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MayDay 2013: Everything you need to know about May Day history, Law Day and maypoles on May 1 Believe it or not, May 1 has more significance than a cute “it’s gonna be May” meme featuring Justin Timberlake. Perhaps you’ve always wondered about references to May Day. A Huffington Post contributorexplains May Day celebrations “were born more than a century ago out of a struggle by American workers for the eight-hour day.” In the late 1800s, [...] The working conditions, quality of care being provided, cleanliness, and overall operating procedures at Canada’s thousands of government-run healthcare facilities appear to be in major need of reform, according to the findings of a new investigative survey. As reported by Canada’s CBC News, roughly one-quarter of all registered nurses (RNs) now say they would not even recommend their own hospitals to family and friends, illustrating what some believe are the [...] President Obama called for a modest raise in the federal minimum wage to $9 in his State of the Union Address, and several Democratic legislators have upped his bidwith a proposed increase to $10.10. But an insidious effort to lowerthe wage floor is already underway much closer to the ground—in the state legislatures where right-wing lobbyists have been greasing the skids for years for an onslaught of anti-worker policies. An extensive analysis recently published by labor advocacy organization the National Employment [...] Apple has discovered multiple cases of child labour in its supply chain, including one Chinese company that employed 74 children under the age of 16, in the latest controversy over the technology giant’s manufacturing methods. An internal audit found a flipside to the western consumer’s insatiable thirst for innovative and competitively priced gadgets. It uncovered 106 cases of underage labour being used at Apple suppliers last year and 70 cases historically. The report follows [...] Hundreds of Chinese factory workers angry about strictly timed bathroom breaks and fines for starting work late held their Japanese and Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half before police broke up the strike. About 1,000 workers at Shanghai Shinmei Electric Company held the 10 Japanese nationals and eight Chinese managers inside the factory in Shanghai starting Friday morning until 11.50 p.m. Saturday, said a statement from the parent [...] n the last few months, an unprecedented wave of labor unrest has shaken the retail giant Wal-Mart and its far-reaching supply chain. While the number of employees taking part in walkouts has been limited to the low hundreds, workers and labor activists are mounting pressure and threatening to stage a company-wide strike on Black Friday—the busiest shopping day of the year. The Black Friday walkout is being organized by the Organization United [...] Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed. At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions. Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier’s plants in Chengdu or Shenzen. Appalling conditions: An [...] Protests against Wal-Mart expanded on Tuesday, spreading to 28 stores in 12 states, a union spokesman said. He warned that disgruntled Wal-Mart employees, joined by labor unions and community groups, might stage a combined protest and educational campaign the Friday after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Colby Harris, who earns $8.90 an hour after three years at a Walmart in Lancaster, Tex., said, “We’re protesting because we want [...] Thousands of workers at Foxconn in China have gone on strike over working conditions related to production of the iPhone 5. Three to four thousand employees walked out of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory on Friday, according to China Labor Watch. It said Foxconn andApple had “raised overly strict demands on product quality” without providing adequate training. The strike comes just weeks after Foxconn was forced to close a plant in Taiyuan, when a brawl involving as many as [...] Hell yeah. http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/walmart_workers_on_strike/singleton/ Employees protesting working conditions and retaliation are flexing their organizing muscle. But the first-of-its-kind strike carries risks Today, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass [...] Reports early Monday from China suggest that a mass disturbance or riots may have broken out at a Foxconn factory in the Chinese city of Taiyuan. It is still unclear what exactly happened, but posts on China’s popular twitter-like service, Weibo, from users in the area show photographs and video of large numbers of police in and around the factory – many in riot gear – blocking off throngs of people. Other photos show [...] Brazilian bank workers will request a salary increase of 10.25 percent from the country’s banking federation, known as Febraban, on Aug. 1, according to Cecilia Negrao, a spokeswoman for Brazil’s bank workers’ union. This is equivalent to a real salary increase of 5 percent, the union said in an e-mailed statement. The workers will also ask for better working conditions, according to the statement. To contact the reporter on this story: Karen Eeuwens in [...] A Foxconn worker fell to his death in China, the company which assembles products for Apple said Thursday, following a series of fatalities that sparked concern about conditions at its plants. The 23-year-old, identified only by his surname Xie, fell from his rented apartment in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu on Wednesday, according to a statement released by Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn’s parent company. It said the cause of the [...] Foxconn Technology Group, the main supplier of Apple Inc, said on Thursday a worker at a Chinese plant jumped from his apartment on Wednesday, the first suicide since the company agreed with its U.S. client to improve work conditions. The 23 year-old worker fell to his death from his apartment located outside the plant in the southwestern city of Chengdu, according to a statement by Foxconn. The worker had joined the [...] Amazon, you should really be ashamed of yourself for this one. At the company’s annual meeting today in Seattle, CEO Jeff Bezos promised that the company will spend $52 million this year to add air conditioning to its warehouses, reports the Seattle Times.
