| US: Workers on Hunger Strike Say They Were Misled on Visas
by JULIA PRESTON, The New York Times June 7th, 2008 The Indian workers say they were deceived by Signal International and labor recruiters when they paid as much as $20,000 for visas they believed would allow them to work and live permanently with their families in the United States. In fact, the H-2B visas are for short-term contracts. |
| US: Wal-Mart's Detractors Come In From the Cold by MICHAEL BARBARO, New York Times June 5th, 2008 But after waging an aggressive public relations campaign against Wal-Mart for three years, the company's full-time, union-backed critics, who once vowed never to let up, are lowering their pitchforks. |
| GLOBAL: Union Takes Anti-Buyout Campaign Worldwide
by MICHAEL J. de la MERCED, The New York Times June 4th, 2008 Beginning Wednesday, the Service Employees International Union, one of the country’s biggest unions, will call upon people to attend protests on July 17 in 100 cities in 25 countries. The rallying cry will be: Take back the economy from buyout firms that the union says have exploited tax loopholes to amass great wealth at others’ expense. |
| US: In Stock Plan, Employees See Stacked Deck
by MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, The New York Times May 29th, 2008 Now that many U.S. Sugar workers are reaching retirement age, though, the company has been cashing them out of the retirement plan at a much lower price than they could have received. Unknown to them, an outside investor was offering to buy the company — and their shares — for far more. Longtime employees say they have lost out on tens of thousands of dollars each and millions of dollars as a group, while insiders of the company came out ahead. |
| US: Burger King Ends Dispute
With Farmworkers Group
Associated Press May 23rd, 2008 Burger King Corp. and a farmworkers advocacy group announced a deal Friday to end a bitter dispute by trying to boost wages and improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers. |
| RUSSIA: As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russia by Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times May 11th, 2008 Gazprom and the Russian government have long had a close relationship, but the revolving door between them is spinning especially fast this year. But Gazprom also epitomizes the risks of state capitalism: waste and inefficiency. |
| US: Hawaii ironworkers' pension fund sues Alcoa, board members over Bahrain bribery allegations The Associated Press May 8th, 2008 The Hawaii Structural Ironworkers Pension Trust Fund accuses Alcoa's board in the lawsuit of "causing and/or failing to prevent Alcoa's illegal payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal bribe payments" to senior Bahraini government officials. |
| MEXICO: Pemex Oozes Corruption by Diego Cevallos , IPS May 7th, 2008 Funds belonging to the Mexican state oil monopoly, Pemex, have paid in recent years for liposuction treatment for the wife of the company's chief executive, a presidential candidate's campaign, contracts with firms facing legal action, and the whims of trade union leaders who are not required to account for their expenses. |
| CHINA: In China City, Protesters See Pollution Risk of New Plant by Edward Wong, New York Times May 6th, 2008 Residents took to the streets of Chengdu to protest a $5.5 billion ethylene plant under construction by PetroChina, reflecting a surge in environmental awareness by urban, middle-class Chinese determined to protect their health and the value of their property. |
| US: Working Life (High and Low)
by STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times April 20th, 2008 Jean called it “a great deal for FedEx. They don’t have to pay for trucks, for the insurance, for fuel, for maintenance, for tires,” she said. “We have to pay for all those things. And they don’t have to pay our Social Security.” |
| US: Rape in Iraq Recounted by SUZANNE GAMBOA, The Associated Press April 10th, 2008 An Illinois woman who says she was raped while working for a contractor in Iraq recounted the experience in a congressional hearing Wednesday. |
| US: US business unites to fight labour reform by Jonathan Birchall and Francesco Guerrera, The Financial Times April 9th, 2008 US business leaders are stepping up a campaign against proposed labour law reforms, backed by the Democrats, that could significantly enhance the ability of unions to organise workers. |
| US: America for Sale: 2 Outcomes When Foreigners Buy Factories
by PETER S. GOODMAN, The New York Times April 7th, 2008 As foreign buyers descend upon the United States, capturing widening swaths of the industrial landscape and putting millions of Americans to work for new owners, these two cities offer sharply competing narratives for a nation still uneasy about being on the selling end of the global economy. |
| US: CALIFORNIA $100 million tip for Starbucks servers by Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer, The San Francisco Chronicle March 21st, 2008 A San Diego judge ordered Starbucks to pour more than $100 million into the accounts of its low-wage coffee-servers in California on Thursday after ruling that the company had improperly required the workers to share tips with their bosses. |
| US: Families Sue Chiquita in Deaths of 5 Men
by CARMEN GENTILE, The New York Times March 17th, 2008 Last week, Ms. Julin, who has remarried, and the widows of the four other men filed a lawsuit against Chiquita Brands International Inc., saying the company contributed to their husbands’ deaths by financing the leftist group. |
| US: Workers Sue Gulf Coast Company That Imported Them by ADAM NOSSITER, The New York Times March 11th, 2008 A group of 500 foreign welders and pipefitters brought in to work at Gulf Coast oil rig yards after Hurricane Katrina said Monday that they had sued their employer, claiming they were lured with false promises of permanent-resident status, forced to live in inhumane conditions and then threatened when they protested. |
| CAYMAN ISLANDS: Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore
by Farah Stockman, The Boston Globe March 6th, 2008 Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. |
| US: Immigration Agency Accused of Illegal Searches by N.C. Aizenman, The Washington Post February 26th, 2008 A privately convened commission of labor and immigrant advocates held the first of several planned nationwide hearings yesterday to publicize allegations that U.S. immigration officials routinely violate constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure during workplace raids. |
| KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakhs warn Mittal over safety by Isabel Gorst in Moscow and Peter Marsh in London, The Financial Times Limited 2008 February 19th, 2008 Kazakhstan has warned ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel company, that it could be forced to close one of its coal mines if it does not improve safety following an explosion last month that killed 30 people. |
| INDIA: H.P. Case to Go Forward in India
by HEATHER TIMMONS, The New York Times January 31st, 2008 A decision by India’s highest court may force international companies who outsource business here to do more to guard the safety of local workers. |