A National WorkplaceJustice Tour Comes to Austin

    The "Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights" Tour

                   October 17-18, 2005

                     Co-Sponsored in Austin by:

and by:    American Rights at Work   Austin Central Labor Council

 “Local working people talk to the Austin community

 about basic human rights in the workplace”

On October 17 and 18, 2005, Austin labor and human rights groups hosted one stop on an eight-city national human rights tour designed to call attention to the increasing violations of the workplace rights of low- and moderate-income working people across the U.S.  The tour focused on how these routine abuses represent not just a failure of our national labor and employment law system, but also a violation of fundamental international human rights standards. Nationally, the Tour is sponsored by American Rights at Work.  The Tour stop in Austin was co-sponsored by the Equal Justice Center and provided local working people, community leaders, and concerned citizens a chance to confront these concerns locally and to learn about ground-breaking local initiatives to improve the human rights of working families.  The links below provide more information about the tour events:

• Read about the Community Forum on October 17, 2005 at the University Presbyterian Church organized by EJC's Religion and Labor Network of Austin and Central Texas Immigrant Workers' Rights Center as part of the Tour

• Read about the University of Texas Forum on October 18, 2005 organized by EJC's Transnational Worker Rights Clinic, the Religion and Labor Network of Austin, and Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center as part of the Tour

• See news story about this human rights tour in Austin, Austin American-Statesman, Panel Hears Details of Workers' Rights Abuses, (October 19, 2005)

• Listen to radio story about this human rights tour in Austin, KUT - Public Radio Austin, Labor Unions are Changing in Central Texas, (October 20, 2005)

• Read the op-ed column by former Congressional leader and labor rights expert David Bonior published in the Austin American-Statesman in conjunction with the Austin stop of the Workers' Rights are Human Rights Tour.

• The Tour also brought to Austin leading experts in the field of human rights and labor rights, to participate in our discussions, including: David Bonior, Mariclaire Acosta, Harley Shaiken, Maria Adela Mejia Perez, and Veronique Marleau.  Find out more about these guest experts.