Workers' Day is a public holiday in at least the following countries : Angola, Bulgaria, China (where it is celebrated as International Labour Day and is a 3 day holiday), Cuba, Namibia, Malta, Marshal Islands, Mozambique,Panama, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Its history is closely linked to the labour movement and the May Day celebrations celebrated in other parts of the world.
Workers' Day is a national public holiday in South Africa and since 1994, it has been celebrated on 1 May of each year. It has its origins within the historical struggles of workers and their trade unions internationally for solidarity between working people in their struggles to win fair employment standards and more importantly, to establish a culture of human and worker rights and to ensure that these are enshrined in international law and the national law of those countries aligned to the International Labour Organisation. In pre-1994 South Africa, the demand for the annual observance of the day as a public holiday became a rallying point for workers and their trade unions and was one of a number of annually significant days to symbolise and mobilise resistance to the Apartheid government and its racial policies.
Workers' Awaaz (or "Workers' Voice") is a nonprofit, nonpartisan female domestic workers' group based in New York City. Although the group supports all women in domestic services, its primary focus is on women from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal).
Workers' Awaaz was founded in June 1997 by Gulnahar Ahmed, a Bangladeshi woman who came to the United States in 1993 to work as a domestic. Workers' Awaaz assists workers in ensuring that they are paid the minimum wage, receive overtime pay, are aware of their rights under workers' compensation laws, and receive training in basic employee rights and protection under state and federal law. The organization also sues employers on behalf of domestic workers for violations of federal and state laws, and organizes pickets and demonstrations against abusive employers.
Workers' Awaaz also works to build public awareness of the sometimes abusive conditions under which many South Asian domestic workers labor in the U.S.
Since many immigrant domestics are isolated by language, working conditions and restrictions placed on them by employers, Workers' Awaaz uses a variety of outreach efforts to reach workers in need. It places advertisements in various South Asian-related newspapers, sets up tables at South Asian community events, and engages in face-to-face conversations in markets and stores.
Workers' Awaaz has won several lawsuits filed on behalf of workers against employers who did not pay minimum wage, withhold taxes or make Social Security and other required government payments.
In 1998, Workers' Awaaz, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, won a $20,000 back pay settlement. In January 2000, the organization won a back pay award for $50,000 from physicians who refused to pay a domestic worker for nearly three years.
In 1997, Workers' Awaaz won a $5,000 grassroots grant from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation.http://www.benjerry.com/foundation/grl_oct1997.html
In 1998, Ahmed was honored as a fellow of the Petra Foundation for her advocacy work with Workers' Awaaz. In 2000, the organization was awarded a Union Square Award from the Tides Center for its grassroots activism and strengthening of immigrant communities in New York City.http://www.unionsquareawards.org/v2/awardees/bio.asp?aID=69
Workers' Daily (; lit. worker's daily) is a simplified Chinese language newspaper nationwide in China with the circulation of 960,000.
The newspaper has been published since 1946, reporting economic news in China.