On Thursday workers from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ and community members will converge on Aramark Headquarters (1101 Market St.) at 2:30 PM to demand a fair contract for janitors. The action will include street theater by members of SEIU. Please come out and support the workers of Philadelphia.

Mexican factory workers from the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM) are on an IWW-cosponsored truth-telling tour through North America, sharing their first-hand perspective on the effects of NAFTA and their struggle for justice in the factories and slums of northern Mexico. The tour is focused around a March 13 day of action in Detroit against automotive parts manufacturer Key Safety Systems and its corporate customers, including Ford, General Motors, and Hyundai. The tour kicked off in Philadelphia on March 4th where the IWW hosted worker-organizers Israel Monroy and Perla Cruz. In February, Cruz was illegally fired from Key Safety Systems' plant in Valle Hermoso, Mexico (near the Texas border) for organizing a workers' committee.

These are pictures from the recent Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras Tour.

Philadelphia will be the first stop on a U.S./Canadian speaking tour by factory workers and labor organizers from the "free trade" zone of Valle Hermoso, Mexico. Seeking to expose the brutal truth about the deteriorating state of workers rights on the Mexican border, the speakers will give a free presentation to the public on Thursday, March 6th, 7:00 PM at Studio 34 (located at 4522 Baltimore Ave in West Philadelphia/University City). The event will be preceded by an 11:00 AM protest at a Hyundai dealership on 754 Baltimore Pike, Springfield. (Hyundai orders auto equipment from Key Safety Systems.)