TotalEnergies refinery strikes to go ahead, CGT union official says

Rowena Edwards
Thu, 23 June 2022, 

The TotalEnergies logo sits on the company's headquarter skyscraper 

in the La Defense business district in Paris

By Rowena Edwards

(Reuters) -French trade union CGT plans to go ahead with a 24-hour strike on Friday at TotalEnergies’ oil refineries in France after talks with CEO Patrick Pouyanne on Wednesday fell through, CGT official Thierry Defresne told Reuters.

The CGT plans to halt deliveries by truck, train and pipeline, with only minimum flow for production units at TotalEnergies’ five refineries in France.

The union is calling for an immediate increase in wages to compensate for rising inflation, and as TotalEnergies’ earnings surge on soaring oil and gas prices.

All unions planning to be involved in the strike action met with a TotalEnergies committee on Wednesday, but Pouyanne's response to demands was insufficient to stop strike action from taking place, Defresne said.

If an immediate wage increase is not met, this will be “only the beginning of a process that will lead to blocking activity,” CGT coordinator of TotalEnergies Group Eric Selleni wrote in a letter to Pouyanne dated June 20.

TotalEnergies declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Benjamin Mallet in Paris;editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)

US gas pipeline leaks occur every 40 hours: report

BY SHARON UDASIN - 06/23/22 

U.S. natural gas pipelines are experiencing the equivalent of one leak every 40 hours, a new report has found.

From 2010 to 2021, almost 2,600 such leaks occurred that were serious enough to require federal reporting — with 850 resulting from fires and 328 from explosions, according to the study, released by U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) Educational Fund.

These incidents killed 122 people and injured 603, with total costs in property damage, emergency services and the value of unintentionally released gas totaling nearly $4 billion, the authors observed.

Such events also led to the leakage of 26.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas — the equivalent to more than 2.4 million passenger vehicles driven for a year, according to the report, published together with Environment America Research & Policy Center and the Frontier Group think tank.

“House explosions and leaking pipelines aren’t isolated incidents — they’re the result of an energy system that pipes dangerous, explosive gas across the country and through our neighborhoods,” co-author Matt Casale, environment campaigns director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund, said in a statement.

“It’s time to move away from gas in this country and toward safer, cleaner electrification and renewable energy,” he added.

To draw their conclusions, Casale and his colleagues sifted through federal leak reporting data available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The authors — who referred to natural gas by its primary component of methane rather than using the word “natural” — stressed that the amount of gas leaking into the environment is likely far greater than the quantity captured in federal leak reporting.

Citing a Science study from 2018, they noted that leaks from gas lines over two decades had nearly doubled the climate impact of natural gas.

The resultant warming was on par with that of carbon dioxide-emitting coal plants, the study found, noting that while methane doesn’t persist in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide does, its warming effects are much stronger.

Natural gas releases can occur intentionally when a utility needs to lower pressure or empty pipelines for maintenance, or they can happen due to wear, equipment failure, natural causes, accidental force or puncture, according to the U.S. PIRG report.

While Environmental Protection Agency data showed that emissions from natural gas transmission had fallen significantly between 1990 and 2016, progress has slowed since, the authors found. 

They also expressed concern that some information regarding deaths and injuries might not be available in the federal leak reporting database, since not all the leaks occur in the pipeline system.

A considerable volume of leaks might be overlooked particularly in urban areas, the report found, citing a 2021 Harvard University study.

That study, they explained, found that methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure and use in U.S. cities was two to 10 times greater than federal estimates indicated. Meanwhile, Boston’s emissions were six times higher than those reported by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

More than half of those emissions came from non-pipeline sources both in and out of homes, according to the U.S. PIRG report.

“Leaks, fires and explosions are reminders that transporting methane gas is dangerous business,” report lead author Tony Dutzik, associate director and senior policy analyst at Frontier Group, said in a statement.

