On Wednesday a fire broke out in a small garment factory in Puning county in southern Guangdong. The factory was situated in a five storey building. The factory only had one exit, there were many hazardous materials stored inside the factory and there were no safety procedures in place. In […]
Monthly Archives: March 2014
38 posts
As recently reported, thousands of nurses in Lahore, Pakistan were subjected to a brutal police charge which nearly killed one of the striking nurses. Instead of intimidating the nurses, this action served to galvanise support for the striking workers. Solidarity rallies and events were held all around Pakistan and in […]
As reported previously, the end of the civil war in 2009 did not bring an end to the climate of repression for human rights and labour activists in Sri Lanka. A new report by a UK Human Rights Committee has once again highlighted the terrible situation for anyone that the […]
The garment and apparel manufacturing sector is mainly concentrated in a few countries in the south and south east of Asia. It is an industry with a vicious ‘Race to the Bottom’ drive that kills thousands of workers. Workers are fighting back in many countries, but their struggles are often […]
Earlier this month, Walmart declared that it was going to close five of its stores in China. The company’s offer of compensation and a two week notice period was rejected by its workforce. Defying many people’s expectations, the local ACFTU representative led the protests against Walmart. Under pressure from Walmart, […]
A lock-out of 40 workers at a warehouse in the industrial belt of the northern suburbs of Melbourne that has been going on for three weeks might be one of the first signs of an anti worker offensive by the new right wing Australian government. The workers at the A-Mart […]
This week saw the 3,600 members of the General Union of Petroleum & Chemical Workers in Jordan win a new collective agreement. The new contract gives workers a 30% pay rise, improvement to the retirement benefits, health and medical services for all workers and their families including pensioners. This surprising […]
As the Parliament of Taiwan considers passing a new Free Trade deal with China, hundreds of protesters invaded the chamber and occupied Parliament. This action was followed by solidarity protests around Taiwan as well as a demonstration of tens of thousands of people in Taipei itself. After a few days, […]
While most attention in the West Asia region is focused on the continued repression in Egypt and the civil war in Syria, the situation for Palestinians continues to be as bad as ever. Thousands of Palestinians are in Israeli jails, many of whom are in ‘administrative detention’. The resistance to […]
Last year, in a major industrial accident, 28 workers died at the Freeport-McMoran Grasberg copper mine in West Papua, Indonesia. An investigation into the accident has been held, and the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has stated that the company could have prevented the cave-in that killed those […]