Tidbits - June 4, 2020 - Reader Comments: George Floyd's final words; Protests for George; against police brutality, against massive militarized police, against systemic racism and white supremacy; against Trump; nature of police unions; more...

Portside
Reader Comments: George Floyd's final words; Protests for George; against police brutality, against massive militarized police, against systemic racism and white supremacy; against Trump; nature of police unions; mail-in voting; labor solidarity;

COVID-Related Strikes Hit Washington’s Apple Sheds

David Bacon Capital & Main
This week the COVID-related strike in Washington state’s Yakima Valley quadrupled in size, as workers walked out at three more apple packinghouses with two main demands for safer working conditions and an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay.

food

Farm-To-Table May Feel Virtuous, But It's Food Labor That's Ripe For Change

Andrea Reusing NPR
Farm-to-table's sincere glow distracts from how the production and processing of even the most pristine ingredients — from field or dock or slaughterhouse to restaurant or school cafeteria — is nearly always configured to rely on cheap labor. Work very often performed by people who are themselves poor and hungry.

labor

We Can Resist Trump’s Immigration Orders

Duane Campbell Democratic Left
Immigrant rights activists have developed a strategy to defeat deportations. Those arrested are encouraged to refuse to sign the “voluntary departure," and insist upon having legal counsel. All persons inside the U.S. have a right to counsel (not only citizens). If some 20%- 30% of those arrested begin to refuse to sign, the jails will fill within days – even the private prisons. If those arrested insist on legal counsel, the courts will be overloaded.

Filipino Americans and the Farm Labor Movement

Angelo Lopez angelolopez.wordpress.com
The movie, Cesar Chavez, documents his life and his role in the 1965 Delano Grape Strike. An aspect of the film is the largely forgotten contributions of Filipino Americans to the farm labor movement. Since the 1920s, when Filipinos first learned to organize into unions in Hawaii, Filipinos were important leaders in organizing farmworkers to fight against unfair working conditions.

Larry Itliong - Forgotten Filipino Labor Leader Initiated 60's Grape Strike

Patricia Leigh Brown New York Times
In 1965, the year his father and 1,000 field laborers - the first wave of Filipinos to the United States, known as manongs - began the grape strike that set the stage for the boycott that would lead Cesar Chavez and thousands of farmworker families to create the nation's pioneering agricultural labor union, the United Farm Workers...On Sept. 8, 1965, Filipino farm workers organized by Mr.Itliong crowded into the Filipino Community Hall, where Filipino elders still gather
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