tagged w/ working conditions
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Both Republicans and Democrats jabber a lot about jobs, even when times are relatively good. When times are bad the talk turns into a nasty shite-storm. The mantra for both sides is America can't compete if we don't [fill in the blank]. But here's a dirty little secret: America can't effectively compete regardless of which ideology you prefer.Both Republicans and Democrats jabber a lot about jobs, even when times are relatively... more
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The Costa Rican government has launched a study into the causes of chronic kidney disease in its sugarcane producing northern region. At the same time one of the country’s biggest sugar producers said it is revamping its worker health and safety policies.
The steps follow an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that explored the mysterious and largely overlooked epidemic of chronic kidney disease — or CKD — that is killing thousands of sugarcane workers and other manual laborers in Central America.
The Costa Rica study will seek to answer one of the thorniest and most politically sensitive questions surrounding what regional health experts call an epidemic: whether the illness should be classified as an occupational disease. Many workers believe the malady is caused by pesticide exposure and working conditions. They have demanded compensation from the sugar industry, which has vehemently denied responsibility.
“The main objective is to test whether CKD is or is not a labor-related exposure,” said Dr. Roy Wong, an epidemiologist with Costa Rica’s national health service and lead investigator for the study.
The cause of the disease’s outbreak remains unknown, although a growing body of research has shown links between declining kidney function and repeated heat stress and dehydration — the result of strenuous labor in hot climates.
The Costa Rican study will survey some 800 people -- mostly men -- in selected from eight of the hardest hit towns and villages in the country’s northernmost province, Guanacaste. This sampling will include both a group that has CKD and a group that does not. Researchers will compare their answers to a survey that measures their exposure to various risk factors. The factors being tested include pesticide exposure, heat stress, overuse of pain medication, and consumption of home-brewed and potentially tainted alcohol known as guaro.
A later phase may include environmental tests of soil and drinking water, depending on the results of the survey, Wong said.
This official investigation could have major implications for worker safety if it finds that the disease is linked to sugarcane work, said Dr. Manuel Cerdas, a nephrologist at Costa Rica’s Hospital Mexico who has studied the epidemic in Guanacaste.
“If it proves this, the government will say to the managers of sugar plantations that they have to consider their work hours, the temperatures, improve their hydration,” said Cerdas, who will participate in the study.
One major Costa Rican plantation, the Ingenio El Viejo, isn’t waiting for the government study. Days after ICIJ’s investigation was published in Costa Rica’s La Nacion newspaper, the plantation adopted a policy of supplying cane workers with a hydrating solution. The company has also started working with doctors from the national health service to develop a complete plan to keep CKD from afflicting its fulltime workers, and provide workers with access to CKD screening.
“This is the first step we’re taking to improve the conditions of hydration for the cane cutters,” said Jose Miguel Obando, risk prevention director at Ingenio El Viejo. “Our intention is for the cane cutter to find good conditions during the four months of the harvest that he is here.”
El Viejo's reforms were welcomed by advocates, who said the steps can save lives. But they emphasized a need to rigorously monitor workers. It is crucial to make sure that cane cutters are properly hydrated throughout their shifts – that they’re actually drinking the solution — said Jennifer Crowe, a researcher with SALTRA, a network of Central American scientists that has played a pioneering role in the study of the epidemic.
In Guanacaste, doctors who last year described being overwhelmed by the flood of CKD cases said they are optimistic that the Costa Rica study might yield additional resources to treat patients.
"There are many things we still lack, but I think the investigation with institutional support is a key point in order to know our needs," said Dr. Monica Espinoza, director of the CKD outreach program at Hospital de Liberia in Guanacaste. "It is a great help because from there we can work on risk prevention."
A broader response to the CKD epidemic would likely require international support. Yet developed nations including the United States have so far declined to actively investigate the outbreak. In February 2011, the United States helped defeat a proposal by El Salvador and other Central American nations to include CKD in an initiative by the World Health Organization and United Nations to battle chronic diseases in the Americas.
