Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Anna Canning

Jasmin Malik Chua @jasminchua.com · 5d

When Industrial Hana, a subcontractor for several major brands, abruptly shuttered in October 2023, nearly 250 workers were left without $1.5 million in owed severance.

Lucky Brand Joins American Eagle Outfitters, Puma in Compensating Guatemalan Workers

When Industrial Hana, a subcontractor for several major brands, abruptly shuttered in October 2023, nearly 250 workers were left without $1.5 million in owed severance.

sourcingjournal.com

1 4

Reposted by Anna Canning

Clean Clothes Campaign @cleanclothes.bsky.social · 12d

Excellent news!! An important reminder that workers need the pay and severance they have built up after a factory closes and that brands are responsible for unpaid workers in their supply chain.
#PayYourWorkers

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · 12d

Good news! Lucky Brand to pay $500,000 to garment workers.
This case has immediate impact ($$$ in people's hands) & sets a precedent: No matter the layers of opaque ownership, brands are ultimately responsible for the consequences of their purchasing practices.
dignityandrights.org/2025/09/toge...

2 3

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · 12d

& here's how it kept going. In this post, I wrote the heading, "Winners: Billionaires at the Top; Losers: Working People Around the World."
But for today, 246 workers are finally winning what they are owed.
Tomorrow we'll fight for the rest of us.

dignityandrights.org/2025/03/fore...

Forever 21’s Bankruptcy: How Private Equity Harms Workers Around the World – Partners for Dignity & Rights

dignityandrights.org

1

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · 12d

For some back story, here's how it started:
dignityandrights.org/2025/02/not-...

Not So Lucky: How Lucky Brand, Shein, and Private Equity Fleeced Guatemalan Garment Workers – Partners for Dignity & Rights

dignityandrights.org

1 1

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · 12d

Good news! Lucky Brand to pay $500,000 to garment workers.
This case has immediate impact ($$$ in people's hands) & sets a precedent: No matter the layers of opaque ownership, brands are ultimately responsible for the consequences of their purchasing practices.
dignityandrights.org/2025/09/toge...

1 1 5

Reposted by Anna Canning

Tina Vasquez @tinavasquez.bsky.social · 14d

I want to do a little breakdown of this investigation I published today for @prismreports.org about gender-based violence in the H-2A agricultural visa program.

She managed to get a farmworker visa. Once in the U.S., she endured abuse.

A Prism investigation reveals that women are routinely shut out of the H-2A program. Those who get in report doing non-agricultural labor and facing sexual violence and trafficking

prismreports.org

2 140 200

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · 22d

Starting soon! We'll be hearing from women who sorted frankincense in doTERRA's supply chains, as well as the advocates who pursued the forced labor import ban because the abuses were so egregious.

Register to join - & share with the essential oil fans in your life
: bit.ly/HealingForWhom

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 28

Essential oil MLM doTERRA has built a $2B brand on women's health & empowerment.
By now, we're all used to corporate hypocrisy, but the human trafficking & forced labor documented here is next level.

& so far, doTERRA's solution has been to cut & run.

dignityandrights.org/2025/08/dote...

doTERRA Fails to Remedy Sex Trafficking, Human Rights Abuses in Frankincense-Gathering Communities – Partners for Dignity & Rights

dignityandrights.org

1

Reposted by Anna Canning

Glen @gergyl.bsky.social · Aug 22

This is the shame-the-consumer ploy that the fossil industry has been running for years: 'You need to use stuff more efficiently...'

But it was the packaging industry that invented it, long before that: 'The problem is that you (personally) don't recycle...'

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 22

HEY friends: recently seen heaps of "disclosures" from AI companies of the energy cost per question you type into chatbots (most recently from Google)?

Presenting per-query 'efficiency' is part of big tech's efforts to hide its extremely real and happening-right-now climate impacts!

NEW POST -->>>

Big tech’s selective disclosure masks AI’s real climate impact

Google claims to have disclosed new information proving its own efficiency. But it has hidden the bigger picture. Guess what: I’ve got the bigger picture for you right here in this big old po…

ketanjoshi.co

1 19 37

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 19

No, no, it's perfect. Why else would we be squandering all the water & electricity on the planet?

1

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 19

Good news: there's an AI solution for everyone's main Excel use case: summarizing a survey of how people feel about their office coffee.

Bad news: it shouldn't be used for anything "high stakes" like the financial reporting that most people actually use Excel for
www.theverge.com/news/761338/...

1

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 19

Trump's Executive Order promises to “Democratize Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors.”

Nothing about this EO supports democracy. It’s pure kleptocracy, granting the wealthiest billionaires new opportunities to pick working people's pockets.

dignityandrights.org/2025/08/anot...

