Labor

At least 52 workers have died after a fire broke out at the Hashem Foods factory in Narayanganj, some 16 kilometers southeast of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Many of victims were teenagers employed in violation of labor laws, who died because the gates to their workplace were locked. Read More

A storm is brewing over the coal mines and power plants operated by Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE) in Poland – notably over the Turów complex in Lower Silesia, close to the border of the Czech republic and Germany, as well as over the Bełchatów complex in the Łódź region. Read More

Six major investment firms announced that they will not buy shares of Deliveroo – a UK online food delivery company that operates in 12 countries around the world – in a major victory for employee rights activists who have campaigned against the company’s poor working conditions. Read More

One of the most important votes of 2021 to date won’t elect a president or a member of parliament. Instead some 5,800 Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, have until next Monday to decide if they want to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Why is this important? Amazon has over 800 warehouses across the U.S. and it employs some 800,000 workers who don’t have the ability to organize collectively for their rights. Read More

Cisco, a major manufacturer of computer networking hardware and software, has been sued by the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment (DFEH) for discriminating against a former South Asian employee whose family is classified as low caste in India and fostering a ‘malicious, fraudulent, and oppressive’ work culture. Read More

Ubisoft Entertainment, publishers of popular video games like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs, has been accused of looking the other way in response to claims of sexual misconduct by senior management at company offices in Canada and France. Read More

Contractors to Boohoo, an ‘ultra fast fashion company,’ have been paying their largely immigrant workforce at sweatshops in Leicester, a city in central England, less than half the UK minimum wage of £8.17 per hour for employees over the age of 25. Read More

Rent the Runway, a high-end U.S. fashion rental business, is forcing their majority immigrant workforce to compromise their health during the coronavirus pandemic, say employees. The company, which ships most of its dresses from New Jersey, has stayed open by exploiting a loophole in the state’s emergency lockdown laws. Read More

Amazon’s relentless expansion around the world has met with serious headwinds in India and in Europe where the company’s aggressive online sales practices are being met with court challenges and government investigations. Read More

Google, the Silicon Valley search giant, has hired IRI consultants, a market research firm notorious for aggressive union busting, likely in response to multiple recent employee protests. In a disturbing move – possibly related - five employees involved in the protests, were recently fired for allegedly breaching data security policies. Read More