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As so-called essential workers fight for their rights on the job, they continue to be the most reliable fighters for COVID safety, PPE and a rational response to the pandemic.

New York laundry workers and supporters rally on Nov. 25. (WW Photo: Toni Arenstein)

From healthcare workers in California and Washington State, to nursing home workers in Illinois, to school bus drivers in Ohio, workers are striking, fighting back and organizing while COVID numbers increase exponentially and the White House ignores the crisis.

In New York, the front lines of this fight include the ranks of laundromat workers, 95 percent of whom are women and migrants. Their fierce struggle against workplace racism and exploitation now includes demands for PPE and proper ventilation.

On Nov. 25, the International Day of the Prevention of Violence Against Women, six migrant workers organized by the Laundry Workers Center launched a union drive at the Manhattan laundromat Wash Supply.

Dozens of supporters came out to support the launch of this campaign, including Workers Assembly Against Racism, Street Vendors Project, Food Chain Workers Alliance, City University of New York (CUNY) Internationalist Club and local clergy.

The Workers Assembly Against Racism (WAAR) had pledged at their most recent meeting to support this campaign. Held on Nov. 21, the assembly included reports from workers active in the New York teachers struggle; an activist involved in a strike authorization vote by CUNY teachers; an official with the Transport Workers Union; and a report on the upcoming Nov. 25 action by the Laundry Workers Center.

WAAR was formed in October, in the wake of a righteous call by trade unionists to conduct strikes and work stoppages against racism, with the purpose of expanding that call from the ranks of organized labor about 10 percent of the workforce to the rest of the workforce. Many unorganized workers take part in Black Lives Matter protests. WAAR activists have asked: Why not unite the anti-racist movement with the workers movement?

This focus includes supporting cutting-edge workers struggles. So on Nov. 25, WAAR sent ten of its members, many of whom have participated in the Black Lives Matter protests, to support the launch of the organizing campaign at Wash Supply, a campaign for workers rights as well as a fight against racism and sexism.

The laundromat is located on the upper west side one of the most expensive places to live in New York City, the center of world capitalism.

That wealth does not translate into decent wages for laundry workers. In fact, the workers at Wash Supply, all women, face intensified exploitation. They are paid below minimum wage. They work 60 hours a week with no overtime pay, no paid sick days, and no COVID safety precautions. They work under atrocious health and safety conditions in a tiny basement with no ventilation, no heat in the winter, no emergency exits and no PPE. The workers have even been forced to buy their own toilet paper just to use their workplace bathrooms.

Even taking an hour to eat lunch is a struggle, which is why the workers used their first full lunch hour on Nov. 25 to deliver to their bosses demands for a union, better conditions and better pay.

After a raucous protest that met in a nearby playground and then marched to the front of Wash Supply, the workers, all wearing the same color T-shirts and aprons stencilled with the words WE ARE THE UNION, went into the workplace to deliver their demands to the employers. They were joined by supporters from the rally, who jammed into the tiny basement behind the workers, overflowing onto the small stairway leading down to it.

One by one, the workers approached and confronted their boss to tell them they wouldnt accept humiliation, abuse or exposure to COVID any more. One worker said to her boss, When Im having lunch you come to us and tell us to stop and get back to work. Were sick and tired of this and we dont want to take it any more! The supporters standing behind her and her coworkers cheered.

The turnout made it clear to the bosses that these six workers had community support. The need for this was obvious. The manager held her cell phone up while being confronted by the workers, making it clear she was videoing them. One of the main rally slogans, The community is watching on signs and chanted by the protesters let the bosses know that any retaliation for the workers demanding their rights would be met with swift fightback.

A rally announcement by Laundry Workers Center leaders served to back up that promise. Rosanna Rodriguez announced to the crowd that one of the LWCs other campaigns the Justice for Beatriz Campaign, at the New Giant Launder Center in Queens resulted in victory, with the worker involved recovering stolen wages and returning to her job with better working conditions.

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Migrant workers tell bosses: Were fed up with racism, COVID and exploitation! - Workers World

Any Venezuelan nationals found entering the country illegally will be deported.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made the declaration during an interview on CNC3s The Morning Brew on Tuesday.

Further, those registered under the migrant registration process last year, if found to be assisting other Venezuelan nationals to enter Trinidad and Tobago illegally, will be deregistered and deported.

The Prime Minister noted that even as migrants continue to come to the country illegally, Government will not be holding another registration exercise.

He reiterated the governments stance on the matter.