Another Billionaire Bailout: Private Equity Grabs Working People’s Retirement Savings – Partners for Dignity & Rights

dignityandrights.org

1

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 15

Salsa season is here.

A giant bowl of tomatillos sits on the dried up late summer grass next to a smaller bowl of tomatoes.

Photo is of a counter absolutely covered in pint-sized canning jars. The jars hold 18 pints of pear salsa, 7 pints of pickled pears, & probably at least an ounce of heat-wave fueled sweat.

2

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Aug 1

Food stamp cuts will hit food system workers hard.
Not sure which is more grotesque:
*Work reqs for people who live where there are no jobs to apply for
*Walmart & corporations paying workers so little they rely on food stamps
*Like 10 other facts in this story
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Low-wage workers reeling over Trump’s looming Snap cuts as food prices rise

Experts predict changes to ‘food stamps’ program affecting millions of Americans will cause poverty and hunger to rise

www.theguardian.com

2

Reposted by Anna Canning

Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · Aug 1

The AI infrastructure build-out is so gigantic that in the past 6 months, it contributed more to the growth of the U.S. economy than /all of consumer spending/

The 'magnificent 7' spent more than $100 billion on data centers and the like in the past three months *alone*

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/sili...

chart: capital expenditures, quarterly

shows hockey-stick like growth in the capex expenditures of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and meta, almost entirely on data centers

in the most recent quarter it was nearly $100 billion, collectively

78 320 830

Reposted by Anna Canning

Charlie Jane "Lessons in Magic and Disaster" Anders 🏳️‍⚧ @charliejane.bsky.social · Jul 31

This isn't a list of jobs that A.I. can easily replace.

It's a list of jobs that techno fascists don't think are worthwhile or meaningful and that they want to eliminate.

They don't want humans to try to make sense of the world, they want us to believe whatever we're told.

Brendan Davey @brendandavey.bsky.social · Jul 30

Yo, historians, what the actual ****?

I've seen how LLMs handle "history." This is... not good.

🗃️

83 1.3K 3.2K

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Jul 31

"If employers have easy access to workers who don’t really have rights, it makes it harder to push for better wages or safety...
The real solution, then, is not deportations but full rights for all workers. That means not only citizenship rights but labor rights too"
inthesetimes.com/article/farm...

The Battle for the Future of Farmwork

Trump’s immigration crackdown and a growing union effort are transforming Upstate New York into a battleground over who will grow our food and under what conditions.

inthesetimes.com

Reposted by Anna Canning

Manpreet Kalra @manpreetkalra.bsky.social · Jul 31

The Tel Aviv stock exchange has surged 179% since the start of Israel’s military assault on Gaza. I spoke with Lydia de Leeuw @somoamsterdam.bsky.social on the corporate architecture that sustains and profits from occupation.

🎧Tune in: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/g...

Episode 31 of Art of Citizenry Podcast dives into the corporations underpinning and profiting from genocide in Gaza

7 2

Reposted by Anna Canning

Kevin Reuning @reuning.bsky.social · Jul 30

The @foodchainworkers.bsky.social just sent out a newsletter and it is clear that the ICE raids are also an attack on organized labor.

LELO CHOOSES VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE

Farmworker and union leader Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez Zeferino was granted a voluntary departure on July 14, and is now back in Mexico with family and friends. Lelo had been in detention at the privately-run NW Detention Center in Tacoma, WA since March 25, after he was pulled out of his car and arrested by ICE while driving his partner to work.

In his four months of detention, Lelo had several hearings, but like hundreds of other people held at the Tacoma facility, he was denied bond.

The judge who denied his bond is one of several at this facility claiming they don't have jurisdiction to grant bonds to immigrants who entered the country without legal documentation. "They are the only immigration judges in the country choosing to interpret the law in this way," reports The Stand. Lelo has joined a class action lawsuit by the NW Immigrant Rights Project to challenge this practice.

"We are relieved that he successfully removed himself from ICE’s inhumane treatment," Community to Community Development said in their statement. "We value his wisdom and unwavering clarity that brought him to decide for voluntary departure...The conditions at Northwest ICE Processing Center have always been unacceptable, and we respect Lelo’s choice to remove himself from the continued physical and psychological violence of detention. It was increasingly clear to all of us that due process was not being followed, and no justice would be found."

DELMY CHOOSES VOLUNTARY DEPARTURE

The Workers' Center of Central NY has been fighting to free their member Delmy Rendon, who was arrested by Border Patrol when she got in a car accident during a snowstorm and sought help from neighbors who reported her to immigration authorities. Despite having been paroled into the country legally and having no criminal record, Delmy was held in ICE detention in Louisiana for nearly six months.

