Tag Archives: workers’ issues

Amazon Fined in France for Illegally Spying on Workers

The retail giant was also ordered to pay more than $30 million last year after allegedly surveilling customers with its tech products.

By Julia Conley. Published 1-23-2024 by Common Dreams

Months after Amazon was fined more than $30 million for allegedly spying on customers in their homes, a French data watchdog on Monday announced it had ordered the retail giant to pay another $35 million for what it called “excessive” tracking of warehouse employees’ activity.

France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) informed Amazon France Logistique, which runs the U.S. company’s warehouses in the country, of the fine late last month after investigating scanning devices used by employees.

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Analysis Shows How Corporate Profits Drive Inflation—Even as Business Costs Go Down

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“It’s one thing for corporations to pass reasonable increased costs to consumers,” said one analyst. “It’s another for them to line their coffers by exploiting Americans who are just trying to get by.”

By Julia Conley. Published 1-18-2024 by Common Dreams

Inflation has eased over the last two years, and with supply chains no longer struggling to keep up with demand and companies’ business costs stabilizing, an analysis out Thursday asks: Why haven’t American households seen the benefits of a more secure economy, with the prices of consumer goods and services falling?

The answer, said economic justice think tank Groundwork Collaborative, is that high prices linked to the coronavirus pandemic were never just the result of higher labor and production costs—but were partially caused by corporations’ deliberate price gouging.

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Minimum Wage Hikes Will Boost Pay of Nearly 10 Million US Workers in 2024

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“These raises are the outcome of over a decade of workers organizing with Fight for $15,” said the National Employment Law Project.

By Julia Conley. Published 12-27-2023 by Common Dreams

*Workers and activists march in support of a higher minimum wage. ) (Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr/cc)*

Tireless campaigning by economic justice advocates helped to secure minimum wage hikes for nearly 10 million U.S. workers starting in 2024, and one think tank noted on Wednesday that further successes at the state and local levels are expected in the coming year—but experts said the federal government must catch up with state legislators to deliver fair wages to all workers.

January 1 will see 22 states increase their minimum wages, providing affected workers with an additional $6.95 billion.

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FTC-DOJ Merger Guidelines Aim to ‘Restore Competition and Strengthen Democracy’

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One expert called the guidance “a game-changer for antitrust enforcement, incorporating decades of new learnings and thousands of public comments from working families and small businesses.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 12-18-2023 by Common Dreams

*Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Screenshot: CNBC*

Antitrust campaigners and experts on Monday celebrated the Biden administration’s new guidelines for mergers and acquisitions, which supporters say will “restore competition and strengthen democracy.”

Farm Action co-founder and chief strategy officer Joe Maxwell commended the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) “for delivering on their commitment to restore competition to our economy.”

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Milei Couples ‘Total Crackdown’ on Protest With Economic Shocks in Argentina

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“Protest is elemental to Argentine social and political life, so it’s not difficult to imagine how this ends,” said one journalist.

By Julia Conley. Published 12-15-2023 by Common Dreams

*Argentinian President Javier Milei.* Photo by Mídia NINJA

As the human impact of Argentinian President Javier Milei’s “shock treatment” to the South American country’s economy became increasingly clear with rising prices on Thursday, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced what one journalist said were doubtlessly “preemptive” new controls on protests to discourage a struggling population from speaking out.

Bullrich said four security forces—the Federal Police, the Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture, and the Airport Security Police—will work together to stop protests that block streets and suggested the protocol is aimed only at ensuring “that people can live in peace” without demonstrators blocking traffic.

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‘Biggest Ever Global Strike Against Amazon’ Kicks Off on Black Friday

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“This day of action grows every year because the movement to hold Amazon accountable keeps getting bigger and stronger,” said the head of UNI Global Union.

By Jake Johnson. Published 11-24-2023 by Common Dreams

*Amazon workers and allies take part in a “Make Amazon Pay” day of action on November 24, 2023. (Photo: Global Justice Now)*

Amazon workers and allies in dozens of countries around the world took to the streets Friday to protest the e-commerce behemoth’s atrocious working conditions, low pay, union busting, tax dodging, and inaction on planet-warming emissions.

The “Make Amazon Pay” strikes and rallies coincided with Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year and one of Amazon’s most profitable. Amazon workers across the globe—in ever-larger numbers—have been walking off the job on Black Friday for years to demand better treatment from the $1.5 trillion company.

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Day After Texas Fire, Report Reveals US Hazardous Chemical Incidents Occur Almost Daily

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“Hazardous facilities must be required to do more to protect workers and communities,” said Coming Clean’s federal policy director.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-9-2023 by Common Dreams

*The Sound Resource Solutions facility made solvents for glue and paint remover.. Photo: @JamaalBowmanNY/X*

A shelter-in-place order has been lifted in two Texas counties after a chemical plant fire on Wednesday, which came on the eve of a report showing just how frequent such incidents are across the United States, particularly at sites tied to the fossil fuel industry.

There have been at least 287 hazardous chemical incidents—including explosions, fires, and toxic releases—this year alone, and over 825 since the beginning of 2021, according to the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters’ online database.

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Amazon ‘Failed to Protect’ Third-Party Workers in Saudi Arabia

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Investigations from several newsrooms and Amnesty International report exploitative contracts and unsafe living conditions for foreign workers at the company’s warehouses.

By Olivia Rosane. Published 10-10-2023 by Common Dreams

Amazon failed to protect contract workers in Saudi Arabia from human rights abuses that may have amounted to human trafficking.

That’s one of the findings from an Amnesty International exposé and combined reporting from NBC News, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, and The Guardian, all published Tuesday. The investigations focused on men recruited from Nepal to work at Amazon warehouses in Saudi Arabia, where they found themselves faced with low pay, unhealthy living conditions, and no job security. When they complained directly to Amazon managers, nothing changed.

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California Public School Students Will Learn About Labor Rights Under First-of-Its-Kind Law

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“A.B. 800 empowers young people with the information and tools they need to understand their rights as workers,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher of the California Labor Federation.

By Julia Conley. Published 10-2-2023 by Common Dreams

While Republican-controlled state legislatures have rolled back child labor protections this year, Democratic lawmakers and rights advocates in California on Monday celebrated Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of a first-of-its-kind law that they say will make young people less vulnerable to workplace abuses by teaching them about labor protections.

Assemblymember Liz Ortega (D-20) told the Contra Costa News that Assembly Bill 800 is aimed at “giving kids the tools to stand up for themselves” as Republican lawmakers attack unions as well as making it easier for companies to employ children as young as 14 to work in industrial facilities.

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UN Report Urges End to Forced US Prison Labor—a ‘Contemporary Form of Slavery’

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One of the U.N. experts who compiled the report after visiting the U.S. earlier this year said its findings “point to the critical need for comprehensive reform.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 9-28-2023 by Common Dreams

*There are no minimum wage or overtime pay requirements for prison work Photo: Meer*

A report published Thursday by United Nations human rights experts condemns systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system and policing, while describing “appalling” prison conditions and decrying forced unpaid convict labor as a “contemporary form of slavery.”

The U.N. International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in the Context of Law Enforcement report follows a visit to the U.S. earlier this year by a team of human rights experts. The U.N. officials collected testimonies from 133 affected people, visited five prisons and jails, and held meetings with advocacy groups and numerous government and police officials in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

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Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: workers’ issues