remains challenging; so many workers and their unions depend on the support received from the global labor movement.

You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here. You can read Feingold’s full report here.

Meanwhile, union support continues to pour into Haiti:

• Some of the 11,000 nurses who responded to the National Nurses United’s call for volunteers to help in Haiti left this week to join the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, which is crewed by members of the Seafarers. You can help send a nurse to Haiti by clicking here.
• Donations to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers Campaign are already being put to use. Delegations from Dominican unions have traveled to Port-au-Prince with truckloads of bottled water, non-perishable food, first aid products, re-hydration liquids and other needed supplies.  Click here and Union Plus will automatically match your contribution to the fund, up to $100,000. You do not need to use a Union Plus credit card for the matching donation.
• Fire Fighters (IAFF) members from Los Angeles, Fairfax County, Va., and other cities are still conducting rescue operations in the rubble.  

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 04, 2010 (boomark / email).