Hardware

Low-wage workers in the garment industry, janitors without legal papers, temporary labor in the high-tech industry: the protagonists of a new wave of labor movement in California were long time considered as unorganizable. Now they lead a new generation of workers struggles which takes precariousness rather as a starting point than an obstacle for multiple ways of organizing -- no matter inside or outside of the unions.

Fatal 24-hour shift at microwave plant highlights plight of migrants working long hours, under false names, for low pay. When Zhang Guo Hua dropped dead in Hartlepool, after stamping the word Samsung on microwave ovens for 24 hours on end, it turned out to be in no one's interests to make too much of a fuss - not his employer, nor his workmates, nor the gangmaster who brought him there, nor even his widow back home.
News was anyway unlikely to spread fast, as Mr Zhang's friends spoke no English. The bereaved Mrs Zhang did not understand the death certificate when it was eventually sent to her back in China. The body was soon cremated, without the benefit of an inquest.