"We have not taken a decision to register more Venezuelans. What we have also done, and the policy still stands at the time of registration if you were not among those who were registered who were here, who have come in over a period of time, if you were not among them and you turn up in Trinidad and Tobago, we will exercise our right to deport you. But, of course, it is on a case by case basis."

Rowley said Government took a humanitarian approach in having a registration exercise to allow Venezuelan nationals to live and work in T&T for a period of a year but the handling of the situation cant be based on an emotional response.

He said the country is doing what it can as it continues to treat with the migrant crisis.

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PM to illegal migrants: 'We will deport you' - Loop News Trinidad and Tobago

Note: This is the second in a two-part series on the need for a country-level employment policy. Read the first part here.

Pressures on politicians around the problem of jobs are rising. These pressures are visible in employment playing an increasingly pivotal role in state elections. This is not surprising given that youth unemployment (15-29 year olds) had tripled between 2012 and 2018 from 6% to 18%, and graduate unemployment from 19% to 36%.

As larger numbers of youth enter the labour force, and find themselves increasingly jobless, they are finally making themselves heard though only just.

These pressures have, however, not transcended into policy making. Lawmakers dont transmit the political pressures they face from the electorate to policymakers to address unemployment. Policy makers the administrative arm, policy advisers, academics, multinational and local public policy consultants almost seem derisive of any proposal that assures even obliquely, good quality employment to the electorate. So, governments avoid hiring directly on their rolls.

Companies avoid increasing headcount just like the government. Labour-intensive work is outsourced by the private sector and by the government. As a result, jobs that provide some social security, which are essential in government or large companies, are eschewed across the board. Contractual jobs that mostly rob labour of its early opportunities to build up savings in pensions or provident funds are encouraged at all levels. India is the only G20 country with 91% of those who have work (or workforce) dont have any social security.

The current governments response to the demand for jobs has been two-fold. First, it denied the existence of the problem. It actively rubbished all available evidence including its own data that there was a jobs crisis.

Also read: What Should Be an Acceptable Employment Rate for India?

Secondly, Prime Minister Modi and his cabinet colleagues shifted the narrative by saying that we should create job providers and not job seekers. The best interpretation of this is that we need more enterprises who can hire people. But who or what would make those enterprises? The proposed Mudra loans could not and did not create adequate entrepreneurs who could hire others in large numbers. And so the jobs problem remained unresolved.

Despite governments measures (e.g. MUDRA) to promote self-employment, the number of youth engaged as self-employed declined from 81 to 63 million during 2005-12 and further to 49 million during 2012-18. This is despite 95% of MUDRA loans were in the smallest Shishu category.

Simultaneously, an increasing number of lawmakers have been making announcements recently that they cannot provide jobs. This raises an important question if the government cannot create jobs then how can young graduates do that?

The smart twist in the narrative just shifted the goal post to an impossible position. Young graduates were confused if not disillusioned by the new narrative. It did not solve their problem but created a new one how does one become an entrepreneur and provide jobs to others?

If Indian policy makers continue on this path of evasion and avoidance of the problem of employment and if it continues to ignore the rising political pressures faced by politicians, we should expect Indias employment rate to continue to fall.

The fallout of this will be a more intensive rise in political pressures on politicians to provide government jobs or to increase reservations for select groups. Interestingly, these pressures have not become too nasty. India has not witnessed any overt social unrest around jobs. This can possibly be explained by the management of this pressure through transfers of some kind. Several schemes of central and state governments in recent times have increased government transfers to households.

Also read: Jobs Crisis Brought on By COVID-19 Requires a Healthy Dose of Tripartism

When jobs cannot be provided, lawmakers either promise or actually make direct income transfers. If India continues to fail to provide jobs, the pressures to provide direct transfers will rise. But, if the government continues to succumb to income transfers, it could fuel a further fall in Indias woefully low labour participation rate (LFPR, if the cash transfer is significant relative to household income. This would have been case with the Congress manifestos NYAY plan of 2019, which planned to give Rs 6000 per month to 20% of Indias poorest households.

While the worlds LFPR (or the share of working age population looking for work) is about 65%, in India that rate was 43% in 2004-5, 38.6% in 2011-12, and 36.9% in 2017-18, according to the National Sample Survey. This is driven by womens falling LFPR. The path that Indian law makers and policy makers seem to be taking in doggedly avoiding the path of increasing good jobs is dangerous.

It is imperative that politicians and policy makers acknowledge the rising political tide of demand for jobs. This tide is for real.

