> >PWW Articles for New York State > > > New York State Communist Party > >Capitalism Literally Crushes Workers to Death >Protesting Sweatshop Workfare >By Roy Rydell > >110th Street and Broadway in New York City and Juneau, Alaska might seem to be >thousands of miles apart. However, your life is in danger if you work for a >living >under non-union conditions, are an immigrant worker, or both. The two >industrial >accidents described below occurred only one day apart. > >Raymundo Juarez Cruz, an immigrant worker, was found dead in the early hours >of the >morning on July 28th, in the basement of the Westside Supermarket on Broadway >and 110 >Street. He had been crushed to death while loading boxes into the stores >cardboard box >compactor. A police sergeant said that it appeared that someone overrode a >safety >switch on the compactor. > >Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers has been conducting an >organizing >drive at the store for the last three months. A union representative said that >in >stores where the union represents workers, the compactors are clearly labeled >with >directions. Every one needs proper training and supervision before attempting >to use >these machines. The dead worker is reported to have worked from 8:00 PM until >7:00 AM. >He shared an apartment with his father and several other young men. > >Thousands of miles away, the cruise ship Norwegian Sky, operated by the >Norwegian >Cruise Line was approaching Haines, a little north of Juneau, as part of an >Alaskan >cruise. There were 2,000 passengers and a crew of 750 aboard the luxury liner. > >Early on the morning of July 26, Jai Ming Dai, 49, of Shanghai, China was >crushed to >death by a hydraulic water tight door. The accident is reported to have >occurred in a >work area that is closed to passengers. The crew uses the large hydraulic >watertight >doors to seal off sections of the ship in case of fire or flooding. These >doors are >designed to close slowly to prevent people from being caught in them. The U.S. >Coast >Guard was reportedly checking to make sure that all the alarms and safety >mechanisms >that are associated with the door are operating properly. > >The International Transport Federation has been carrying on a campaign to >organize the >seamen of the cruise ship industry and one of the main organizing points has >been the >lack of safety for the crew. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard requires weekly >fire >and boat drills that include opening and closing the watertight doors. The >Flag of >Convenience ships in the Alaska Cruise Industry are only under U.S. Coast Guard >inspection while in U.S. waters and with the very rapid turn around in and out >of port >that inspection can be lax. The Seafarers Bulletin #14, published by the ITF, >charges >that below decks on virtually every cruise ship is a hidden world of long >hours, low >pay, insecurity, and exploitation. > >Therefore, the Chinese seaman on the Princess Sky, and the Mexican worker on >110th >Street, both died horrible deaths, crushed to death by a high-pressure >economic system >(capitalism) that has no regard for worker safety. > > > >Top of Page��Bottom of Page > > > >Protesting Sweatshop Workfare > >NEW YORK - "Hey, hey, ho, ho. Sweatshop workfare's got to go!" yelled several >dozen >Work Experience Program (WEP) workers and members of Community Voices Heard >(CVH) as >they circled the entrance to New York City government offices on June 27. >Declaring >that New York City's workfare program was the nation's largest sweatshop, >workfare >recipients joined with AFSCME DC 37 to release a study that proves the New >York City >workfare program is using WEP workers to displace entry level union workers. >They >charged that the Giuliani administration is breaking New York State's Social >Service >Law and the Federal Welfare Law. > >CVH is an organization of the working poor fighting for real welfare reform and >living-wage jobs. Last year the organization released a study showing that >only 5 >percent of WEP workers found permanent employment after five months in the WEP >program. "Workers are displacing union jobs - it's a sweatshop," declared >Stephen >Bradley, a CVH member. "Where is all the money saved by the WEP workers going? >It's >going to the rich and corporations through tax cuts." > >On average, a single adult who works 22 hours per week receives no more than >$5,724 >per year in benefits, including food stamps. WEP workers cost the city only >$1.80 per >hour ($72 per 40-hour week, which is approximately $3,600 per year with unpaid >time >off). The city pays a unionized city custodial assistant $10.20 per hour >($20,353 per >year), a clerical aide $9.38 per hour ($18,757 per year), and a city park >worker >$11.01 per hour ($22,011 per year). > >CVH interviewed Of the 604 WEP workers that CVH interviewed during its the >study, 86 >percent responded that they are doing the same work as city workers at their >work >sites, including 35 of 36 union tasks in entry level job descriptions. For >example, in >the parks department, nearly 25 percent of WEP workers report mowing or edging >lawns, >14 percent check equipment safety, 12 percent lay sod and trim hedges, and 11.5 >percent do minor repairs. WEP parks worker Armando De Jesus said, "WEP workers >are >doing critical work. We are doing park safety training and supervising other >WEP >workers." > >This pattern is repeated with WEP workers assigned to perform janitorial and >maintenance work in the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, those >assigned >to various departments doing clerical and office work, and transit WEP workers. >According to Lynn Kaptilovich, a WEP worker who has worked in the Parks >Department and >the Mayor's Action Center, "If you call a city agency, 80 percent of the time >you are >talking to a workfare worker." > >The study was released the day after a coalition of 35 social service groups in >Washington Heights charged that a huge number of families have had their >welfare >benefits wrongfully canceled or reduced. This is additional proof that the >Giuliani >administration has been systematically denying benefits by throwing people off >the >rolls in a process called "churning." The number of New Yorkers receiving >welfare has >been cut in half since 1995. > >The study showed that of the 174 families who reported having problems with >their >welfare benefits, 93 percent either were wrongly denied benefits when they >applied or >lost their benefits wrongly. Most lost their housing subsidies and were >threatened >with evictions. However, after advocates intervened, benefits were restored in >all but >two cases. Ironically, many of those who did the administrative work that >ended in the >denial of benefits were themselves WEP workers. > >Debbie Bell, an assistant to AFSCME DC 37 Administrator Lee Saunders, noted >that the >union has several lawsuits pending against the Giuliani Administration on this >matter >and called for defending public sector union jobs. "They have been displacing >union >workers for years. It is absolutely critical that we convert these jobs into >full >paying dignity creating union jobs." Verdin Rosemin, a clerical WEP worker in a >nursing home, said people should at least get a living wage. Speaking on >behalf of CVH >he called for the dismantling of WEP and converting the jobs to full paid >union jobs. > >Everyone present demanded immediate implementation of the Transitional >Employment >Program, that would employ 10,000 people over five years at $7.50 per hour. The >measure was passed by the City Council, and widely supported by a coalition of >over >100 community organizations, unions, and social service agencies, but ignored >by Mayor >Giuliani. _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi _______________________________________________________ Kominform list for general information. Subscribe/unsubscribe messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Anti-Imperialism list for anti-imperialist news. 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