We are migrants from Burma working in Thailand. We build houses and then we clean them, we make garments in the factories but are not allowed to know for which brand, we catch the delicious seafood you eat but we cannot afford, we tap the rubber trees in the dead of night (we hope that at that time you are using one of the products made from our rubber…condoms!). You could say that we do much of the hard labour that is needed to keep a country like Thailand running so efficiently.
Produced by Siraj Sahajhan in Dakka, this feature looks at how unscrupulous recruitment agents have cheated young Bangladeshi men and women, even ripping off their life-savings in return for a promised job overseas which never materialized. It also includes interviews with Bangladeshi labour ministry officials and NGOs on why nothing seems to have been done in Bangladesh to stop this practice.
Many workers have to pay hefty fees upfront to go overseas to work. This programme canvasses the views of migrant labourers in Singapore from the Philippines and Bangladesh about their experience with recruitment agents who demand payments above what the local law allows.
This is a production of Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Singapore. Produced by Dr Kalinga Seneviratne in collaboration with December 18.
Ever wondered how a great portion of the local Canadian produce you eat is grown, picked and packaged? About who plants and harvests many of the trees and decorative plants we buy? Learn more about what often goes on behind the scenes of food and plant production and begin to see things from the perspective of the non-citizen migrant agricultural worker. Everyday throughout the growing and harvest seasons, non-citizen people put in day-long exhausting labour so that Canadians can eat at convenience and inexpensively.
Shakoya Patterson visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Modern Day Slavery Museum when it came to Philadelphia earlier this month. She interviewed farmworkers who are members of the Coalition of Immokalee (CIW), who spoke about the recent cases of farmworker slavery that have surfaced in Florida and elsewhere. CIW members also spoke about the everyday conditions that farmworkers face, and explained how the CIW is organizing to end all forms of worker mistreatment.
It’s been decades since the U.S. has had a powerful labor movement and recent efforts to revive it have mostly fallen flat. But there is hope for a new U.S. labor movement. It’s a vision that goes beyond the unions. Panelists discussed the future of labor in the U.S. at the 2010 Left Forum in New York City. Saket Soni, Director with the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice talks about some successes he's had with uniting organized labour and the immigrant workforce on the Gulf Coast.
The long strike of the cleaners ended after 9 weeks on the 22nd of April with an agreement (CAO). The most diverse strike in Dutch history brings together people from all parts of the world. The cleaners are now 8 weeks on strike and moving in their buses all over the land to push both employers and their contractors to put an end to the degrading working conditions and sub-standard salaries of the cleaners. We are family and we want respect now!
Radio 1812 is an initiative launched by December 18 in 2006. It is a global event that brings together migrant groups and radios from around the world to produce, broadcast and share programmes celebrating the achievements and highlighting the concerns of migrants worldwide. Click here to download the progress report.
The November issue of Odysseia focuses on the rights of migrant domestic workers and the campaign for the ratification of ILO Convention 189. Click here to listen to it.
The pilot edition of our audio magazine is still available. It focuses on the routes migrants take and the difficulties and challenges they face when moving from one country to another.
