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Bangladesh court jails Rana Plaza owner for three years for graft

A Bangladesh court on Tuesday jailed the Rana Plaza owner for three years for graft, the first of many charges laid against him after the garment factory complex collapsed in 2013 and killed more than 1,130 people.

Sohel Rana was given the maximum three-year sentence by a special court in Dhaka for failing to declare his personal wealth to Bangladesh’s anti-graft commission, one of a series of charges brought after the disaster.

“This is the first time he has been convicted and jailed,” said prosecutor Salahuddin Eskander.

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Ghazl El-Mahalla textile workers’ strike is not the first

Workers at the Cotton and Textile Industries Holding Company’s textile factories in El-Mahalla city suspended their 15 day strike on Sunday evening. All workers returned to the various departments in the company, including the weaving, wool, cotton, medical and engineering and the electricity department. The strike was suspended following promises by the company to examine and gradually respond to the workers’ demands, in accordance with the law.  Continue reading “Ghazl El-Mahalla textile workers’ strike is not the first”

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Machines

Director Rahul Jain presents an intimate, observantly portrayal of the rhythm of life and work in a gigantic textile factory in Gujarat, India. Moving through the corridors and bowels of the enormous and disorientating structure, the camera takes the viewer on a journey to a place of dehumanising physical labor and intense hardship, provoking cause for thought about persistent pre-industrial working conditions and the huge divide between first world and developing countries. Since the 1960s the area of Sachin in western India has undergone unprecedented, unregulated industrialisation, exemplified in its numerous textile factories. MACHINES portraits only one of these factories, while at the same time representing the thousands of labourers working, living and suffering in an environment they can’t escape without unity. With strong visual language, memorable images and carefully selected interviews of the workers themselves, Jain tells a story of inequality and oppression, humans and machines.

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Uzbekistan: Forced Labor Linked to World Bank

Systematic Violations Underpin Country’s Cotton Sector

The World Bank is funding half a billion dollars in agricultural projects linked to forced and child labor in Uzbekistan, Human Rights Watch and the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights informed about it in a report released today. Under the loan agreements, the Uzbek government is required to comply with laws prohibiting forced and child labor, and the World Bank can suspend the loans if there is credible evidence of violations. Continue reading “Uzbekistan: Forced Labor Linked to World Bank”

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To the good guys.

Spain seems divided recently because of the different opinions regarding the donations of oncological equipment valued at euros 320 million by the Amancio Ortega Foundation. Some people glorify the leading figure of the founder of Zara to the altars of holiness, or simply believe that being grateful is being a good guy.  But there are also those who criticize the derisory nature of the donation (compared to his fortune), the tax avoidance of Ortega’s business industry or the scandals of child slavery and labor exploitation found in the INDITEX production chain.

Continue reading “To the good guys.”