Labor

In July 2020 Maria Aparecida de Souza visited the JBS slaughterhouse outpatient clinic in Sidrolândia, in the southern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, to complain of body aches and a cough, afraid that she might have caught COVID-19, according to Brasil de Fato, a Brazilian news site. Read More

Clover Group’s Brilliant Alliance Thai factory in Samut Prakan province used to manufacture lingerie for brands like Lane Bryant, Torrid, and Victoria’s Secret. Over a third of the workers were women aged 45 and older and many had worked at the factory for over a decade. The owners abruptly shut down the factory in March 2021 and fired 1,250 workers. After a successful campaign, Victoria’s Secret agreed to lend the owners U.S. $8.3 million to pay severance to the workers. Read More

Facebook’s parent company has been sued in Kenya over mental health trauma suffered by Daniel Motaung, a former content moderator who worked for Sama, a contractor hired to remove graphic and violent content on the social media site. Moutang is seeking compensation for all others who faced similar problems. Read More

On May Day, food delivery couriers at Deliveroo in the United Arab Emirates, went on a rare strike against pay cuts. A short video of hundreds of workers milling around in their turquoise-colored work uniforms went viral, encouraging workers at Talabat, a rival food delivery platform, to follow suit. Read More

Workers have been organizing to form unions at: Read More

“The living conditions – catastrophe: Mice running around the kitchen. When I tried opening the fridge, the door came off. You’d get a better sleep on the floor than on the beds provided,” Maria*, a Polish worker in the Netherlands employed by T&S Flexwerk, told CorpWatch. Read More

A Starbucks store in Buffalo, NY successfully voted to unionize at the end of 2021, becoming the first coffee shop in the chain to become part of a union. This created an unprecedented wave of unionizing efforts among Starbucks workers across the US.  Read More

An email titled “Why gas increase is good for hiring”, sent out by Wayne Pankratz, an executive director of operations for Applebee’s franchise Apple Central LLC, detailed how inflation and soaring gas prices are a great opportunity for lowering employees’ wages. Read More

In late March 2022, workers at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted on whether or not to unionize. On April 1st, the election results were announced and the final vote count was 2654 “yes" and 2131 “no". This marks the first time US workers have successfully voted to form a union in Amazon's 27-year history. Read More

Lawyers for a group of some 1,200 Nicaraguan banana plantation workers appeared before the Paris Trial Court in an effort to force Dow Chemical, Occidental Chemical and Shell Oil to pay $1 billion in compensation for health problems caused by Nemagon, a pesticide sold by the three companies. Read More