More at the linkThe Costa Rican government has launched a study into the causes of chronic kidney... more
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Supermarket tomatoes may look delicious — smooth, red and unblemished — but for the most part, they taste like nothing at all.
"I think tomatoes in grocery stores are like food porn in the purest sense of the word," author Barry Estabrook tells Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. "They tantalize you, they make you think, but they don't deliver."
Estabrook is the author of a new book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. It lays out why supermarket tomatoes tend to taste so bad — and how they got that way.
Estabrook places most of the blame on consumers who want fresh tomatoes year-round, even in the depths of winter. "Depending on the time of year, at certain times of the winter, 90 percent of the fresh tomatoes that we find in the supermarkets are grown in Florida," he says.
Florida is warm in the winter, and it's an easy trailer-truck ride to most of the country. But Florida is also about the worst possible place to grow tomatoes. Both the climate and the soil are completely unsuitable, Estabrook says, so farmers must drench their fields in pesticides and fertilizers to have any hope of a crop.
On top of that, the tomatoes you see in those supermarkets have been bred for high yields and durability, not flavor. "As a farmer once said — an honest farmer — 'I don't get paid a cent for flavor,'" Estabrook says.
There's an even darker side to the modern commercial tomato, too, he says. Up until recently, workers on many of Florida's vast industrial tomato farms were basically slaves. "People being bought and sold like animals," Estabrook says. "People being shackled in chains. People being beaten for either not working hard enough, fast enough, or being too weak or sick to work. People actually being shot and killed for trying to escape. That sounds like 1850's slavery to me, and that, in fact, is going on, or has gone on."
Estabrook adds that there have been seven successful slavery prosecutions in Florida in the past 15 years. The situation is beginning to improve, he adds. It began with a group of tomato pickers called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, named after the Florida town where they live and work.
The group had been lobbying since the early 1990s for a plan that included a pay raise and some basic workers' rights. "What they started concentrating on was the end-customers," Estabrook says. "They started, actually, with the Taco Bell restaurant chain."
After four years of protests and boycotts, Taco Bell agreed to sign on and support the group's plan. Other chains soon followed, and even the powerful Florida tomato growers' committee came on board.
"In the last seven or eight months, there's just been a sea change in labor relations in the Florida tomato industry," he says. But there's still a long way to go. Most supermarkets, with the exception of Whole Foods, do not support the plan.
More at the linkSupermarket tomatoes may look delicious — smooth, red and unblemished —... more
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Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.
The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the Assembly. But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.
The Assembly's vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on Thursday, but they turned up nothing.
"I applaud the Democrats in the Assembly for earnestly debating this bill and urge their counterparts in the state Senate to return to work and do the same," Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in a statement issued moments after the vote.
The plan from Republican Gov. Scott Walker contains a number of provisions he says are designed to fill the state's $137 million deficit and lay the groundwork for fixing a projected $3.6 billion shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 budget.
The flashpoint is language that would require public workers to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance and strip them of their right to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions.
Democrats and unions see the measure as an attack on workers' rights and an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats. Union leaders say they would make pension and health care concessions if they can keep their bargaining rights, but Walker has refused to compromise.
Tens of thousands of people have jammed the Capitol since last week to protest, pounding on drums and chanting so loudly that police providing security have resorted to ear plugs. Hundreds have taken to sleeping in the building overnight, dragging in air mattresses and blankets.
With the Senate immobilized, Assembly Republicans decided to act and convened the chamber Tuesday morning.
Democrats launched a filibuster, throwing out dozens of amendments and delivering rambling speeches. Each time Republicans tried to speed up the proceedings, Democrats rose from their seats and wailed that the GOP was stifling them.
Debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds.
Democrats looked around, bewildered. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members managed to vote in time.
Republicans immediately marched out of the chamber in single file. The Democrats rushed at them, pumping their fists and shouting "Shame!" and "Cowards!"
The Republicans walked past them without responding.
Democrats left the chamber stunned. The protesters greeted them with a thundering chant of "Thank you!" Some Democrats teared up. Others hugged.
