Local rally to mark International Workers’ Day, calls for increase in minimum wage and for workers’ rights

May Day Organizing Committee
Press Release

28 April 2008

VANCOUVER, B.C. – An alliance of local progressive groups will rally for workers rights and against the flexibilization of labour this Thursday, May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day. The rally will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Clark Park (Commercial Drive and East 14th Ave.) and march to Grandview Park (Commercial Drive and Charles St.) in Vancouver.

“Conditions for workers in B.C. are worsening,” says Monica Urrutia, spokesperson for the May Day Organizing Committee.  “Workers face rising costs of housing, childcare, public transportation and other basic needs without a raise in wages. The hardest hit by these government policies and by the push towards flexible labour are immigrant, migrant and undocumented workers, women and young workers,” she said. Urrutia cited that the minimum wage hasn’t changed for seven years, when the government introduced a “training wage” of $6 per hour for first time employees and $8 per hour for all other workers.

“All farm workers in the province are excluded from sections 4 and 5 of the Employment Standards’ Act; this makes migrant farm workers who come under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers’ Program from countries like Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean especially vulnerable,” says Erika Del Carmen Fuchs, an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers, a member of the May Day Organizing Committee. “This results in inadequate protection and poor working conditions for farm workers, with their contributions to the Canadian economy going unrecognized,” she said.

“We are calling for solidarity amongst all workers, whether they be Canadian citizens, migrant, immigrant or undocumented workers,” says Glecy Duran, Chairperson of SIKLAB-BC (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers). “We are calling on Canadians to support the struggle of Filipino live-in caregivers and of all workers for their genuine labour and human rights, equality and justice,” she said. Since the early 1980’s, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada to work as live-in caregivers in the homes of the wealthy under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

Organizers of the rally expect to gather a few hundred protesters in the annual event.

Members of the May Day Organizing Committee include: Alliance of People’s Health, B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Bus Riders Union, Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), Filipino Nurses Support Group, Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Vancouver/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada, FMLN, Grassroots Women, IWW Vancouver, Justicia for Migrant Workers-BC, People’s Front, Philippine Women Centre of B.C., Public Service Alliance Canada-Vancouver & District Area Council and SIKLAB-B.C. (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers)

The rally is also endorsed by:   Investing in Health Forum, B.C and La Surda Latin American Collective.

-         30 –
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Hetty or Albert at: 604-215-1905 or e-mail: ilps_canada@shawcable.com