By Dady Chery Haiti Chery All around us – Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, the Congo, Ivory Coast, Palestine, Somalia, Libya, and elsewhere – empires are tearing a trail of destruction. This is not a sign of strength but of weakness, because … Continue reading →
By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haiti’s sweatshop factory owners enjoy unprecedented duty free and quota-free access to the U.S. market, and only prison wages come close to the scandalously low 30 to 50 cents/hour earned by Haiti’s workers.
Continue reading →By Staff, International Labor Rights Forum. Two separate fires in Pakistan killed more than 300 trapped workers: 289 workers in a Karachi apparel factory (sweatshop) and 25 workers in a Lahore shoe factory on Tuesday September 11, 2012. National Trade Union Federation of Pakistan (NTUF) leader Nasir Mansoor called this the “darkest and saddest day in the history of Pakistan’s labor movement.” The fires are considered to be the logical result of the low prices buyers offer the factories and the quick deliveries they demand.
Continue reading →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 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 →Originally by Clarence Gillis, as told by Tommy Douglas, Information Clearing House | You Tube | Mangas Verdes | Haiti Chery. “Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election…. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats.” (English | Spanish, with video)
Continue reading →By Kevin Carson, Center for a Stateless Society | Portuguese translation by Murilo Otávio Rodrigues Paes Leme, zqxjkv0.blogspot.com |Courtesy of Frans de Waal, YouTube | Haiti Chery. Economic exploitation can only result from unequal exchange, which requires the coercive interference from a state with the normal process of market exchange. Includes video demonstrating a sense of fairness in monkeys. (English | Portuguese)
Continue reading →By Josh Eidelson, In These Times | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. A turning point in the power of American labor was the passage of the National Labor Relations Act, and especially its 1945 Taft-Hartly Act provisions, which recognized the right to collective bargaining but banned mass picketing and secondary boycotts. The NLRA is examined in light of the growing disregard for unions by corporate bosses and the increasingly successful partnerships of labor with the Occupy movement.
Continue reading →By David Moberg, In These Times. Overcoming the classic town-gown social divide, students at various ivy-league universities have formed labor-action movements to win major victories for hotel workers in their fight against appalling working conditions at university-financed hotels.
Continue reading →By David Moberg, In These Times | Haiti Chery. At a Friday, May 18, 2012 rally in Chicago to kick off no-NATO protests, nurses wore Robin Hood attire to demand a financial transaction tax, also called the Robin Hood tax.
Continue reading →By Mario Osava, IPS. Unrest was predicted to break out at Jirau because of worker solidarity, the low wages and an employer, the foreign utility GDF Suez, that provides terrible working conditions and little personal time. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Fabíola Ortiz, IPS. Brazilian mining giant Vale was named the Worst Company in the World by the Public Eye Awards in January 2012. A multinational report accuses the company of 15 worker deaths between 2010 and 2012, and massive emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Ewan Robertson, Venezuelanalysis. On May 1, 2012, Venezuela’s minimum monthly salary will increase by 15 percent to 1,780 bolivars ($414); and on Sep 1, the minimum wage will increase by another 15 percent to 2,048 bolivars ($476).
Continue reading →By Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes | Melissa Harris, Chicago Tribune | Alternet | Labor Beat, YouTube. Members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110 (UE) won another reprieve for a Chicago window factory after they re-occupied the plant they famously held in 2008, this time with support outside from Occupy Chicago.
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