Moving forward, the report authors recommended that the U.S. curb its reliance on natural gas for home heating and cooking as well as for electricity generation.

They argued that policymakers should instead incentivize the transition to all-electric buildings and renewable energy. And in the interim, they suggested focusing gas infrastructure investments on fixing leaks.

“Fully protecting the public requires us to reduce our dependence on gas,” Dutzik added.

Amazon feature has Alexa speaking in voice of late relative

By Trevor MoggJune 22, 2022 

Whether you find it comforting or creepy rather depends on your disposition, but Amazon has found a way to get Alexa to speak in the voice of anyone — including a deceased relative.

The feature was explained by Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for the Alexa team, during Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, June 22.

Prasad said engineers had deployed A.I. technology to create a way for its digital assistant to mimic a voice after listening to “less than a minute” of recorded audio of the person speaking, while before hours of studio recordings would’ve been required.

In a demonstration video played at the event, a child says, “Alexa, can Grandma finish reading me The Wizard of Oz?” After acknowledging the child’s request in its usual voice, Alexa began speaking in a voice very similar to that of the child’s grandmother.

Prasad said engineers are still working on improving what is essentially a deepfake feature, and declined to say when Amazon might release it so that interested customers can get long-gone Grandad back up and running.

If raising the dead seems a bit much, you could also get Alexa to speak in the voice of someone living, such as your child, brother, sister, mom, dad, best buddy, or even yourself.

But at Wednesday’s event, Prasad highlighted the fact that the feature could be used to retain the memory of a loved one who has passed away, noting how many people have lost special people during the pandemic.

“While A.I. can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make the memories last,” he said.

The feature is one step away from enabling people to have natural and meaningful conversations with the dearly departed that include opinions and references to past events linked to that person, similar to an early Black Mirror episode (Be Right Back, season 2) where a woman is able to communicate with her late partner through messaging.

Amazon has made a small move toward this with Alexa’s Conversation Mode, which is aimed at offering more natural voice experiences with the digital assistant. Marry this with the voice of a deceased relative, and feed in some personality data for Amazon’s A.I. to process, and science fiction could soon become science fact.

Echoes of 1974 as NHS staff are compared to striking miners who brought down Tory government

A leading historian says NHS staff could play the role of the striking miners that brought down Edward Heath’s Conservatives in 1974.

By Christopher McKeon
Tuesday, 21st June 2022

Jim Tomlinson, professor of economic and social history at Glasgow University, said Britain was not heading back to the 1970s despite similar concerns over inflation and industrial action.

He said: “Clearly there are similarities, and most obviously the kind of supply side shock of higher oil prices, but beyond that I think so many things are different.”

One key difference Prof Tomlinson identified was not only the size of trade unions but their symbolic importance.

Miners march along Princes Street: Leading the rally are some familiar names including NUM leaders Joe Gormley, and Mick McGahey, plus politicians Jim Sillars and the late John Smith.

He said: “I think the line-up is very, very different. There are no coal miners, to state the bleeding obvious, who had a substantive and symbolic importance in the early 1970s.

“Coal miners as the symbol of the unionised working class have simply disappeared. I don’t think railway workers have the same place in political argument that coal miners did.”

However, Prof Tomlinson suggested NHS staff could pose a greater political risk to the Government if they decided to begin industrial action.

He said: “I think that’s politically the hardest thing for them to deal with.

“With railway workers, it’s pretty easy to mobilise a story about commuters being workers too. But politically, the NHS is kind of like coal miners in the 70s.

“NHS workers are regarded more sympathetically than railway workers.”

In one sense, Prof Tomlinson said, an NHS strike could be more damaging to the Government than the strikes of the early 1970s or the Winter of Discontent in 1978-9 as it employs a larger proportion of the workforce than the industries that walked out in the 1970s.

NHS nurses backed strikes in a vote in December 2021 but failed to secure the 50% turnout required before industrial action can take place.

