By Jenny Brown, Labor notes | William Rogers, Left Labor Reporter. Workers at IKEA, a Swedish furniture company that had outsourced its labor to the U.S. because of low wages, have managed to unionize with support from Swedish workers. The win showed the promise of linking unions across borders to pressure European owners.
Continue reading →By Rhea Sandique-Carlos, 4-Traders. The Philippines has indefinitely suspended the operations of the country’s largest gold mine, officials said Monday August 6, after a waste spillage near a major river due to heavy rains. Philex Mining Corporation had previously insisted the spillage consisted only of water and sediment, which were “non-toxic and biodegradable.”
Continue reading →By Staff, Prensa Latina. Peasants throughout Paraguay are demanding negotiations with the government for land plots on which to live and work. In Saltos del Guaira (east) about 1,000 small farmers and their families were forcibly evicted by police on Monday August 6 from a farm occupied by a Brazilian citizen.
Continue reading →By Staff (spp), Radio Kiskeya | By Stephen Ralph Henry, AlterPresse. Commentary and translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haitian PM Laurent Lamothe said Friday, August 3, 2012, during a working session in the Parliament, that the new school year originally set to start on September 3 would be postponed until October 1 because of economic difficulties. Parents and teachers’ organizations say they were not consulted. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Staff, AHP | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Medical School of the Dr. Aristide Foundation University (UNIFA), in Tabarre, near Port-au-Prince, opened its enrollment on Wednesday August 1 for academic year 2012-2013. The University’s Director, Dr. Peter Gaetchen announced that registration will run until August 14, and the entrance examination will be held on August 20. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Majie Sayila, The Times of Zambia | Staff, The Herald Online. Forty-one Bangladeshis were arrested between Zimbabwe and Zambia as these countries tightened the fight against human trafficking. Fifteen who were smuggled into Zambia from the Democratic Republic of Congo were fined for unlawful presence in the country. The driver of the truck in which they were ferried was committed to the High Court for sentencing after he admitted to the offense of smuggling persons, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.
Continue reading →By Michael Chideme and Daniel Nemukuyu, The Herald Online. An alert truck driver sent to deliver 19 tons of poisonous sodium cyanide — instead of aluminum sulfate — to Harare’s main waterworks averted disaster last Wednesday July 25 when he raised alarm just as he was about to offload the chemical.
Continue reading →Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | Elena L. Aben and Ellalyn B. De Vera, Manila Bulletin | By Staff, Sun Star. Large farming towns north of the capital Manila, as well as heavily populated coastal areas remain under waist-deep floods. Fierce winds and heavy rains from slow-moving Typhoon Gener (international codename Saola) have battered the country, killing at least 39 people and displacing about 200,000.
Continue reading →By spp and jmd, Radio Kiskeya. According to residents of the Nan Beny and Ti Bois areas of Martissant, Haiti, in retaliation for having two of their numbers injured by unknown assailants Tuesday July 31, 2012, elite police in uniform, while under observation by MINUSTAH troops, beat and shot several people and torched at least four motorcycles plus 15 houses. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Milo Milford (kft, gp), AlterPresse | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery | YouTube. Lac Azuei, also called Etang Saumatre, is Haiti’s main natural lake. With an area of over 110 square kilometers (42.5 square miles), it is a lovely sight. The lake is also a place of feverish activity by child traffickers. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Thirty six commandos from Haiti’s Departmental Unit for Maintenance of Order (UDMO), together with presidentially-appointed regional and local government representatives, arrived in La Visite Park, near the southern city of Jacmel, to evict 142 families by force on July 23, 2012. In the battle that ensued, 4-12 people were killed.
Continue reading →By Staff, UNITED HERE | Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. The hotel housekeepers union UNITE HERE gathered in Washington, D.C. on Monday, July 23, 2012, to launch an international boycott of Hyatt hotels under the banner “Hyatt Hurts.” The workers complain of injurious workloads and an employer who seeks to subcontract their jobs. In addition a class action suit is being launched on behalf of 3,000 Indiana hotel workers who estimate a liability of $10 million and claim that temporary agency employer Hospitality Staffing Solutions (HSS) regularly stole their wages and conspired with the hotels to blacklist them and deny them permanent jobs.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Alan Blueford’s parents were forced to organize a press conference to demand the police and coroner’s reports that had not still not been released to them over two months after their son was shot to death by an Oakland Police Officer.
Continue reading →By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. At a visit to Haiti’s landmark Citadelle Laferriere, Martelly, to emphasize his disgust about the decrepit state of the 300-year old fort, took off in a huff, straight downhill on his motorcycle, leaving his motorcade to scramble after him down a steep and narrow mountain road. The result: an accident that gravely injured seven people and put in critical condition a journalist and a six-year old girl who had been inside her house.
Continue reading →
