In the News

Protest Over Banana Republic Workers Plight

The Guardian (UK)
03/20/2008

One of the biggest fashion retailers in the US last night began an investigation into allegations that workers in India who make its clothes are being forced to work more than 70 hours a week for as little as 15p an hour.

Ahead of today's high-profile opening of its three- storey European store in London, Banana Republic said it was "deeply concerned" by the claims and insisted it made frequent factory visits to check that suppliers complied with the law and with the company's ethical code... 

RP church group wins Korean human rights award

Philippine Daily Inquirer
03/18/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- It was a group that went against two Korean firms to fight for workers’ rights, but it ended up being given South Korea’s most prestigious human rights award.

There really was no contradiction there, said Fr. Jose Dizon, executive director of the Workers’ Assistance Center Inc. (WAC), the church-based group that bagged the prestigious award this year.

In fact, Dizon said, the Koreans were even “ashamed and apologetic” to the Filipino awardees for what they had to go through in the hands of some “oppressive Korean nationals” in the Philippines... 

Guest fight for fair labor

Manitou Messenger (St. Olaf College, MN)
02/29/2008

 

Emphasizing the importance of globalization and its effect on our lives, conference speaker Robert Muehlenkamp stated that, "the world has never seen a transformation anything like what we are going through and you students will have to live with [it]."

This year's conference, entitled "Globalization and Social Responsibility: Working for the Common Good" was meant to emphasize the importance of globalization in altering the paradigms of employment and its effect on human gains across the world.

Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi

CorpWatch
02/25/2008

By Pilirani Semu-Banda, Special to CorpWatch

Sickly and malnourished, Kirana Kapito began his working life on a large commercial tobacco estate in Malawi's northern region. The farms sell their produce on the country's auction floors directly to international corporations including Limbe Leaf Tobacco, majority owned by the Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company and U.S.-based Alliance One Tobacco.

The 'Made in Italy' label: Read the fine print

Los Angeles Times
02/20/2008
Excerpt from article:
 

PRATO, ITALY -- The "Made in Italy" label conjures images of little old men and women in aprons and spectacles, stooped over wooden tables, cutting leather and sewing by hand in workshops that dot the hills of Tuscany.

It certainly doesn't make you picture Chinese immigrants toiling long hours in ramshackle, poorly illuminated sheds, and then sleeping in small rooms behind thin plywood right there in the factories.

Rejecting Paternalism in Africa?

Foreign Policy in Focus
02/19/2008

By Tim Newman

A central aspect of President Bush’s trip to Africa is the promotion of neoliberal trade policies and foreign direct investment as a path to “empowerment” and a “culture of self-reliance and opportunity.” The president has explicitly rejected “the paternalistic notion that treats African countries as charity cases, or a model of exploitation that seeks only to buy up their resources.”

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