Rising inflation and restraint on public sector pay has sparked fears that another ballot could be more successful, leading to a walkout among NHS staff.

Prof Tomlinson added: “The NHS is now the biggest employer in Britain by a mile and it’s highly unionised.

“It’s one area where, in a sense, the 70s are still there.”

He also said that greater inequality now, combined with the greater impact of inflation on lower paid, public sector workers meant the “standard rhetorical arguments” about corporate profits and bosses’ salaries rising could have more impact.

Prof Tomlinson said: “Obviously, union negotiators always say that, but there’s a much greater sense of inequality today.

“We’ve seen inequality, bankers’ bonuses shooting up and corporate profits rising, so there’s much more substance to the claim that inflation is being much more differentially felt than in the 70s.”

 UK teachers’ strike would be 'unforgivable', Nadhim Zahawi says

Secretary's comments follow the National Education Union saying it plans to consult teaching staff

A schoolteacher next to piles of classroom books. PA

Soraya Ebrahimi
Jun 22, 2022

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said teachers going on strike would be “irresponsible”, as the biggest teachers’ union warned of industrial action over pay and workload.

Mr Zahawi said such a move would be "unfair" after the upheaval to children’s learning caused by the pandemic.

The National Education Union said on Wednesday that it would consult its members in the autumn, “strongly encouraging them” to back industrial action if the government did not respond to its concerns in the next few months.

“Young people have suffered more disruption than any generation that’s gone before them and to compound that now, as recovery is in full swing and families are thinking about their next big step following school or college, would be unforgivable and unfair,” Mr Zahawi wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

The union said pay cuts and high workload were hitting teacher recruitment and retention, causing “real damage” to education.
It criticised the government’s evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body proposing a 3 per cent pay increase for most teachers in England.

The union said that would mean a “huge” pay cut on the basis of Wednesday’s inflation figures of 9.1 per cent on the CPI measure and 11.7 per cent for RPI.

NEU deputy general secretary Niamh Sweeney told Sky News that a teachers’ strike was “more likely than it’s been in my 20 years of working in the profession”.

“Teachers are saying to us that they are finding it difficult to get to the end of the month," Mr Sweeney said. "Their heating bills and their fuel bills means that they are struggling to survive."

In a letter to Mr Zahawi, the union called for a fully funded inflation-plus pay increase greater than inflation for all teachers, as well as action on pay for other staff such as support workers, and ways to reduce workloads.


The minister was told that teachers' pay has fallen by a fifth in real terms since 2010, even before this year’s increases in inflation, while their workload remains at “unsustainable” levels.

“Alongside the decline in teacher pay in real terms against inflation, it has also declined in relative terms against earnings," the letter says.

“Average teacher salaries are at their lowest level compared to average earnings across the economy in over 40 years.

“Teachers and school leaders often tell us that workload is their predominant concern but right now, our members are telling us pay is a big issue too.

“The combination of unsustainable hours, the work intensity during those hours and ever-falling pay levels are damaging our schools and the young people we are educating.

“Teachers are looking at their working hours and their pay and calculating hourly rates, which are alarmingly low.

“The latest teacher training figures are very worrying; applications have fallen by 24 per cent compared with last year.

“One in eight newly qualified teachers left the job in their first year of teaching. These young people have often finished a degree, then completed a postgraduate qualification.

“They are a great loss to the profession, but more importantly to the nation’s pupils who rely on their teachers to educate and care for them.

“You must respond to the new economic reality of double-digit inflation and the threat this poses to teacher living standards.


“We call on you to commit to an inflation-plus increase for all teachers. It is not good enough to only propose higher increases for beginner teachers (which are themselves likely to be lower than inflation).

“The current inaction from the government on these questions is causing real damage to education and to our members’ livelihoods.

“We have to tell you that failing sufficient action by you, in the autumn term, we will consult our members on their willingness to take industrial action.

