In the News

US companies express alarm over priest’s slay

Manila Bulletin
11/08/2007

At least seven big foreign-owned companies, including Wal-Mart, have expressed alarm over cases of killings, violence and attacks against workers on strike in Cavite.

In their joint letter on Nov. 7 to President Arroyo, the companies — American Eagle Outfitters, Gap Inc., Jones Apparel Group, Liz Claiborne Inc., PVH, Polo Ralph Lauren and Wal-Mart, expressed alarm on behalf of their companies over the "violent attacks on striking workers and the assaults and killings of labor rights promoters." ...

Dole must pay farmworkers $3.2 million

Los Angeles Times
11/06/2007

A Los Angeles jury on Monday awarded $3.2 million to six Nicaraguan farmworkers who had sued Dole Food Co. Inc., arguing they had been rendered sterile some three decades ago by the international corporate giant's application of a banned pesticide on the plantations where they worked.

Jurors return today to consider whether Dole, and codefendant Dow Chemical Co., should be punished with more monetary damages. They will decide whether Dole acted maliciously in failing to warn its workers of the danger, and whether Dow engaged in gross negligence in manufacturing the chemical...

Mexican Government Calls Foul on North Carolina Union-Busting

Press Release from the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union
11/05/2007

The National Administrative Office (NAO) of Mexico's trade pact enforcement agency in the Labour Ministry has issued an immediate call for answers to questions on the progress in gaining collective bargaining rights for public sector workers in the US state of North

Carolina.

The US, Mexico, and Canada share the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in which a side accord, the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation (NAALC), is being used to challenge the lack of labor rights in North Carolina.

Murder and payoffs taint business in Colombia

USA Today
10/30/2007

By David J. Lynch

BOGOTA, Colombia — At first, the allegations in a federal courtroom sounded like the sort of thing conspiracy-minded college freshmen dream up during late-night bull sessions. A major U.S. corporation stood accused of routinely funneling large sums of money to a vicious right-wing Latin American militia that the United States government officially had branded a terrorist organization.

Chinese workers lose their lives producing goods for America

Salt Lake Tribune Special Report
10/29/2007

GUANGZHOU, China -- The patients arrive every day in Chinese hospitals with disabling and fatal diseases, acquired while making products for America.

On the sixth floor of the Guangzhou Occupational Disease and Prevention Hospital, Wei Chaihua, 44, sits on his iron-rail bed, tethered to an oxygen tank. He is dying of the lung disease silicosis, a result of making Char-Broil gas stoves sold in Utah and throughout the U.S...

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