Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff
Walmart
REAUX BRIDGE, Louisiana – More than 130,000 people have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Walmart to drop its contract with a Louisiana-based seafood company, CJ Seafood, until the company ends alleged abuses of Mexican guestworkers in its Breaux Bridge facility.
Ana Rosa Diaz, a worker at the Breaux Bridge plant, reports supervisors have forced workers to work up to 24 hours at a time with no overtime pay, locks them in the facility and threatens to beat them with a shovel to stop them from taking breaks. She created a petition on Change.org with the National Guestworker Alliance (NGA)–a membership organization that represents thousands of guestworkers across the US–asking Walmart to hold CJ’s accountable for violating their supplier standards and to help stop the forced labor. In a matter of days, Ana and the NGA have mobilized over 130,000 people to join their campaign. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVWos-FBLjQ.
Big statewide anti-foreclosure rally set June 25 for Capitol
SACRAMENTO – A coalition of homeowners, Occupy groups, unions, clergy, community groups and others from throughout California will hold a major rally at the State Capitol June 25 to demand the Governor, the Attorney General and the Legislature declare an immediate foreclosure moratorium.
The rally and March begins at 10 a.m. Monday, June 25, on the West Steps of the Capitol.
People are expected to attend from the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Southern California, the North Coast and throughout the Central Valley. The daylong event is designed to convince lawmakers to declare a moratorium “to save our homes, our families and our communities.” It will followed by lobbying and stop foreclosure workshops.
“We are bringing together all of the organizations and people now working to stop these foreclosures, and who are angry about how the banks have been given hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, yet continue to throw millions of families out of their homes instead of working out affordable loan modifications,” said a statement from rally organizers.
Foreclosure “pandemic” continues in California, accordingto real estate groups:
(a) 2,700 foreclosure auctions happening every day in the state (foreclosureradar), and more than 30,000 completed foreclosures each quarter – compared to less than 3,500 in 2006 (3rd quarter). (http://www.responsiblelending.org).
(b) One of every 239 households in the state is now currently defaulting on a mortgage loan – July’s foreclosures were up by 3.89 percent over June. Overall, California ranks second among the states with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.
(c) California led the country in foreclosure filings in May with 42,243 new filings.
(d) “Distressed” property sales made up 46.2 percent of all May California sales – foreclosure sales alone comprised 33 percent of all sales (distressed sales are a combination of foreclosure sales and short sales). (Dataquick News, 4/24/2012).
