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At the outset of the now-ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, over a dozen chapters, branches, and affiliate organizations of ACORN International issued a global call for the social protection of low-income families and individuals.
The Voter Purge Project Identifies Major Issues, Key Trends in Battleground States
Produced by ACORN Foundation India September 2022
Hanumanti Ramchandra Chalwadi has worked in the waste recycling sector in Dharavi, Mumbai, for over 40 years. She started out as a waste collector and separated recyclables from the city’s garbage. Later, she set up and ran her own waste sorting business for many years, which has a cumulative worth of Rs. 1 crore (0.12 million USD). A single mother, she raised her children on her own, and in this short documentary, she talks about her life and the challenges of being a woman waste entrepreneur.
Grenoble approves wearing the burkini in public swimming pools
En la zona de los Laures Choloma Cortes Las imagenes se refieren a la zona de los Laureles en Choloma.. donde Ellos tienen una salida de agua natural que consumen para todo uso…Que deberia estar protegida con arboles para conservarla se esta haciendo estudios de poblacion para poder extender y llevar tuberias hasta sus casas pero aun no se ha hecho. Esta zona tiene un aproximado de 43 kilometros para un pulmon de aire natural en la que pueden sembrar aguacates, naranjas, limones, guayabas, lichas, etc., y puede la comunidad crear un pequeño comercio de esos frutos. Y en la zona del pozo de agua unos 15 kilometros aproximadamente.
The images refer to the area of Los Laureles in Choloma where there is a natural water outlet that they consume for all uses…which should be protected with trees to conserve it, population studies are being carried out to be able to extend and bring pipes to their houses but it has not yet been done. This zone has approximately 43 kilometers for a lung of natural air in which they can plant avocados, oranges, lemons, guavas, lychas, etc., and the community can create a small trade in these fruits. And in the area of the water well about 15 kilometers approximately.
In Leeds, ACORN welcomed the newest local group, with the launch of ACORN Armley local group.
Also in Leeds, there were many trainings, stalls, and door knocking sessions through April 2022. Additionally, members spoke at a Social Housing Action Campaign rally, Communication Workers Union conference, and National Education Union conference.
Faced with the lack of protective equipment, agricultural workers go on strike again
On April 8, 2022, 300 SOSUCAM planters dropped their tools and stopped work at the Mbandjock plantation to claim PPE. Two days later, 700 workers from the Nkoteng plantation went on strike. Management immediately gives in to their demands under pressure.
In the end, around 1,200 planters received gloves, coats, boots and leggings!
The New York Times
April 18, 2022
The Female Soccer Players Challenging France’s Hijab Ban By Constant Méheut
Photographs by Monique Jaques
The announcement of temporary 3.8% rent cap and eviction protections for New Brunswick tenants is a result of relentless campaigning by NB ACORN and our allies to end the NB Housing Crisis.
Through organizing tenant power and taking action, NB ACORN has succeeded in forcing the Conservative government to provide a break for tenants from massive rent hikes and a constant fear of losing their home.
Due to ACORN’s efforts, New Brunswick tenants will not receive massive rent increases they cannot afford for at least a year. The new eviction protections mean that it will be far less common for tenants to be forced from their homes for no reason other than the landlord wants them out.
While the rent cap is temporary, and the eviction protections do not appear to be as strong as they should be, both are certainly better than having no protections at all.
Moving forward ACORN will do what it always has done: continue to build tenant power and fight for tenant law reform in NB. Tenants need affordable and healthy housing. Tenants need to be secure in their housing. ACORN will not stop organizing tenant power and fighting for housing justice until we achieve those goals.
FARM WORKERS BLOCK WORK IN PLANTATIONS AND FACTORIES FOR TWO WEEKS TO PROTEST AGAINST UNWORTHY WORKING CONDITIONS
On February 23, 2022, nearly 2,000 agricultural laborers (cutters) from the Société sucrière du Cameroun (SOSUCAM) went on strike in Nkoteng to protest against the deterioration of their already precarious working conditions. The police and gendarmerie forces immediately came to disperse the crowd, using tear gas canisters. Shots were also fired and two workers were injured, in the forearm and in the thigh. After three days on strike, the agricultural laborers at the Mbandjock plantation joined the strike in the face of management’s refusal to dialogue, paralyzing work in all the plantations and factories. From 26 February to 8 March, nearly 8,000 people were suspended from work by the strike.[1]
The strike was triggered by requests for explanations issued the day before to 180 workers by their supervisors. These workers had used their right to refuse a task, deemed too difficult. The sanction imposed, while the supervisor is supposed to adjust the tasks to the density of canes to cut, was the last straw. Indeed, the conditions of agricultural laborers are much less advantageous than those of permanent workers (lower salary scale, lower premiums, no health coverage, etc.), and their status is very precarious (seasonal contracts), even though the work is technical and physical. An investigation report, attesting to the difficult conditions of workers at Sosucam, a subsidiary of the French group Castel, has just been published. [2]
Despite a large-scale strike, management did not respond to the workers’ demands: on 24 February, a press release from Sosucam announced discussions with staff representatives and stated that measures would be taken, without specifying their content, and urged the workers to return to work. The workers remained united and the strike gained momentum. New promises were made by management representatives in the following days, but the general manager remained silent and absent. The strikers refused to return to work. They demanded in particular: a significant salary increase (with a base salary of 250,000 CFA francs – €380), step increases with seniority, an increase in the performance bonus, and a reduction in task objectives.
On 1 March, Sosucam management issued a press release announcing resolutions taken in consultation with union representatives (CSAC, CSTC, USLC, CSIC, CTUC). However, no representatives of the seasonal workers, who represent nearly 90% of the workers, and 100% of the agricultural laborers, are present. The strikers, meeting every day in assemblies gathering several hundred workers, demanded a public meeting with the General Manager. He agreed and finally met with the strikers at the municipal stadium on March 3 but declared that “on issues related to wage increases and the harmonization of performance bonuses, [he] could not take a decision. The strikers refuse. “What really matters is fixed pay. The cutting bonuses, for example, are issued arbitrarily by the supervisors, we get between 1000 and 3000f for that only at the end of the month”, testifies one of the leaders of the strike. So The strike has been renewed.
On March 6, a new official statement from management was issued, announcing in particular:
Despite measures deemed insufficient by striking workers, under pressure from traditional chiefs called upon by management, and with police and gendarmerie commando teams patrolling alongside Sosucam agents with megaphones in the neighborhoods, workers gradually returned to work on March 7 and 8. On March 9, the company was operating normally again.
The mobilization and tenacity of the agricultural laborers made it possible to obtain concrete progress, but they decided to organize themselves solidly in order to significantly improve their working conditions, and that their demands could be carried by legitimate and democratically elected representatives, thanks to the creation of a union of seasonal workers of Sosucam.
[1] The injured workers were taken to hospital in Yaoundé and the costs covered by Sosucam
[2] Castel: to the health of Africa – ReAct Transnational, February 2022 – https://www.projet-react.org/fr/elementor-10135/
