Tag Archives: Worker

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Riot police ‘resorted to racial slurs’ in Husby

Police officers on hand during the Husby riot in northern Stockholm stand accused of using racist language towards people on the ground, with one youth worker in the area claiming it is “not the last time” such scenes will occur. Read More

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Pope condemns Bangladesh building collapse victims’ "slave labour"

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Celebrating the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, Pope Francis has used the occasion to condemn “slave labour” carried out by employees at the collapsed factories in Bangladesh.

Making an address on May Day, Pope Francis said: “I think of how many, and not just young people, are unemployed, often due to a purely economic conception of society that seeks selfish profit outside the parameters of social justice.”

According to a report by Vatican Radio, Pope Francis made the remark about the Bangladeshi workers during a private mass.

The Pontiff is said to have been shocked by the news that some of the 400 victims were living on 38 euros per month.

Pope Francis is the first Jesuit Pope, a group known for their vow of poverty.

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How neglecting bees could endanger humans

If you are an almond farmer in the Central Valley of California, where 80 percent of the world’s production is grown, you had a problem earlier this spring. Chances are there weren’t enough bees to pollinate your trees. That’s because untold thousands of colonies — almost half of the 1.6 million commercial hives that almond growers depend on — failed to survive the winter, making this the worst season for bee keepers in anyone’s memory. And that is saying a lot, because bees have been faring increasingly poorly for years now.Much of this recent spike in bee mortality is attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a mysterious condition where all the worker bees in a colony simply fly off as a group and never make it back to the hive. Scientists have been studying this odd phenomenon for years and they still aren’t sure why it is happening.Continue Reading… Read More

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Death toll in Bangladesh factory collapse eclipses 300

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) — More than two days after their factory collapsed on them, at least some garment workers were still alive in the corpse-littered debris Friday, pinned beneath tons of mangled metal and concrete. Rescue crews struggled to save them, knowing they probably had just a few hours left to live, as desperate relatives clashed with police in their anger and grief.Amid the chaos, the cries for help and the smell of decaying bodies at the eight-story building where more than 300 died, what happened to 18-year-old Mussamat Anna passes as luck. Rescue workers cut off the garment worker’s mangled right hand to pull her free from the debris Thursday night.”First a machine fell over my hand and I was crushed under the debris. … Then the roof collapsed over me,” she told an Associated Press cameraman from a hospital bed Friday.The death toll topped 300 on Friday and it remained unclear what the final grim number would be. Military spokesman Shahin Islam told reporters that 304 bodies had been recovered.Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing rescue operations, said 2,200 people have been rescued. The garment manufacturers’ group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed Wednesday in Savar, a suburb of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka.Continue Reading… Read More

Scientific Management Redux: The Difference Is in the Data

Companies are increasingly using data-driven testing and measurement in the hiring and evaluation of employees — a field called work force science. The enthusiasm for worker measurement and testing is not new, but the ability to collect and mine so much data on worker behavior is. It could open the door to new insights into what makes workers productive, innovative and happy on the job. Read More

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Exxon wins safety award as Mayflower sees no end to spill cleanup (VIDEO)

With Mayflower, Kansas struggling to deal with the 84,000 gallons of crude that began running through its streets last week, ExxonMobil has been made the recipient of the National Safety Council’s Green Cross for Safety medal. The group praised Exxon and its corporate bosses for “comprehensive commitment to safety excellence.” No mention was made of the developing Arkansas disaster. “It is evident that ExxonMobil is committed to excellence in safety, security, health and environmental performance,” council president Janet Froetscher said while presenting the award to ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. “This organization is a wonderful example of the role corporations can play in preventing injuries and saving lives,” she added.Meanwhile, Mayflower resident Chris Harrell has provided RT with exclusive video of the cleanup effort in his town.The film, shot on Thursday, shows muddied tarps strewn out across the streets where 22 homes were evacuated after an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured last week. Workers in special suits, reflective vests, and hard hats can be seen working as machinery buzzes in the background under a light drizzle. As the camera pans down the street, revealing a vacuum truck in operation parked outside of a home, members of the cleanup crew with the ExxonMobil insignia approach Harrell to ask if he needs any help. Harrell says he is taking video for friends who live in the area and is told by the crew worker that they are “concerned for his safety” due to the ongoing operations and equipment that has been deployed.   Harrell, who then identifies himself as a resident, asks if the streets will have to be torn up. The crew is unable to answer, but offers an escort if he would like to enter the site.   On Friday, ExxonMobile VP of Operations, Karen Tyrone, said the company has increased the size of the cleanup crew working in Mayflower to more than 640 people. Tyrone continued that they are working 24 hours a day to keep the oil from spreading. “Precaution is the word here. We’re not going to put people at risk. We want to make sure everyone feels comfortable before these residents return to their homes,” she said. On Wednesday, ExxonMobile had said that around “570 people are responding to the incident in addition to federal, state and local responders.” Despite his most civil encounter with the crew on the ground, Harrell expressed frustration that it had taken ExxonMobil so long to bolster the crew attempting to clean up thousands of barrels worth of oil in the area.“Why did @exxonmobil wait 5 days to bring in additional manpower? We’ve gotten your worst please give us your best,” he tweeted on Thursday. On Wednesday, Exxon Mobil spokesman Alan Jeffers says between 3,500 and 5,000 barrels of oil leaked from a ruptured pipeline, although previous reports had put that figure at 12,000 barrels. There is no solid timetable on when the cleanup efforts will finally be completed.Follow RT’s in-depth day-by-day timeline on the Arkansas oil spill. Read More

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What is Marco Rubio up to?

It was the mystery left in the wake of the Sunday shows: just before Sen. Chuck Schumer was set to tell “Meet the Press” that the so-called “Gang of Eight” is on the verge of a deal on immigration reform, Sen. Marco Rubio sent out a statement headlined:  “Rubio: No Final Agreement on Immigration Legislation Yet.” It read, in part, “Reports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed on a legislative proposal are premature.”Schumer went ahead and kvelled about being close to a deal, anyway. “With the agreement between business and labor, every major policy issue has been resolved on the ‘Gang of Eight,’” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd. A GOP Gang member, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, sounded more cautiously optimistic. “We’re much closer with labor and business agreeing on this guest-worker plan,” Flake told Todd. “But that doesn’t mean we’ve crossed every ‘I’ or dotted every ‘T’ or vice versa.” They were referring to a deal on the status of low-skilled immigrant workers brokered Friday night by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue.Continue Reading… Read More