India does not have to wait till this tide translates into social unrest. It is therefore important for lawmakers to increase the pressure they apply on policy makers to find solutions to the problem of jobs.

We have seen the political masters in UPA apply pressure on the government to bring in legislation in the form of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Act which has been a saviour in the recent pandemic induced lockdown and the migrant crisis. Similar pressure is necessary at all levels of government from the Central government to gram panchayats to ensure that India reverts to its growth path with equity, where the employment rate plays an important role in the expected deliverables.

Here is a point worth considering. Every investment proposal has (or should have) an employment impact associated with it. Make this employment creation as a mandatory requirement. If a project fails to deliver the promised employment then the project should be classified as a non-performing asset.

Santosh Mehrotra is editor, Reviving Jobs:An Agenda for Growth (Penguin, 2020). Mahesh Vyas is CMD, Centre for Monitoring of the Indian Economy.

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How Can Employment Be Put at the Centre of the Indian Policymakers Agenda? - The Wire

The Modi government has proposed thatemployers will have to pay for migrant workers trip to home, which can be a train (not below Second Class Sleeper), bus or other modes of transport, once a year.

As per the new draft of labour lawspublished by the Union Labour Ministry, the employers can pay a lump sum amount every year to inter-state migrant workers to travel back home. To avail should have worked for that particular establishment for at least six months in the preceding year.

Along with this, the draft also states that the ministry will establish a toll-free helpline number.

With respect to contract labourers, the draft proposesthat a contractor shall fix the wage periods which will not exceed one month. Contractors are bound to pay wages before the end of the seventh day after the day of the wage period. It has to be paid through bank transfer or electronic mode only.

The draft also mandates that companies will have to conduct annual free health check-ups for every worker above the age of 45 years. It also states that a single electronic registration for licensing will be set up by the company.

The barrage of changes was made in light of the migrant crisis which saw lakhs of labourers struggling to get back to their home states during the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The government faced criticism from all fronts after it was not able to provide data on how many migrants died or lost their source of income during the exodus where workers were forced to leave factories, business on foot in the absence of food, shelter and income.

The draft rules come under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Act, 2020, which deals with the safety, health and working conditions of construction workers, miners, inter-states migrant workers, audio-visual workers, journalists, salespersons, contract labourers and workers at the dock.

The ministry has sought objections and suggestions from the public on the draft proposals within 45 days.

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Employers may soon have to pay for migrant worker's trip back home once a year - Deccan Herald

Date Published: 19/11/2020

This year has seen a spectacular increase in the number of irregular migrants attempting to reach EU territory via the Canary Islands by making perilous Atlantic voyages from western Africa, and the migratory crisis has reached boiling point in the islands this week as the latest wave of small boats arriving has led to there simply not being enough room to hold the migrants.

By the end of October at least 400 migrants were known to have died while attempting to sail to the Canaries, but this week attention in the Spanish media has shifted to the problems caused by the numbers of people making the crossing successfully. By 15th November the number of unauthorized arrivals in the islands this year had reached 16,760, eleven times more than in the equivalent period last year and considerably higher than the total for the other Mediterranean coastlines of Spain.

During the first fortnight of this month migrants had been arriving at an average rate of 356 per day, and the total for the month between 15th October and 15th November was more than for the whole of the first nine and a half months of the year. As a result of this influx of unauthorized migrants, and with the figures rising still higher over the weekend, it appears that the overstretched detention centres facilities reached breaking point at the Red Cross temporary detention facility on the quay of Arguinegun in Gran Canaria, which was designed to hold just over 400 people.

In recent weeks Arguinegun has been acting as a temporary home to over 2,000 irregular economic migrants, many of them young men looking for work, crammed into a tiny area with basic food, inadequate sanitation and barely enough room to stretch their legs. Local residents were aware of the seriousness of the situation as the number of people on the quay exceeded the official population, but it did not become clear to the rest of Spain until the police, in what has now been described as an error by the Ministry of the Interior, released 227 migrants without alternative accommodation having been provided, effectively leaving them free to roam the streets. The officers concerned reasoned that the permitted 72 hours for detaining people without a charge being issued had elapsed and that the crowded conditions constituted a health hazard.

The local town hall of Mogn was horrified and put out a statement saying that the National Police had opened the port entrances to let them loose in the streets of the town without any kind of vigilance or anywhere to go. The Mayoress of Mogn, Onalia Bueno, chartered three buses to the Plaza de la Feria, an area close to the Government Delegation itself, various voluntary organisations and the Consulate of Morocco. She also supplied a translator so that the migrants understood what was happening.

