On this International Workers’ Day we commemorate and honor the millions of workers worldwide who put food on our table, construct our buildings, and form our essential workforce. It’s these workers who sustain our economies on their backs. Let’s take one step today to support them, with the Let’s Bring it Home! Campaign.
Read ahead to learn more about the campaign, learn about the workplace hazards that workers the world over face in changing climates, and what steps you can take today to show them your support.
Let’s Bring it Home!
In 2011, the founder of La Isla Network witnessed a startling trend among a workers’ community in Nicaragua. Young, healthy men working as sugarcane cutters at the local sugar mill were falling ill. In the prime of their lives, these workers were experiencing kidney failure. They were dying and leaving families behind. Frequently, children entered the same jobs that sickened or even killed their parents to make ends meet. The trend became so prevalent in the community that it was dubbed La Isla de Viudas, or Widows’ Island. Why was this happening? What could be done about it?
These questions drove our first projects to protect workers in Nicaragua. We collaborated with medical researchers to find out why these workers were succumbing to kidney disease, and in collaboration with the private sector and public officials we instituted common-sense worker protections. As our network grew, we learned that what we witnessed in Nicaragua was not an isolated incident. Workers around the world exposed to extreme and prolonged heat are falling ill without adequate workplace protections.
Today, La Isla Network works in collaboration with medical researchers, private sector partners, and public officials to put in place common-sense policies that protect workers in a changing climate. Our scope is far-reaching, including projects in Central America, the European Union, South Asia, and the Middle East.
No matter when or where, occupational injury and illness is always preventable. We are aware that workers in the United States and our research partners’ turfs in the European Union are exposed to heat and other workplace hazards as well. Farmworkers, construction workers, factory workers, even tour guides — all these people are at risk.
Yet, we rely so heavily on them. They put food on the table, construct our buildings, and supply so much of our essential workforce. Without them, our economies would be crippled.
Here at home in the U.S., farmworkers are the people who put food on our tables. In order to protect them, we need to put in place common-sense worker protections, and protect those taking part in the H2-A visa programs as well as undocumented workers in the USA and EU. Will you please help us bring home our tried and true methods to protect workers in changing climates by contributing to our cause?
Media and Press
Farmworkers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
Relatives bury Nicaraguan laborer whose death sparked migrant-work debate in Europe
These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms
Heat wave kills more than 2,000 people in Spain and Portugal
Your $12 Shirt Was Made in Functional Slavery
Revealed: hundreds of migrant workers dying of heat stress in Qatar each year
Calls to Action
As a private citizen, you can:
- Make a tax-deductible donation to La Isla Network.
- Your donation will go to our various initiatives that provide water, rest, shade, and sanitation to manual laborers, and will help us Bring It Home! by supporting the expansion of those initiatives here to the USA and EU.
- Recruit a friend, family member, or colleague and make a commitment to match each other’s donation. Post to your social media using the “I Donated to Bring It Home” graphic and use the hashtags #LetsBringItHome2023 #ProtectWorkers #LaIslaNetwork
- Write a letter to your local representative asking them to protect workers in changing climates.
- Use this template to address an email or letter to your local representative in local and national political institutions.
- You can also address the letter to other relevant stakeholders, including medical researchers, private sector partners, and public officials.
As a journalist, you can:
- Make a donation and write to representatives.
- Work with us to tell the story of what workers face in the United States, especially in relation to heat stress and why these occupational safety and health hazards are easily preventable.
- Collaborate with other journalists to impulse investigations and build on previous investigations.
- Refer to our previous section to learn about these projects.
As a policymaker, you can:
- Make a donation and write to representatives.
- Ensure protection and access to care for any and all workers who might face occupational safety and health hazards.
As a business owner, you can:
- Make a donation and write to representatives.
- Consult with La Isla Network and hire us to help you protect those workers on whom your supply chain depends.
- Match gifts that your employees make.
