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Six global apparel brands took the unusual and welcome step this week of publicly calling on a government to improve its labor laws. In their March 4 letter to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso, New Balance, Nike, PVH Corp. and three other brands said that current labor law that allows maquilas (apparel and other exporters) to use short-term contracts undermines worker rights and the ability of these companies to ensure compliance with their codes of conduct.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) embarked on a 200-mile march from Fort Myers, Fla., to Lakeland to raise awareness about the Fair Food movement that has encouraged growers and big tomato buyers (Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King and companies that provide food for dining halls, etc.) to agree to higher wages and other worker protections. The march, which goes from March 3-17, will end at Publix headquarters to put the pressure on supermarket industry leaders who continue to refuse these protections.
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge of plotting to kill Americans. Sulaiman Abu Ghaith entered the plea through his lawyer in New York federal court.
The unemployment rate among younger veterans continues to outpace the share of out-of-work civilians with nearly one in 10 ex-service members from the Iraq and Afghanistan eras hunting for jobs, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A national labor group is accusing the owner of six McDonald's franchises in Pennsylvania of abusing the State Department's controversial summer work visa program for immigrant students.
Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, was arrested Thursday for blocking access to a school closure hearing in Philadelphia. AFT spokesman Marcus Mrowka told The Huffington Post that Weingarten was arrested with 18 other community activists for blocking the entrance to the meeting. Weingarten said afterward she knew her actions would lead to arrest, but it was a last-resort attempt to stop the Philadelphia School Reform Commission from closing some of the city's public schools, which she argues would detrimentally affect students, particularly African American and Latino students.
The nation’s economy added 236,000 new jobs in February and the jobless rate was 7.7% from January's 7.9%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The 236,000 jobs created reflect 35 straight months of positive job growth. But the number of long-term unemployed (those who are jobless for 27 weeks or more) was unchanged at 4.8 million. These people account for 40.2% of the unemployed.
Ending violence against women is something everyone can agree on and shouldn't be controversial. Astonishingly, some Republicans in Congress held up the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) for more than a year because it has protections for Native Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and immigrant women without documents. President Obama just signed VAWA into law yesterday. This Senate-version of the bill was voted down by 138 Republicans in the House. Today, unions across the world are celebrating International Women's Day and raising awareness about violence against women and girls.
Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, who warned in a video after the Sept. 11 attacks that “the storms shall not stop,” was due in a New York courtroom Friday to face a charge of conspiring to kill Americans.
New England residents bundled up for a late-season storm that promised to dump nearly a foot of snow on parts of the region through Friday.
