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The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a labour and women's rights organization that supports the efforts of workers in global supply chains to win improved wages and working conditions and a better quality of life. ( More)
The Central General de Trabajadores de Honduras (CGT) and Nike announced a ground-breaking agreement today that will provide a US$1.5 million fund for workers in Honduras that formerly produced Nike apparel. According to a press release from Nike and the CGT, workers will also receive a year's access to the health care system, training and priority hiring. The agreement comes after intense pressure was put on Nike by a student-led campaign that had convinced some US universities to end lucrative licensing agreements with Nike.
The Bangladesh government has launched an attack on an outspoken workers' organization in a bid to silence mass protests for an increase to the poverty wages paid to garment workers. Last month, the government stripped the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) of their legal status, alleging the organization was inciting unrest in garment factories. Bangladesh police detained, beat and threatened a BCSW staff member. Please take a few minutes to take action in support of the BCWS now.
June 28th marked the anniversary of the coup d'état in Honduras. One year later, the political crisis in the country remains unresolved. Despite an election in November, 2009, violence and repression have continued under new President Porfirio Lobo, and civil society continues to refuse to recognize his government while pressing ahead with plans to hold a Constituent Assembly to begin the process of changing the Honduran Constitution.
With the FIFA World Cup in South Africa just days away, the soccer world's leading organization is being asked to take a closer look at the dismal realities faced by soccer ball stitchers. Workers stitching soccer balls in Pakistan, India, China and Thailand continue to experience alarming labour rights violations, including child labour, non-payment of the minimum wage and extensive use of temporary labourers.
A three-day strike by workers at a Johnson Controls auto parts plant in Puebla, Mexico, backed by an international solidarity campaign, has won the workers the right to be represented by a union of their free choice. The agreement sets an important precedent in Mexico where employers often sign "protection contracts" with corrupt unions without the workers' knowledge and/or consent in order to prevent those workers from organizing or affiliating with a democratic union.
As consumers rush to get their hands on an iPad, Apple Inc.'s latest gadget, which officially hit Canadian stores today, Asian civil society organizations are protesting Foxconn, the world's leading electronics manufacturer and one of Apple's major suppliers, for its deplorable labour practices which have been linked to 12 worker suicides at one of its Chinese plants this year alone.
The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh launched a new campaign this month entitled "No More Fires, No More Locked Exits, No More Garment Workers Deaths." NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin, speaking at a recent rally, said "Since 1990, there have been 33 major garment factory fires in which more than 400 garment workers have been killed...One of the reasons for the large number of causalities is the practice of locking factory exits, as well as a lack of health and safety inspections in many of the garment factories..."
On April 27, Mexican human rights activist and indigenous leader Alberta ("Bety") Cariño and Finnish human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola were killed and several people injured when the international aid caravan they were part of was ambushed by paramilitaries.
We urge you to write to the Mexican authorities today to condemn this crime and demand that those responsible be brought to justice.
On April 28, 2010, Enrique Morales Montaño and Coral Juarez Melo, of the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT) were visiting employees of the multi-national Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) in the community of Santo Toribio, when Enrique was physically assaulted by the son of Magdaleno Texis, a local leader of the CROM, the illegitimate union at the Johnson Controls Puebla factory. Please help support the CAT by sending a letter to Mexican President Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa asking him to guarantee the safety of Coral Juarez and Enrique Morales.
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