“And we will be strongly encouraging them to vote yes. We can no longer stand by while you run both education and educators into the ground.”

UK rail workers stage their second strike of the week after talks fail

Thousands of railway workers were staging their second strike of the week on Thursday after talks failed to resolve a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions (James Manning/PA)

THU, 23 JUN, 2022 - 
ALAN JONES, PA INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

Thousands of UK railway workers were staging their second strike of the week on Thursday after talks failed to resolve a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and 13 train operators will take industrial action, crippling services across the UK.

Only around one in five trains will run and mainly on main lines during the day.

Ahead of the strike, the Government announced plans to change the law to enable businesses to supply skilled agency workers to plug staffing gaps during industrial action.

Ministers pointed out that under current trade union laws, employment businesses are restricted from supplying temporary agency workers to cover for strikers, saying it can have a “disproportionate impact”.

The legislation will repeal the “burdensome” legal restrictions, giving businesses impacted by strike action the freedom to tap into the services of employment businesses who can provide skilled, temporary agency staff at short notice, said the government.

Network Rail welcomed the move but Labour and unions condemned it as a “recipe for disaster.”

We will continue with our industrial campaign until we get a negotiated settlement that delivers job security and a pay rise for our members that deals with the escalating cost-of-living crisis

The RMT accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of “wrecking” negotiations.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Grant Shapps has wrecked these negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw their letter threatening redundancy for 2,900 of our members.

“Until the Government unshackle Network Rail and the train operating companies, it is not going to be possible for a negotiated settlement to be agreed.

“We will continue with our industrial campaign until we get a negotiated settlement that delivers job security and a pay rise for our members that deals with the escalating cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr Shapps hit back, saying the RMT claim was a “lie”.

Tory Minister Grant Shapps denied he has ‘wrecked’ negotiations (Aaron Chown/PA)

Meanwhile, members of the drivers’ union Aslef on Greater Anglia will strike on Thursday in a separate dispute over pay.

The company, which is also affected by the RMT strike, advised passengers to travel only if it was necessary.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) announced that its members at Merseyrail had accepted a 7.1% pay offer.

General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “What this clearly shows is our union, and sister unions, are in no way a block on finding the solutions needed to avoid a summer of discontent on the railways.

“Rather, it is the Government who are intent on digging in their heels. Grant Shapps would be wise to start talking seriously to our union as we ballot for industrial action on our railways up and down the land.”

A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson: “With passenger numbers still at only 80% of pre-pandemic levels the industry remains committed to giving a fair deal on pay while taking no more than its fair share from taxpayers.

We call on the RMT leadership to continue to talk so that we can secure a thriving long-term future for the railway and its workforce

“We can only achieve that by making improvements – like offering better services on a Sunday – that reflect the changing needs of passengers so we can attract more back.

“We call on the RMT leadership to continue to talk so that we can secure a thriving long-term future for the railway and its workforce.

“Our advice to passengers remains the same, only travel by rail if absolutely necessary, check before you travel and make sure you know the time of your first and last trains.”

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the RMT have again chosen to walk away from negotiations without agreeing a deal. We remain available for talks – day or night – and will do everything we can to avoid further disruption for our passengers.

“As a result of this needless and premature strike, rail services will look much like they did on Tuesday – starting later in the morning and finishing much earlier in the evening (around 6.30pm).

“We are asking passengers to please check before you travel, be conscious of when your last available train is departing, and only travel by train if necessary.”

SOLIDARITY A WORKING CLASS VALUE
Zarah Sultana among Labour MPs defying Keir Starmer to back striking rail workers

She was pictured with nine other MPs on a picket line at London’s Victoria Station yesterday



By Enda Mullen

 22 JUN 2022

An RMT picket line at Coventry railway station and inset Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana

Coventry MP Zarah Sultana is among a number of Labour MPs who have shown support for this week’s rail strikes - and by doing so defied Keir Starmer. The Labour leader ordered senior Labour MPs not to show support for the strikes, however not all have followed those orders.

Ms Sultana was pictured with nine other MPs on a picket line at London’s Victoria Station yesterday (Tuesday) on the first day of the strike, which resumes again tomorrow and will also take place on Saturday. And the Coventry South MP also voiced her support for striking rail workers on Twitter.

She said: “Polling shows that 58% of the public back the rail and tube strikes. There’s a simple reason for that: by striking for fair wages. @RMTunion members are fighting for all working people against greedy profiteers."

READ MORE: Coventry train station a ghost town as services all but grind to a halt

Frontbenchers Kate Osborne, Paula Barker and Navendu Mishra are also among those to have tweeted pictures of themselves at picket lines. The Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar also offered “solidarity” to the strikers.

It is understood that Labour may take disciplinary action against frontbench MPs who defy the call not to appear on picket lines, but it’s not expected immediately. Millions of rail passengers in England, Scotland and Wales have been hit by the strike, which started on Tuesday and is due to continue on Thursday and Saturday.

The RMT union - whose members voted to strike - is asking for a pay rise of at least seven per cent to offset the rising cost of living, but it says employers have offered a maximum of three per cent, on condition they also accept job cuts and changes to working practices.

The Conservatives have accused Labour of failing to condemn the industrial action. Locally Meriden Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti was critical of Labour’s support of rail strikes.


VIEW GALLERY

He said: “I know that in my constituency, many people rely on rail services to get to work or school. These are people who just want to go about their daily business without having to worry about how they will get to their workplace or worried about the possibility of missing out on their education because they cannot get to school.

"I believe it speaks volumes that when families are facing global cost of living pressures, Labour are more concerned with backing national strikes which will disrupt than helping people in their time of need. I strongly urge Labour to abandon their support for the strike and instead join me in standing up for the rights of hardworking people adversely affected by Labour’s distressing attempt to play political games.”

Meriden Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti in Parliament

A former adviser to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned there will be an “explosion” if the party disciplines any frontbenchers joining picket lines in support of striking rail workers. Simon Fletcher, who also advised former leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband, said there has been “a lot of simmering resentment and irritation” over the party’s current position.

READ MORE
Unions warn UK rail strikes could last for months after negotiations fail

BETTER SPENT ON DAY CARE 

House panel votes for $37B boost to proposed 2023 defense budget as senators look to spend even more

By SVETLANA SHKOLNIKOVA
STARS AND STRIPES • June 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee agreed Wednesday to exceed the Biden administration’s fiscal 2023 defense spending plan by $37 billion, setting up a potential clash with senators who want to increase the budget even more.

Committee members, led by a months long push by Republicans, voted 42-17 in support of the overall increase, citing record inflation, the immediate threat of Russian aggression and China’s rising military power. The increase is $8 billion less than the $847 billion bill approved last week by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“In our current threat environment … it’s time to grow out military, not shrink our military,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.

She said she hoped the ultimate agreement for the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy and funding levels for the military, will be “somewhat north” of the $37 billion boost.

The White House requested $813 billion for national defense next fiscal year, including $773 billion for the Pentagon. The House panel’s adopted amendment authorizes extra money for military construction, fuel, bonuses and other support to offset inflation as well as additional ships and aircraft and more aid for Ukraine.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the committee’s chairman, argued against bumping up the budget he had proposed — $802.4 billion — and said lawmakers need to focus on quality rather than quantity.

“I care as much about how the money is spent as I do about how much is spent,” he said. “I think making sure the Pentagon has some fiscal discipline and is forced to make tough decisions and not just always rely on another pot of money coming along is crucial for modernization.”

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., took issue with the amendment’s plan to save five Freedom-class littoral combat ships that the Navy wanted to retire. She described the ships as “lemons” that are plagued with functionality problems and cost $59 million a year each to maintain.

“This is ridiculous and it’s shameful that we are restoring five of these decommissioned ships into service when all we’re going to do is spend money towing them back to port,” Speier said before voting against the overall budget increase.

The amendment authorizes $318 million for the cost of restoring the ships. It also earmarks $660 million for eight additional F/A-18s jets, $1.3 billion for nine more Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aircraft than requested, $1.2 billion for additional air and missile defense systems as well as other weapons and systems procurements.

Provisions in the amendment specifically target the effect of inflation on service members and the Defense Department, authorizing $3.5 billion to keep pace with military construction costs, $2.5 billion to offset the rising cost of fuel and $1.4 billion for bonuses, commissary subsidies and other financial support for personnel. The amendment also authorizes $1 billion for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and supports costs for planning troop presence in Europe on NATO’s eastern flank.

House lawmakers also voted Wednesday to add another amendment requiring TRICARE, the military’s health insurance, to provide free contraceptives to service members, their spouses and dependents. The Affordable Care Act eliminated copays and deductibles for contraception under most commercial health plans for civilians in 2012.

“Why are we burdening our service members with this additional cost, which can be significant, when we pay them little as it is,” said amendment sponsor Speier. “This is about fundamental fairness.”

Another approved amendment called for the secretary of the Army to establish gender-neutral fitness standards that are higher for soldiers likely to see combat than those with less physical jobs. The Senate panel approved a similar proposal last week.

“It is obvious that a 100-pound artillery shell or a 150-pound rucksack or a 200-pound soldier that has to be moved to the top of a hill is different than using a keyboard,” said Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., the amendment’s sponsor. “At the end of the day, this is about the standards that all Americans who want to serve this country need to meet to win wars. The jobs are different, and therefore they should have different standards.”

Other amendments adopted Wednesday pave the way for the creation of a Space National Guard and authorize $45 million to continue the development of a sea-launched cruise missile program that President Joe Biden’s administration had wanted to scrap.

As the House Armed Services Committee continued deliberations Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to approve $761 billion for defense spending that is in line with the White House’s budget request. Congress will spend the next few months reconciling the differences in priorities and funding before bringing a final bill to a floor vote.

SVETLANA SHKOLNIKOVA
covers Congress for Stars and Stripes. She previously worked with the House Foreign Affairs Committee as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and spent four years as a general assignment reporter for The Record newspaper in New Jersey and the USA Today Network. A native of Belarus, she has also reported from Moscow, Russia.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

Sex for a job: the scandal of Haiti’s exploited US garment workers

Women paid a pittance for making clothes for top US brands are often forced to have sex by bosses to keep their jobs, say unions

“When you consider the price that the clothes are sold for, and the wages we receive, it’s as if we are selling our blood,” Marie says.

Haiti has promoted itself as having a cheap and available workforce for US clothing brands seeking low-cost suppliers.

 Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP


Sophie Cousins in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Thu 23 Jun 2022 

Marie says she was less than a month into her job at a garment factory in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, making clothes for a range of well-known US brands, when the factory’s head of security gave her an ultimatum: have sex with him or be fired.

The 24-year-old says she had little choice. She relies on her job to support her four-year-old son after both her father and husband died.

“He made a lot of promises. He told me he was going to help me financially with my son’s school and was also going to help me pay my rent with a promotion, so I did it,” she says. “Afterwards, he told other security officers and every time I came to the factory, I felt humiliated and diminished. I never got a salary increase and never got any financial support.”

The head of security was not the only man at the factory to notice Marie. In March, her line supervisor began sexually harassing her, telling her he masturbated when he thought of her at home. She felt powerless to report him, knowing what happened to other women who complained. So to keep her job, she kept silent. But his behaviour got worse.

“He told me that if I didn’t agree to sex with him, he was going to pull me out of the line where we assemble clothes,” she says. She refused and in retaliation every time she went to the toilet she found piles of clothing added to her workstation, making it impossible to complete her work for the day. After weeks of harassment, she finally snapped when he began touching her inappropriately.
Workers are not considered as humans or as needing rightsYannick Etienne, Batay

“I told him to leave me alone, and because of that I was suspended for three days,” she says. “Even now, he is harassing me. He still wants to have sex.”

Yet Marie says that what is happening to her is standard practice at her factory and that other women are also afraid to speak out, scared of what might happen after they tell their story.
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In recent years, Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has promoted itself as a cheap and available destination for US clothing brands seeking low-cost suppliers that can take advantage of 2006 legislation that allows duty-free entry for goods made there by US companies.

About 60,000 Haitians work in one of the country’s 41 garment factories, producing clothes for more than 60 American companies.

Yet activists say conditions at the factories are akin to prison camps, with non-existent labour rights and where sexual abuse is rife.

“Workers are not considered as humans or as needing rights,” says Yannick Etienne, of the workers’ rights organisation Batay Ouvriye. “The pay is so low that it puts women in situations where they have to accept [forced] sex in order to pay their rent.”

The government has not raised the minimum wage since 2019, despite inflation of more than 15%. The country is experiencing catastrophic levels of insecurity and political instability after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last year. As a result, food and fuel prices have escalated. Unions are fighting for an increase in the minimum daily wage of garment workers from 500 to 1,500 gourdes ($5-15).

Female garment factory workers the Guardian spoke to confirm that to get a job – which has become harder because so many people are looking for work – women are expected to have sex with a male manager.


‘To survive, I must appear fearless’: the former nun helping India’s garment workers fight sexual violence

“If you don’t accept to have sex with the manager, your application will be rejected,” one worker says, adding that she works on a line that produces 3,600 T-shirts a day. “You must oblige or you won’t have a job, and also if you want a promotion, you must have sex with your supervisor.”

Workers interviewed by the Guardian also spoke of having to use scrap material as sanitary towels because they could not afford to buy their own.

Rose-Myrtha Louis, a coordinator at the Haitian Workers’ Renovation Syndicate, said: “We are supposed to have access to pads, but we have to use waste from T-shirts [because] we don’t have enough money. It has given us infections. It’s just another way we are suffering.”

A 2021 report from Better Work Haiti, a labour compliance group backed by the International Labour Organization and the World Bank, found that 80% of workers and their families have had to cut down on meals. It also found that 96% of factories surveyed failed to comply with Haiti’s health insurance and social security contribution requirements, putting workers’ lives at risk.

“When you consider the price that the clothes are sold for, and the wages we receive, it’s as if we are selling our blood,” Marie says.

The Haitian Ministry of Trade and Industry did not reply when asked for comment.

Chilean Copper Workers to Begin National Strike

The trade unions of state-owned Codelco have convoked an indefinite stoppage from Wednesday in protest at the government’s plans to close the Ventanas foundry

Photo: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg

By Maolis Castro (EN)June 21, 2022

Santiago — Chile’s Copper Workers’ Federation (FTC) has called a national strike in all divisions of state-owned company Codelco, with the aim of “reversing” the government of President Gabriel Boric’s decision to close the Ventanas foundry and refinery.

The leaders of 26 trade unions have agreed to the indefinite stoppage, and the FTC’s president, Amador Pantoja, said that an investment of around $50 million by the company would resolve the pollution issues the government has cited as the reason for the plant’s closure.

The FTC explained the reasons for the strike, also citing the threat of privatization of the country’s copper industry, in a tweet on June 20.



The announcement of the plant’s closure has caused friction between the workers of Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, and Boric, who has been in power for a little more than three months.

Boric held a meeting on Monday at the Palacio de La Moneda with several ministers, including Mining Minister Marcela Hernando, and the president of Codelco’s board of directors, Máximo Pacheco, to coordinate the process of closing Ventanas, which is located in the industrial zone of Quintero and Puchuncaví, in Valparaíso region, and which is blamed for causing pollution that, in the most recent episode, affected more than 100 people.

