In the News

Connecting with Chinese Workers

The Breadwinner
06/30/2009

Excerpt from article:

"First, I went on my own to the boss and asked for a reduction in work hours. Then, I came with a few of my workmates and said that I’d bring the whole shop floor into his office next time if things didn’t change. We now work shorter hours."

---Worker in Guangdong, 2006

Standing up for human rights in Colombia

Boston Globe
06/27/2009

By Andrew Hudson

PRESIDENT OBAMA and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia will hold their first official meeting next week in Washington. While a pending free trade agreement will probably claim the media attention, Obama has the opportunity to address Uribe’s troubling human rights record directly and make clear that any agreement between the two nations will hinge on a shared commitment to upholding human rights. Will he take this opportunity?

Sparks fly over Duck’s alleged ’sweatshop’ remark

Frederick News-Post
06/25/2009

A lawyer representing a Baltimore County label manufacturing company is warning congressional candidate Andrew Duck to stop alleging the business is involved in sweatshops.

The Baltimore law firm Blades and Rosenfeld sent a letter dated June 18 to Duck, a Democrat running for the 6th District congressional seat.

The letter states Duck, during the course of campaigning against a candidate with ties to the company, has made comments alleging The Three Amigos Inc. is manufacturing its products in "sweatshops." ...

Women Bear the Brunt of the Crisis

Inter Press Service
06/21/2009

"Don’t worry, your job will be here when you come back," Lorena Castillo’s supervisor reassured her when she asked to take a day off for a gynaecologist appointment. She had been working at the textile factory for the past six months and it was the first time she asked for a day off. It turned out to be her last.

Activists hail move against Uzbekistan child labour

Deutsche Presse-Agentur
06/15/2009

By Shabtai Gold

Child rights activists have hailed the move by several big-name companies to boycott Uzbek cotton over allegations of child labour - but warned it was just the first step against such abusive practices.

'Every year Uzbekistan is turned into a giant labour camp,' said one activist from the Central Asian republic, recalling conditions in the cotton fields.

ILO to probe unionists' killings in RP

AFP
06/15/2009

The International Labor Organization (ILO) will send a team to the Philippines to investigate the killing of trade union leaders, ILO director Linda Wirth said Monday.

The mission will be sent "soon," said Wirth, the ILO director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, without giving a date or saying how many killings would be investigated.

Addressing a forum on child labor, Wirth said that the ILO would also send a team to the Philippines to examine the extent of child labor in the country, and its compliance with UN conventions against the practice.

Philippines: Labor leaders killed for Leftist leanings

NewsBreak (Philippines)
06/13/2009

By Aries Rufo

In the last four years, the government’s counter-insurgency drive had 70 collateral victims in the labor sector

Three years after her husband Rogelio Concepcion disappeared in their hometown of San Ildefonso in Bulacan, Marissa is still hoping he’s alive and will be back for good. Their four-year-old daughter has been asking when her father would join them for dinner again.

Obama, Uribe to discuss long-delayed trade pact

Reuters
06/12/2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is eager to discuss a long-delayed free trade agreement with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe when the two leaders meet on June 29, the White House said on Friday.

Colombia is a close U.S. ally and Obama looks forward to discussing a number of issues with Uribe, including how to enhance regional security and development, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement...

Pounding rock and crushing potential: Child labour in DR Congo

UNICEF
06/12/2009

By Shantha Bloemen

World Day Against Child Labour, celebrated on 12 June, this year highlights the continuing challenges to eliminating the worst forms of child labour, with a focus on exploitation of girls. Here is a related story.

Covered in powder, Sylvian, 2, sits alongside his mother, pounding rocks with a mallet in an ore heap in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rocks, dust and sun: This is the only life Sylvian has known.

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