Dear John,
We hope you and your loved ones are healthy and safe as we all collectively navigate and respond to this public health and economic crisis.
Together with our partners and allies around the world, ILRF is calling on governments, employers, and multinational corporations to take all necessary measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 and to protect the rights of all workers. Global brands and retailers have benefited for years from producing in countries with weak regulations and social protections, and now they must uphold their responsibility to workers in their supply chains.
Last week we issued a joint statement ([link removed]) with our allies about the millions of apparel workers losing their jobs across South and Southeast Asia because thousands of garment factories have closed due to both loss of orders and public health precautionary measures. Across sectors, ILRF is urging brands and retailers to provide co-financing and to press their suppliers to provide severance pay to laid off workers. In the United States, we are amplifying the demands of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles. You can find out more about the GWC’s emergency relief fund and other urgent actions and reporting from our allies on our Covid-19 Solidarity Page ([link removed]), which we will continue to update in the weeks ahead.
In seafood and other low wage sectors in Thailand, which have long depended on a majority migrant workforce, migrant workers now face heightened health and economic security risks as they attempt to cross borders or worry about being stranded without access to medical care or even potentially starving to death if they stay in Bangkok: [link removed]. In the United States, undocumented immigrants are especially hard-hit with skyrocketing job loss, no access to unemployment pay, and now even greater health risks in a country where they rarely seek healthcare for fear of deportation.
In Honduras, where ILRF has been supporting the local union, STAS, to organize farmworkers growing melons for the U.S. market, the dominant multinational, Fyffes, is delaying on responding to worker demands, which are made all the more urgent by this public health crisis. STAS has been demanding for years that Fyffes enroll these workers in the national healthcare system and provide them with personal protective equipment. Now they worry how they will fare while continuing to work in the fields without this basic social safety net.
Throughout this pandemic, ILRF will be sharing and compiling resources and action alerts from our partners and allies on this page: [link removed]
If you do not yet donate monthly to ILRF, please consider becoming a sustainer today: [link removed]. At any level, your support is truly critical at this time as we continue to support workers across sectors and continents who are fighting for rights on the job, from health and safety to the right to organize.
In solidarity,
Liana Foxvog
Director of Campaigns
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please consider joining ILRF as a monthly donor to help sustain our ability to stand with labor rights defenders around the world: [link removed]
[link removed]<<emailTrackingId>>&userId=0hPHPxwkqoZwddD0nTdQOxXqjHsz%2BnfZGhpIFtPTsaI%3D
