URGENT:
3PM
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 22
2ND FLOOR CITY HALL
On Tuesday, City Council will vote on the human right of women workers and their families in El Paso to have an economic future with dignity and justice.
For many years La Mujer Obrera has been dedicated to defending and promoting these rights.
For the past 10 years we have worked to create jobs, businesses and income for/with women and their families, to demonstrate the potential of the women who had been judged to be “unfortunate but necessary casualties” of the economic policies of this country and city.
For the past four months we have operated a Mercado that not only employs more than 100 women but also serves as a future for their families, and a means to transform the Chamizal barrio, all rooted in the dignity of their own heritage, history, lives and contributions.
For the past two weeks, the women, with the support of the community, have been operating the Mercado full-time, as volunteers, as a demonstration of their commitment and determination to create a pathway for themselves out of poverty, and as a protest against government inaction and injustice.
BUT TODAY, Friday, city staff released their recommendations, disparaging the women’s efforts and calling for the organization to OPERATE FULLY FOR 3 MONTHS, before receiving any reimbursement for expenses generated through the city funded project.
The decision is now in the hands of City Council. Will they vote in support of the women and their determination to create a future for themselves and their families? Or will they side with City staff, and perpetuate the discrimination and marginalization that the women have been subjected to for decades?
Acknowledging the commitment of the women, on September 9, the Empowerment Zone committee voted unanimously to fund Mercado Mayapan, without any other conditions. Since then, the City staff has imposed the onerous conditions on the approved funding without informing the committee, the women or the general public.
Tuesday’s City Council meeting and vote are a referendum on the status of women workers in El Paso, who are already in crisis. Earlier this summer, we saw Planned Parenthood, a vital service for low-income women, close without a word of protest. Now, one of the few organizations in El Paso creating jobs and businesses with low-income women is threatened with elimination.
It is imperative that everyone who supports women workers’ human rights to a future with dignity and justice attend City Council Tuesday. Those who can’t attend should contact their City representative and the Mayor and express their concern. Urgent action is needed. The future of women workers’ rights in El Paso is at stake
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Mayapan and Mujer Obrera are essential projects in the struggle for immigrant women workers' rights on the border, in El Paso, and as a model and inspiration internationally. It is only short-sighted stupidity to imagine this organization or its commitment to justice, jobs, and a better life for/by women workers will somehow go away if critically needed investment by the public sector is withheld. We must come together as a community, acknowledge the lack of a viable labor movement for the time being, for this sector, in our area, and support the only alternative that the workers themselves have designed and implemented, with all the challenges and unconventionality that entails.
ReplyDeleteThis public-sector worker commits to contributing $1,000 a year to the Mayapan crisis fund until the public officials charged with the present well being and future economic security of some of the hardest-working members of this borderland community can once again be restored by the combination of public and private support and the organizations' own revenues.