"What a terrible, terrible day for Wisconsin," said Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee. "I am incensed. I am shocked."
GOP leaders in the Assembly refused to speak with reporters, but earlier Friday morning Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, warned Democrats that they had been given 59 hours to be heard and Republicans were ready to vote.
The governor has said that if the bill does not pass by Friday, the state will miss a deadline to refinance $165 million of debt and will be forced to start issuing layoff notices next week. However, the deadline may not as strict as he says.
The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said earlier this week that the debt refinancing could be pushed back as late as Tuesday to achieve the savings Walker wants. Based on a similar refinancing in 2004, about two weeks are needed after the bill becomes law to complete the deal. That means if the bill is adopted by the middle of next week, the state can still meet a March 16 deadline, the Fiscal Bureau said.
Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he and his colleagues wouldn't return until Walker compromised.Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant action on their plan... more
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Chinese police are investigating reports that a group of people with mental disabilities have been working in slave-like conditions.
The 11 workers were apparently sold by an unauthorised charitable organisation to a factory in the country's north-west.
Reports say the workers were unpaid and lived in appalling conditions.
Media reports suggest the workers lived as virtual slaves. They were given no pay, no protective clothing and had not showered for years, according to the Global Times newspaper.
More at the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11989414Chinese police are investigating reports that a group of people with mental... more
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The legacy of the Mexican-American civil rights activist and labor organizer lives on, though many farm workers today still struggle to attain the most basic rights.
Today, the birthday of farm labor organizer Cesar Chavez, is celebrated as Cesar Chavez day in eight US states. Most of them mark the occasion with symbolic commemoration, but a few, notably California, have actually made today into an official holiday. Chavez's legacy is so important, however, that there's a movement underway to have the day declared a national holiday.
Chavez (1927–1993), a Mexican-American farm worker and civil rights leader, joined with Dolores Huerta in founding the National Farm Workers Association in 1965, which later became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). The first successful farm workers' union in the country, the UFW succeeded in securing some of the nation's most disadvantaged workers better wages, benefits, working and living conditions and job security. The UFW rallying cry, "Sí, Se Puede!" will strike Obama supporters as familiar: In English, the chant is "Yes, We Can!"
If Chavez Day does become a national holiday, it would be more than just another day off work. This is a day not only to celebrate Chavez's positive impact on the rights of farm workers, but also to pay attention to the fact that many farm laborers today, lacking the benefit of union protection, still lack the most basic rights. These workers are often cruelly exploited or even kept as slaves, and the fight for their rights is still agonizingly difficult and too frequently disappointing.
There are brave groups doing something about this situation aside from the UFW, which carries on fighting for its members. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Immokalee, Florida, is organizing a three-day, 25-mile Farmworker Freedom March next month, in which workers will march from Tampa to Lakeland, Florida. The organization is also touring the mobile Florida Modern Slavery Museum around the state to educate people about the fate of modern farm workers.
Additionally, the organization Student Action with Farmworkers has named this Farmworker Awareness Week. So take a moment to think about those who picked the tomatoes in your lunchtime sandwich. And then forward this on to a few others who might appreciate knowing about this too.The legacy of the Mexican-American civil rights activist and labor organizer lives on,... more
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If you're typing on a keyboard made by Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, HP or IBM, you probably don't realize the awful working conditions the Chinese had while manufacturing it.
This cruelty and utter incompetence in management is unacceptable. Read on to see just how inhumane the conditions are.
And DO something about it if it disturbs you as much as it should! You, as a consumer have a choice when purchasing electronics. Don't just go for the cheapest. There's a reason why it's so cheap. It comes at the cost of human dignity, and human rights.If you're typing on a keyboard made by Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, HP or IBM, you... more
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Made In China follows the "bead trail" from the factory in China to Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, poignantly exposing the inequities of globalization. The clash of cultures is illuminated by juxtaposing American excess and consumer ignorance against the harsh life of the Chinese factory worker.Made In China follows the "bead trail" from the factory in China to Bourbon... more
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