"We had to address the situation because we cannot have all these people wandering around the municipality or Gran Canaria without means," said the Mayoress: "These people have the right to decent accommodation," she said.

Space was hurriedly found for 139 of those who were evicted from Arguinegun at a tourist bungalow complex a few kilometres away in Maspalomas, but owners of the apartments and tourism representatives are voicing their concern about the situation: other tourist accommodation has already been called into use for the same purpose, and the owners are keen to keep rooms free as they hope to salvage something from the winter tourist season, although they are also concerned about the humanitarian implications of the situation.

ngel Vctor Torres, the president of the regional government, has denied any knowledge of who gave the order to allow the migrants to leave Arguinegun and requested that at least some of the burden be lightened by the transport of migrants to other regions of Spain, but those who wanted to sail to Huelva on the Spanish mainland have been denied permission to travel due to their having no official paperwork: again a rapid solution was found for their predicament as the Red Cross relocated them to a hotel in southern Tenerife, as they are permitted to travel from island to island.

However, the migrants are unable to leave the islands through their own means as the ferry companies have all said that they will not take anyone across to mainland Spain who does not have a valid passport. Tonight at least 20 migrants ( mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are economic migrants, not refugees) are sleeping rough by the ferry port and refusing to move elsewhere, protesting that they want to go to Spain, even though they have no legal right to do so.

Further difficulties are caused by the fact that no other region is keen on taking the migrants in, and the Canaries Government has appealed for other areas of Spain to help them relocate the migrants.

In this context, and looking further ahead, Sr Torres has called for the EU to define the migratory model which it hopes to achieve in the long term, while in the meantime he demands stricter measures to deal with what has developed this year from a problem into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Among the steps he hopes for are greater vigilance on the part of coastguards and other authorities, support for the countries of origin of the migrants and the provision of more adequate facilities for those who do succeed in reaching the Canaries, as well as more help in transferring the migrants from the islands.

The regional president expressed optimism that immediate action can be decided upon this Friday, when the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, travels to Morocco for a meeting with his counterpart in the north African country.

Sr Torres also points out the Canaries already provide a home for over 2,000 minors who have travelled to the islands unaccompanied by an adult, and that the deportation process for other migrants has been made more complicated by the Covid pandemic. But at the root of his calls for urgent action is the remote, and economically fragile nature of the Canaries, which means that it is just not possible to take in so many people and home them.

This attitude came to the fore on Tuesday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, when most of the migrants who had been released were removed from Arguinegun to the Plaza de La Feria in the island capital: while it is true that a few people insulted them in the streets, far more showed their support and concern by offering them food and water.

Although this gesture shows the genuine sympathy felt by the townspeople for the situation in which the migrants find themselves (recently there have been at least two protests in the town of Mogn against the conditions in which the migrants are living) , but the feeling in the Canaries is that is should not be necessary and that the warnings which have been repeated throughout 2020 by the regional government and groups such as Human Rights Watch have been largely ignored. Since March the Red Cross and other organizations have not only been offering first aid and sustenance to the growing numbers of migrants but have also been ensuring that they are tested for Covid-19, and there have been numerous reports of new arrivals spending up to 24 hours sitting on the quay at Arguinegun before receiving any kind of attention due to the resources available being totally overwhelmed.

Over 70 people currently in the docks in the care of the Cruz Roja are reported to be observing quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

The majority of the recent wave of irregular migrants are coming from Algeria and Morocco, and are young men in search of work, so are referred to by the EU as irregular immigrants and are economic migrants, not refugees.

Neither country is an EU member, so although nationals from both countries may legally enter Spain with a valid passport, they are not permitted to cross the border without valid documentation.

As Spain is an EU member, it has to follow EU guidelines on migration and cannot "send the migrants back" without going through a repatriation process which has been impossible to implement due to the covid situation.

In the last few months, most of the migrants who have reached the Spanish mainland have simply been released to continue their journey, which takes some of them into France or Belgium, whilst others join the throngs of migrants attempting to reach the UK. These "sin papeles" are not allowed to work legally in Spain, a situation which opens many up to exploitation as they are forced to work "under the radar illegally" if they stay in Spain.

The Spanish government cannot legalise these irregular migrants and enable them to work without encouraging potentially hundreds of thousands more people looking for a better life who would themselves attempt to get into Spain due to the current economic situation in Morocco and Algeria.

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Migrant Crisis In The Canary Islands As Detention Facilities Spill Over - Murcia Today