That’s because Amazon was outed last year in an article by the L.A. Times. It documented how employees were forced to work in temperatures above 100 degrees last summer. Apparently, Amazon had the [...] Brian Ross, Matthew Mosk, and Cindy Galli A Bangladeshi labor activist is urging Wal-Mart and other well-known American clothing brands to call on the government to drop the criminal “incitement” charges leveled against her after she rallied to improve working conditions at garment factories there. “The brands can really play a vital role when we are put in jail,” activist Kalpona Akter told ABC News. “They are the most [...] The editors of all 19 editions of Vogue around the world have pledged to use only healthy models no younger than 16 on their editorial pages in an attempt to shift the fashion industry’s approach to body image. Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue’s flagship US edition, and Emmanuelle Alt of Paris Vogue – which caused an uproar in 2010 with a photo spread featuring a 10-year-old girl – are among those [...] When President Obama was participating in a live video chat, Jennifer Wedel asked him, “Why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?” Her husband is a semiconductor engineer who was laid off three years ago and is still unable to find an engineering job. We all would like the answer to that question. The U.S. Census [...] by Steve Kovach ABC’s Nightline received an exclusive invite from Apple to check out Foxconn’s manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, following the string of reports in the New York Times and on NPRabout the poor working conditions there. The special airs tomorrow (Feb. 21) at 11:35 p.m. Eastern on ABC, but Nightline reporter Bill Weir has a lengthy written preview that you can check out now. Weir was given what appears to be full access to Foxconn’s facilities in China, something [...] It appears in Germany the lowest paid third of the workforce have had collapsing wages and workers can’t afford to go for a coffee in a coffee shop, with no minimum wage some, particularly in former East Germany are earning €1 an hour (around € 160 per month): “BEST LOW WAGE SECTOR IN EUROPE” Job growth in Germany has been especially strong for low wage and temporary agency employment because of deregulation [...] (AP) – Apple said Monday that an independent group, the Fair Labor Association, has started inspecting the working conditions in the Chinese factories where its iPads and iPhones are assembled. The FLA team began the inspections Monday morning at Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China, Apple said. The complex employs and houses hundreds of thousands of workers. Foxconn, a unit of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. employs an estimated 1 million to 1.1 million people in China at a series of huge factory campuses. Working conditions [...] by Henry Blodget The manufacturing processes of Apple and other electronics companies have come into sharp focus of late, with the revelation of more details about what life is like for the Chinese workers who make the world’s gadgets. When one reads about these working conditions–12-16 hour shifts, pay of ~$1 per hour or less, dormitories with 15 beds in 12×12 rooms–the obvious assumption is that it’s all about money: Greedy manufacturers want to make bigger profits, so [...] Call it cubicle porn — the stuff we cube dwellers fantasize about. It’s the best quitting video EVER. Source: YouTube Joey DeFrancesco had enough of his job and the working conditions at a hotel in Providence, RI. He said employees were often scheduled 5am to midnight, or expected to work until midnight and come back at 5am the next day. Anyone [...] NYC General Assembly from the Official Website of the GA at #OccupyWallStreet we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future [...] Workers involved in the restoration of the areas hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say their working conditions have been harsh. About 1,500 temporary workers of subcontractors hired by leading construction companies gathered in Tokyo on Sunday to discuss the situation. A man who took part in the construction of emergency housing in Iwate Prefecture said he had been promised 20,000 yen, or [...] Ending a 110-year run for America as the world’s dominant producer, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest manufacturer. According to economics research firm IHS Global Insight, China manufactured 19.9% of the world’s goods in 2010, while the U.S. accounted for 19.4%. This marks the first time since 1850 that China has held the crown as the world’s largest manufacturer, the latest [...] by Vics “I support better pay, better benefits and improved working conditions for those that have dedicated their life to government service†For the record…..in 2009 the average FEDERAL CIVILIAN WORKER made total compensation (wages & benefits) in the amount of $123,041. For the record…..in 2009 the average PRIVATE INDUSTRY WORKER made total compensation (wages & benefits) in the amount of $61,051. So the average Federal Civilian worker made over 2 times as much [...] |
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