health and safety

  • The Cost of Cheap Clothes: Twenty Dead in Bangladesh Factory Fire
    Labor Notes Staff
    Mar 19 2010 - 3:48pm

    Twenty-one Bangladeshi garment workers were killed February 26 when a sweater factory caught fire. Another 20 workers were hospitalized for burns and other injuries following the blaze at a factory near Dhaka, the manufacturing center of Bangladesh.

    As the fire spread, workers on the third and seventh floors were trapped, locked in for their own “security.” Eleven security guards, who had the keys, fled the scene. Poor ventilation, caused partly by storage of production materials on the roof, turned the sealed rooms into gas chambers.

  • Cameras on Trains Have Big Blind Spots

    Besides raising basic constitutional issues with the regard to the right to privacy, it is highly debatable whether a safety board's ruling to put video cameras in locomotives will diminish the likelihood of railroad accidents. But what it will do is place blame for accidents squarely on individual worker behavior, giving little incentive for the company to make the necessary investment to address systemic factors that are the real underlying causes of most workplace accidents and injuries.

  • With Members Angry, Unions Sue to Stop Mandatory Vaccinations
    Mischa Gaus
    Nov 11 2009 - 1:17am

    A feverish anger rose this fall among New York's health care workers, the first in the nation required to take a flu shot. Health care union activists said union leaders were too timid responding to the mandate.

  • Kraft Foods Workers in Argentina Occupy Factory
    Daniel Ximenez
    Oct 30 2009 - 3:47pm

    In the Kraft Foods factory north of Buenos Aires, management touched off a firestorm of worker discontent that included a 38-day sit-in, a police attack, and marches of thousands of supporters.

  • Red Cross Pricked for Labor Problems
    Oct 24 2009 - 1:08am

    Management disrespect for workers at Red Cross is spoiling the reputation of one of America’s largest humanitarian organizations, according to a report by Jobs with Justice.