• Weeks before the annual International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting, The Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amour Mottley, a leading voice of developing nations threatened by climate change, came to Washington, D.C. seeking relief for nations harmed by rising U.S. interest rates and a surging U.S. dollar. Mottley met with U.S. Treasury officials seeking emergency financial relief for countries hit hardest by surging interest rates and recession.
(“US Declines to Blunt Pain as it Exports Inflation to Poor Countries,” American Prospect, Oct. 4, 2022)
• As an inmate in the New York State correction system, Johnny Perez only made 36 cents an hour to make goods for state and local agencies. Now free, Perez is campaigning for the abolition of the slave-like conditions imposed on prisoners, which is mandatory for most inmates. Perez and his allies are now pushing to eliminate the “slavery loophole” that allows incarcerated people to be paid miniscule wages for work, which they cannot refuse. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865 abolished slavery, except as punishment for a crime for which a person was convicted.
(“‘Slavery By Any Name is Wrong,’ the Push to End Forced Labor in Prisons,” Guardian, Sept. 27, 2022)
• Amazon suspended 50 workers at its unionized warehouse in Staten Island, after a fire burned in a cardboard trash compactor which left the warehouse filled with smoke. Evening shift workers were first told by supervisors to stay in the breakroom, but with little notice later ordered them to return to their work stations. According to the Gothamist, leaders of the Amazon Labor Union led a delegation of 100 workers to the company’s human resources office demanding answers about what had happened, where they were told to return to work or they would be written up by managers.
(“Amazon Suspends 50 Workers Who Refused To Work After a Warehouse Fire,” Washington Post, Oct. 4, 2022; “Amazon Suspends Dozens of Workers Who Staged Walkout After Fire at Warehouse,” Gothamist, Oct. 5, 2022)
This week’s News Summary was narrated by Anna Manzo.
