| CANADA: Canadian Rail Engineers Begin a Strike by Ian Austen, New York Times November 28th, 2009 About 1,700 locomotive engineers with the Canadian National Railway went on strike early Saturday. The walkout followed a decision by Canadian National to impose a new contract on its workers, including a 500-mile increase in the distance engineers are required to cover each month. The union said that the increased distance would sometimes make engineers work seven-day weeks without overtime. |
| US: A Dispute Over Unionizing at Montana Hair Salons by Steven Greenhouse, New York Times August 29th, 2009 The Regis Corporation, parent of Cost Cutters and the largest hair salon company in the U.S., is asking stylists in Montana to sign a document foregoing any future pro-union signature. Regis claims the document is meant to protect against union-card legislation now in Congress. |
| INDONESIA: Scramble for coal assets in Indonesia by Sundeep Tucker and John Aglionby, Financial Times June 7th, 2009 Some of the world’s largest energy groups are scrambling to acquire coal mining assets in Indonesia as family-run conglomerates consider divestments to raise cash. Peabody Energy, the US coal miner, and Xstrata, the Anglo-Swiss miner, are believed to be among those interested. Industry analysts said Chinese, South Korean, Indian and Middle Eastern companies were also scouring Indonesia for assets. |
| WORLD: The Jewel Trade's Fading Luster by V. Dion Haynes and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post March 28th, 2009 The drop in U.S. demand for high-end jewelry in a slumping economy is having ripple effects around the globe as stores close, workers are laid off in mass in the diamond-polishing factories of Gujarat, and countries like Botswana experience a dramatic drop in diamond revenue. |
| US/CANADA: Alaskan lake’s fate could echo across continent by Todd Wilkinson, Christian Science Monitor March 24th, 2009 A landmark legal case now before the US Supreme Court holds huge implications for lakes across the continent. Nearly four decades the Clean Water Act was passed to protect waterways from industrial pollution, a proposal by Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. to dispose of tons of effluent in Alaska's Lower Slate Lake has sparked an international debate. |
| UGANDA/IRAQ: Why 10,000 Ugandans are eagerly serving in Iraq by Max Delany, Christian Science Monitor March 6th, 2009 Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, 10,000 Ugandans risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms in Iraq for as little as $600 per month. Many are looking to go to Afghanistan as the Obama administration increases contracts there. |
| US, GLOBAL: Layoffs Without Notice Sting Workers by Steve Lohr, New York Times March 5th, 2009 With the economy weakening, chief executives want Wall Street to see them as tough cost-cutters who are not afraid to lay off workers. Big companies also routinely carry out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar, contributing to an unemployment rate that keeps climbing. I.B.M. is one such company. |
| US: 'Card check' ballots to determine union representation by Erin Rosa, Colorado Independent February 24th, 2009 Glenn Spencer, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was in Denver on Monday to decry H.R. 800, federal legislation that would give workers greater rights to unionize. Spencer spoke at the offices of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry and warned of the “most radical rewrite of labor law in 70 years.” |
| UK, ITALY: Italian business body hits at Brown by Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times February 9th, 2009 In the context of global debate around the unfettered free-market system, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown comes under fire from an Italian business association for not reining in wildcat labor strikes at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire. |
| JAPAN: Nissan to Slash Payroll, Pare Japanese Output by John Murphy, Wall Street Journal February 9th, 2009 Nissan Motor Co. Monday announced plans to slash more than 20,000 jobs world-wide, shift production out of Japan and seek government assistance from Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, part of a broad new effort by the Japanese car maker to weather the economic downturn. |
| US: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide by MONICA DAVEY, New York Times December 7th, 2008 In a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs this year is boiling over, workers laid off from Republic Windows and Doors, said they would not leave, after company officials announced that the factory was closing. The workers were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law in lay-offs. |
| US/IRAQ: Indiana guardsmen sue defense contractor KBR by Farah Stockman, Boston Globe December 4th, 2008 Sixteen Indiana national guardsmen filed a lawsuit yesterday against military contractor KBR. The complaint alleges that several reservists contracted respiratory system tumors and skin rashes after guarding reconstruction work at the Qarmat Ali treatment plant, strewn with the toxin chromium dichromate. |
| WORLD: Workforce deaths at Shell higher than for other western oil groups by Ed Crooks, Financial Times December 1st, 2008 Royal Dutch Shell last year suffered more workforce deaths than any other large western oil company. Two employees and 28 contractors were killed working for Shell in 2007. Nine of last year's deaths were in Nigeria, with two people killed in attacks on Shell facilities, and 10 in Russia. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: AngloGold workers protest SAfrican mine deaths by James Macharia, Reuters October 2nd, 2008 Three workers in South Africa died after three separate mining incidents as miners at AngloGold Ashanti's TauTona mine stopped work over a fatality there last week, union and company officials said on Thursday. |
| EU: Lehman sees 750 Europe jobs axed BBC September 30th, 2008 The administrators of Lehman Brothers' European division have cut 750 jobs at the firm with immediate effect. |
| US: 2nd Walkout at Boeing in 3 Years
by MICHELINE MAYNARD, The New York Times September 6th, 2008 The Boeing Company, whose order books are bulging with demand for its planes, was hit by its second major strike in three years early Saturday, when the union that represents 27,000 machinists in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job. |
| US: Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant
by JULIA PRESTON, The New York Times August 5th, 2008 State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday. |
| US: Companies Tap Pension Plans
To Fund Executive Benefits
by ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal August 4th, 2008 In recent years, companies from Intel Corp. to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation. |
| US: OSHA Seeks $8.7 Million Fine Against Sugar Company
by SHAILA DEWAN, The New York Times July 26th, 2008 Imperial Sugar, the owner of a refinery near Savannah where 13 workers died in a sugar dust explosion in February, knew of safety hazards at the plant as early as 2002 but did nothing, and should pay more than $8.7 million for safety violations, the head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday. |
| US: Toxic Smoke and Mirrors by Jim Morris, Mother Jones Filed in federal District Court in Cleveland, their claim joined thousands of others pending against welding-products manufacturers in state and federal courts. (Employers have not been among the targets because lawyers generally concluded they were ignorant of the metal's dangers.) |