At the time of her arrest, Delmy and her husband Luis had been waiting for years for the immigration court to schedule their asylum case. And in a bond hearing in May, Delmy's lawyer cited specific points of immigration law that clearly show she does not qualify to be put in expedited removal. However, the judge insisted he did not have jurisdiction to authorize bond. Delmy reserved her right to appeal this decision, but this week she made the difficult decision to accept a voluntary departure to Guatemala, separating her from her husband and daughters who remain in Northern NY. WCCNY reports that Delmy expressed deep gratitude for everyone who supported her, especially by sending letters describing what was happening outside. She also documented her experience in detention and will be sharing more stories of the conditions soon, to continue her activism and resistance.

IN VERMONT, DAIRY WORKERS KEEP GETTING DETAINED

After rallying around nine dairy workers detained in April (three of whom are now safely home!) two more Migrant Justice members were detained on June 14: Jose Ignacio “Nacho” De La Cruz was driving with his stepdaughter Heidi Perez when they were pulled over and detained after agents smashed their car window. Following a series of rallies and actions by the community, Nacho and Heidi were granted bail on July 10. "I am free thanks to all of you and to the entire immigrant community that was supporting us from day one" Nacho

said upon his release. "Together we grow stronger every day. Join with Migrant Justice to fight for our rights. Sí se puede!"

This latest detention happened just as two landmark laws took effect in Vermont, both of which Nacho and Heidi had a hand in winning: The Education Equity Act guarantees in-state tuition rates and need-based financial aid at public colleges and universities for all Vermont students, regardless of status; and The Housing Access for Immigrant Families Act prohibits landlords from requiring applicants to provide a Social Security number.

2 10 17

Reposted by Anna Canning

Joshua Collins @murosinvisibles.bsky.social · Jul 23

BREAKING: 7 directors from Chiquita Brands convicted in Colombian courts over financing paramilitary groups

Initial sentence: 11 years and 3 months in prison

7 25 82

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Jul 23

These changes include cutting overtime & minimum wages for home health workers & protections from retaliation for guest workers reporting abuses.
They're critical protections for some of the lowest wage & most vulnerable workers.
Basic rights & dignity are not "obsolete."

apnews.com/article/labo...

Trump's Labor Department proposes more than 60 rule changes in a push to deregulate workplaces

The U.S. Department of Labor is aiming to rewrite or repeal more than 60 “obsolete” workplace regulations adopted under previous presidential administrations.

apnews.com

1 2

Anna Canning @annacanning.bsky.social · Jul 18

"The point of these raids is to demonstrate that no one, no matter what they contribute to the community, will be spared arrest...
Ultimately, neither “good” immigrants nor “good” protestors can use their goodness as a shield from ICE’s violence."

newrepublic.com/article/1980...

ICE Is Making an Example of California

The repeated targeting of California workers is a deliberate spectacle, meant to show the rest of the country what to expect if we don’t fall in line.

newrepublic.com

14 36

Reposted by Anna Canning

Jaya Saxena @jayasaxena.com · Jul 18

Wrote about how restaurants are redoing their menus to get around tariffs, and how for some cuisines that's basically impossible www.eater.com/restaurant-n...

Tariffs Are Coming For The Menu

As Trump’s policies fluctuate, restaurants are swapping ingredients and crossing their fingers

www.eater.com

3 36 140

Reposted by Anna Canning

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · Jul 18

New law cuts budget at agency that enforces American employees' rights to safe and healthy workplaces: $ cut 8% & staff cut 12%.

Now it would take OSHA 266 years to inspect all U.S. workplaces, up from 185 years before budget law & 84 years in 1991.
insideclimatenews.org/news/1607202...

OSHA Just Reduced the Value of a Worker’s Life - Inside Climate News

The Trump administration slashed fines for safety violations by small businesses and other employers and plans to reduce already rare workplace inspections. Experts say that will lead to more worker i...

insideclimatenews.org

4 17 38

Reposted by Anna Canning

Nick @ecosozialismus.bsky.social · Jul 17

It is so wild (& strikingly honest) that the PBA told media that stopping DSA is its #1 priority.

Donald Trump is abducting our neighbors and directly attacking the city, but this network of grifters has its access to power threatened so they’re going to spend all resources there instead.

Moore, who runs the political action committee United for Portland, which was set up by the Metro Chamber, says he thinks the “socialists are trying to take over the City Council and turn it into an ideological showcase for the rest of the country.” The chamber’s aim? “To stop DSA from taking over the council.”

1 10 33