On the 14th of May, a spark ignited an inferno at the Kentex footwear factory situated in Valenzuela City, on the outskirts of Manila. Due to the presence of large quantities of chemicals and cramped conditions, the fire spread quickly. Due to inadequate exits and non existent fire control systems, […]
Daily Archives: May 17, 2015
8 posts
This week, the full impact of the Burmese government repression of Rohingyas, one of its internal minority populations, was exposed to the world. Thousands of Burmese refugees have been stranded in boats in the Andaman Sea and Malaccan Straits as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia try to prevent them from landing […]
As reported previously (see here and here), there has been an upsurge in action by workers in Iran in the last 12 months as a reaction to the continuing deterioration of living standards. On May Day, seven independent labour organisations put out a joint statement denouncing the savage exploitation of […]
This week was the first anniversary of the Soma mine disaster in western Turkey where 301 workers were killed when there was a major underground explosion and fire (see images). The disaster was a result of continual cost cutting by the company that resulted in unsafe working conditions. While some […]
The 15th of May is the 67th anniversary of Al Nakba, the day in 1948 that officially marks the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their lands. Thousands of Palestinians all around the world held events to remember, to commemorate and to fight for justice for the […]
Earlier this month, over 40 contract workers at the Hedgewar Hospital in Delhi started an indefinite sit in inside the hospital compound. They were all contract workers whose contracts were suddenly terminated. After a week, the workers were successful as the local government was afraid that the actions could spread […]
A fire at a garment factory in the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) of Karachi earlier this month injured at least ten workers. Given that buildings are built very close to each other and that there are few access points, fire personnel had to break through walls to get to […]
This week, the city of Geneva, Switzerland hosted a major international conference that discussed whether to list chrysotile asbestos as a substance to be banned from use. Even though the World Health Organisation estimates that over 100,000 people are killed each year because of exposure to asbestos, powerful economic players […]