Big rail strike rocks Germany
BERLIN — It’s the biggest labor struggle in years in Germany, and it’s not over yet. On Nov. 28 the locomotive engineers and other train personnel just closed down much of the railroad system for 62 hours for freight and 48 hours for passenger transportation and may do it again next week, possibly without the limited strike length used up till now.
Children suffer in immigration raids
For every two people detained in immigration enforcement operations, one child is left behind, according to a recent report, “Paying the Price: The impact of Immigration Raids on America’s Children,” released by the National Council of La Raza and the Urban Institute.
Solidarity and Mexican truckers
The U.S. Senate voted 75-23 Sept. 11 to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. highways. The vote rejected a Bush administration program that would allow Mexican truck drivers to operate beyond commercial zones near the Mexican border.
Workers with rights, not guests who are slaves
Growing up in western Texas as the daughter of cotton sharecroppers, I spent my summers weeding cotton, five days a week, 10 hours a day, in 95-degree heat. As grueling as this workload was, others had it even worse. For foreign workers toiling as “guest workers” (or “braceros”) alongside us in the cotton fields, the five-day workweek was an impossible luxury.
Border insecurity rises, as does the temperature
TUCSON, Ariz. — While Congress debates “tougher security at the border,” the temperature is rising above 100 degrees in the Sonoran Desert. Already 84 bodies have been found along the Mexico-Arizona border, more than this time last year.
Undue influence: Wal-mart, Google, GE press China to curb workers rights
There is a “tug of war” raging worldwide over reforms in China’s labor law, according to Brendan Smith, Tim Costello and Jerry Brecher, authors of a report released April 5 by Global Labor Strategies (GLS).
Union Organizing Can Be Deadly in Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia (AP) - More than 800 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia over the past six years, by government count, yet the number of those murders solved can be counted on one hand.
Colombia: murder and migration
Development projects anywhere in the world often have a high human cost. In Colombia, the price is often measured in human lives and blood.
Iraqi unions reject foreign control of oil
Leaders of Iraq’s labor movement have criticized Iraqi government plans to hand control over the country’s oil production to multinational companies.
Play reveals struggles of South Asian women
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — In response to Eve Enseler’s feminist “Vagina Monologues,” a series of theatrical vignettes on the theme of contemporary women’s gender and social oppression, South Asian Sisters, a California-based group, developed “Yoni Ki Baat” (“Talks of the Vagina”).
