Women's Rights in the Workplace

Salvadoran Women working in a factory

On March 30th, the International Labor Organization presented their report on Legislation Regarding Women's Work Rights in Central America and the Dominican Republic. The report revealed that the most common types of labor violations in the workplace for women are in regards to maternity and sexual harrasment.

International Labor Organization Representative, Maria Jose Chamorro, presented the report to the audience. Some interesting facts about El Salvador labor laws:

• El Salvador ratified the International Agreement on Work Dicrimination in 1995, and the International Agreement on Equal Pay in 2000, while the rest of the Central American countries had ratified those agreements in the 1950's and 1960's.
• Article 3 of the Salvadoran constitution states that "All persons are equal under the law. To have access to civil rights there could be no restrictions based on nationality, race, sex or religion."
• Both the Convention for the Elimination of All forms of Violance Against Women and the Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Sanction and Erradicate Violance Against Women have been ratified by the Salvadoran government.

Workers' Party begins process of becoming official political party

Yesterday, Diario CoLatino reported that members of the new Partido de los Trabajadores (Workers' Party) picked up 50,000 ballots from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) for citizens to sign in order for the new party to be registered as an official political party. If the Workers' Party, which was founded in 2002, is able to collect 50,000 signatures, the party will be able to participate in the next election. The party members stated that all wage earners can join their party. including those who work in the informal sector of the economy.

According to the Secretary of the Workers' Party, Abel Quijano (pictured above at the TSE), the new party will represent the "true interests of the working class, which are not currently being represented anywhere else." This statement may surprise some people in El Salvador, where the FMLN, the party farthest to the left, recently celebrated their first presidential victory. However, Pedro Zaldívar, another leader of the Workers' Party, indicated the party's interest in working with the FMLN. "I am a leftist, we are from the left, the FMLN defines itself as part of the left so hopefully we can work together."

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Immigrant Roots - Immigrant Rights!

Below are a few pictures from NCIC's May Day rally for immigrants' rights. To see more pictures from the march, click here.


*Photos taken by Jake Cunningham.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

"The people who love their freedom will one day achieve it." - Simón Bolívar

Below are photos taken during the 2009 May Day march in San Salvador last Friday:


To see a slideshow of photos from the march, click here.

*Photos from El Faro.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Put aside the may pole - march for immigrants' rights!

As I prepare to participate in tomorrow's May Day March for Immigrant Rights, I try to recall memories of May Day celebrations during my childhood. I remember a class project on the May Pole and extra recess time, but I cannot recall any memory of a lesson, unit, or class speaker that touched on the history of May Day. It was not until I was eighteen years-old that I learned about the true importance of May Day. In my history classes in college, I learned about the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when a bomb was thrown in a rally to demand the eight-hour work day and police fired into the crowd. Eight anarchist activists were tried for murder and four were executed with little evidence and a biased jury. As a result, workers and labor unions around the world took to celebrating what became known as International Workers' Day with parades, marches, and civil disobedience. For many countries, May Day is a holiday from work. However, the U.S. Government has refused to join the global festivities around May Day. For example, in 1884, Congress passed an act making the first Monday of every September Labor Day in an effort to disassociate labor activism from the radical left. Moreover, in 1957 then President Dwight Eisenhower co-opted May Day and renamed it "Law Day" to celebrate the importance of the rule of law in society. Learning about May Day made me put aside the May Pole and join my brothers and sisters around the world to mobilize for justice....

To read the rest of the article, click here.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

Stop the raids and deportations!

Join the SHARE Foundation on Friday, May 1st, in Washington, DC to march for immigrant justice. This is a critical time for all those who support the immigrant community to mobilize and demand that President Barack Obama make good on his promise to put forward immigration reform legislation in 2009.

Our demands:

• Stop the raids and deportations
• Just and humane immigration reform
• End the 287(g) Agreements (no local enforcement of unjust immigration laws)

To join the march, meet at Malcolm X Park at 3PM (click here for directions) and at 4PM we will march to the White House.

This mobilization is sponsored by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC). To endorse this action, contact David Thurston at dthurston@casamd.org.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator