Category Archives: Allgemein

European companies profit at the expense of Indian workers in the shoe and leather industry

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Leather shoes Source: Pixabay, fudowakira0 | Bild (Ausschnitt): © fudowakira0 [CC0 1.0] - Pixabay

Wages that are linked to the number of units produced and that are below those needed to survive; overtime due to high production pressures; inadequate work and health protection measures; weak or even non-existent trade union organizational structures; discrimination; lack of access to medical and social insurance services –these serious labour rights violations have been demonstrated in the shoe production industry in India.As   ... →

Are Samsung and LG & Co. manipulating the power consumption of TV sets?

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Research by the US Environmental Protection Agency NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has shown that the electricity consumption of television sets manufactured by Samsung, LG and Vizio as measured by official energy tests is significantly lower than in everyday operation. The reasons for this are deficits in the official test methods used to test the energy consumption of new TV sets, whose manufacturer-side utilization confers on the devices in test operation a higher energy efficiency than in everyday practice.   ... →

Textron to stop producing cluster munitions

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CBU 97/CBU 105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon © Facing Finance | Bild (Ausschnitt): © Facing Finance

The US company Textron Systems, the last manufacturer of cluster munitions in the US announced it will stop production of these weapons, which violate international law. The reasons given for the shift is falling sales figures, company spokesman Sylvestre noted that it the result of changing political conditions and therefore required a realignment of its business.   ... →

Samsung: hush money payments for sick workers ?

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For some time now, the South Korean company Samsung has faced worldwide criticism in relation to its lack of safety standards in its factories. In 2007 it became known that many people who worked in Samsung’s chip factories suffered from rare cancers, these cancers were to the use of highly toxic chemicals. Of the more than 230 sufferers, almost one third have died with most of whom were between the ages of 20 and 30 years old.   ... →

Sampoerna Agro: Indonesian Palm Oil producer fined for rainforest destruction

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Für Palmöl gerodeter Regenwald, Quelle: flickr, © H Dragon | Bild (Ausschnitt): © Hayden [CC BY 2.0] - flickr

In a court decision of August 2016, the Indonesian court in Jakarta sentenced the Indonesian palm oil producer Sampoerna Agro to the highest ever penalty for illegal slash and burn agriculture, as Reuters reports.

According to the judgment of 11 August, the company was “negligent in relation to fires” over an area of 3,000 hectares in the province of Riau in 2014.   ... →

German companies profiting from rising tensions in the South China Sea:

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According to the German Handelsblatt, German companies along with French and British arms exporters are providing engines and other defence equipment to both sides of the conflict in the South China Sea, including China, Singapore and Malaysia.

While arms sales to China are prohibited due to embargoes by both the EU and the US, the EU embargo does not cover ‘components’ and ‘dual use’ equipment.   ... →