Three dozen demonstrators rallied for immigrant workers' rights in memory of fallen construction worker Facundo Gonzalez, who died January 5 in Southampton Village at a job site. The video capture shows Suffolk County legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher addressing the demonstrators.
Vigil & Rally
To Protest the Death of Facundo Gonzalez
Sunday, February 8
1:PM
232 North Sea Road, Southampton
Facundo Gonzalez, killed on January 5 at a Southampton construction site, was the third worker killed on LI in several months. He is the second Long Island immigrant worker killed at work in two months.
Nationally, unsafe conditions or negligence kills 1,000 immigrant workers on the job each year. Over 5,800 U.S. workers die on the job yearly. Hundreds of thousands more are sickened or seriously injured.
Join Us To:
Remember Facundo Gonzalez and other workers who are killed, injured or made sick on the job.
Raise public awareness about this often hidden side of the sacrifices made by immigrant workers on Long Island.
For more information: 516-565-5377 or 631-435-1857.
Sponsored by: The Long Island Immigrant Alliance, The Immigrant Worker Occupational Health and Safety Committee of the Workplace Project, NYCOSH ( New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health), East Hampton Anti-Bias Task Force, Organizacion Latino Americano of Eastern Long Island, Jobs With Justice, and the Southampton Anti-Bias Task Force.
Martin Danenberg attended Dowling College's Presidential Candidates Impact On The Economy Forum, featuring presidential surrogates Phil Boyle (John McCain) and Jon Cooper (Barack Obama). Click here for his write-up.In my opinion, Legislator John Cooper stole the show by teaching the audience that as a small businessman he has never laid off a worker in over four decades. He also pointed out that his company experienced tough times, like many companies, and he provided good salaries and incentives, keeping workers on the job and loyal to his company.El Profesor adds that while raising the minimum wage is important--something that John McCain has systemically opposed--more is needed to ensure American workers have well-paying and sustainable jobs. He's right -- and it's a view shared by Cooper and Obama.
We complain about the flight of jobs overseas and the candidates talked about keeping jobs in the United States, jobs that pay well. Soon the minimum wage is going to be raised and this will add to the average salary of people in this country, but it has very little or nothing to do with keeping good jobs and creating good jobs for Americans.I agree with El Profesor, we need a well thought out strategy for U.S. and hemispheric prosperity, something that the Bush administration and McCain are clueless about. Their policies have resulted in millions of jobs -- albeit, low wage jobs in places like communist China, India and Korea. Thankfully, Obama has the interest, commitment and intelligence to craft such a plan. Click here for Obama's economic prosperity plan.
We really have to see what the master plan of the winner does about good job flight overseas. John Cooper pointed out that he could easily have shipped the jobs in his company to China, but he refused to do that.El Profesor hits on the issue of undocumented workers and offers the only honest solution available.
I have explored the outsourcing issue from my own point of view and I know that paying workers in Latin America, for example, good salaries for work will keep many or most of them from becoming undocumented workers in the United States.Of course, such a smart, market economics-based solution requires a shift in U.S. Latin American policy away from coddling oligarchs and war lords, and towards investments in human development, fair trade and democratic institutions.
Are you bilingual and live in the New York area? Do you speak English and Spanish or Portuguese? Looking for a career opportunity?
According to a new report by the Pew Research Center, the unemployment rate for Latinos in the U.S. rose to 6.5% in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7% rate for all non-Latinos.
Long Island is home to the East Coast’s largest--and the nation's #2--industrial park, the Hauppauge Industrial Park. The park has over 1,300 companies, and employs over 55,000 Long Islanders. (Source: BusinessFacilities.com)
