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Nearly a decade after some of the most powerful companies in the world - often under considerable criticism and consumer pressure - began an effort to eliminate sweatshop labor conditions in Asia, worker abuse is still commonplace in many of the Chinese factories that supply Western companies, according to labor rights groups.

Toy makers are investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags.

LOS ANGELES -- Towering over the fenced protest area outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles is a giant mural with the faces of Cesar Chavez, Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

In its rush to re-create the industrial revolution that made the West rich, China has absorbed most of the major industries that once made the West dirty.

A Democratic senator said Wednesday that Christmas tree ornaments sold at Wal-Mart Stores and other major retailers were made in a Chinese sweatshop.

Companies responsible for the manufacturing of manholes are criticized over worker conditions in India, where manufacturing takes place.javascript:change_form_block( 'location_trigger' );

This report finds that goods manufactured in the US and sent to other countries do not meet our own safety standards and often do not receive media attention.

A California consumer group said Wednesday it has filed a legal action against Toys R Us and Babies R Us for selling vinyl baby bibs said to contain high levels of lead.

Organized labor often complains of its treatment at the hands of corporate America, but its accusations pale in comparison to those made recently by the widows of Colombian mine workers in an Alabama courtroom. During a two-week trial, a Birmingham jury weighed charges that the local Drummond Coal Company bore responsibility for the murders of three union leaders who represented workers at its Colombian mine - the world's largest open pit mine.

LOS ANGELES -- On Wednesday night, at the House of Blues on Sunset strip, the Edison Electric Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the American Gas Association, and the National Mining Association put on a Motown bash honoring Representative John Dingell (Democrat of Michigan) under the banner ''The Motor City Takes L.A. for a Spin.''

In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked.

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products' surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

Toxics in the United States that are dumped in other countries may come back to haunt U.S. consumers. This blog item provides links to studies and new films on this impact, as well as some alternatives.

High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China.

Protests against Korea's Daewoo corporation for allegedly selling military equipment to Myanmar's army government in exchange for energy contracts took place in 15 countries Monday.

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