Chile and Ecuador Resume Talks Over Copper Deposits

Boric has said he does not want “more environmental sacrifice zones” in the country.

“Today there are hundreds of thousands of people living in our country exposed to severe environmental deterioration that we have caused or allowed, and that, as a Chilean, makes me ashamed,” Boric said last Friday.

For her part, Environment Minister Maisa Rojas said that pollution is produced by multiple agents.

“The smelter contributes 62% of sulfur dioxide (SO2), if it stops operating it will at least lessen the risk of intoxications by that pollutant. It does not solve the whole problem, but it is a step forward,” she said.

The government does not plan on reversing its decision to close the Ventanas facility, and assures that it will continue dialogue with the workers, even if they go on strike. Boric assures that all copper will continue to be processed “exclusively” in Codelco’s smelters and “no worker” will be left without a job.

“It is a difficult decision, but I am convinced that it is the right one,” he said recently.

Hits and Misses: Chile’s Gabriel Boric’s First 100 Days in Office

Chile is one of the richest economies in Latin America, and its main export is copper. In 2021, Codelco produced 1,618,266 metric tons of fine copper, maintaining the output of the previous year, but in the first quarter of 2022 it produced 364,000 tons of fine copper, a drop of 5.7% compared to the same period last year.

Boric, who aims for a greener and more egalitarian economy, has committed to increasing investment in the state-owned company.

“This year, Codelco will invest more than $90 million in exploration, as well as $86 million in innovation and technology. This is important, because to take care of Codelco we must reinvest in it and not squeeze all the resources it produces, defending the company against all privatization attempts,” he said in early June.

The conflict with the unions of Codelco occurs amid a slowdown in the economy and a drop in public support for the Chilean president. According to a Cadem poll published on Sunday, Boric is the head of state who has suffered the lowest popularity in his first 100 days of government; with an average approval rating among those polled of 41%.

Translated from the Spanish by Adam Critchley

UK to bring in new Bill of Rights

WRONGS after migrant deportation defeat


© Reuters/HANNAH MCKAYFILE PHOTO: First Rwanda deportation flight set to leave Britain

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will begin legislating on Wednesday for a new Bill of Rights to give the government the power to ignore rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which last week blocked ministers' plans to send migrants to Rwanda.

Last Tuesday, the ECHR issued last minute injunctions to prevent a handful of asylum seekers being sent to the East African country, meaning Britain's first planned deportation flight did not go ahead on schedule.

The new Bill of Rights that will be put before parliament on Wednesday will make clear that Britain's Supreme Court, which had allowed the Rwanda flights, had legal supremacy and ECHR decisions did not always need to be followed by British courts.

It would confirm that injunctions issued by the ECHR under its Rule 39, which stopped the Rwandan flight, were not binding, the Ministry of Justice said.

"These reforms will reinforce freedom of speech, enable us to deport more foreign offenders and better protect the public from dangerous criminals," British Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said.

The government said the new bill would restrict the ability of foreign criminals to use a right to family life to prevent their deportation, and would stop "trivial" human rights cases from getting to court. It will also cement in law greater freedom of the press and freedom of expression, it added.


© Reuters/TOBY MELVILLE

Protest against planned deportation of asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda, Crawley

Lawyers and campaigners said however that the plan would erode people's rights and hand more power to ministers. As it stands, British courts are not bound by ECHR rulings anyway.

Stephanie Boyce, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said it would create an acceptable class of human rights abuses, while Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said it was unsurprising that politicians held to account by human rights laws wanted them removed.

"This is not about tinkering with rights. It's about removing them," Deshmukh said.

Some lawmakers in the ruling Conservative Party had wanted Britain to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights altogether after last week's decision, but Raab said there were no plans to do so.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Hugh Lawson)