Workplace Hazards and Violations

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    Bumble Bee Foods Is Accused of Tolerating Forced Labor in Supply Chain

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    In a lawsuit filed in California, the plaintiffs said that Bumble Bee Foods was aware of and benefited from abuse by suppliers. The company declined to comment.On a ship that caught tuna for American consumers, fishermen said they were fed so little that they resorted to eating the bait. On another, a worker said he was beaten repeatedly by the captain, sometimes with a metal hook. On a third, a man who experienced severe burns in a kitchen accident said he was denied medical care and survived only by treating himself with Vaseline.All three boats offloaded their catch to other vessels, remaining at sea for months. For those who wanted to leave, there was little hope.These accusations are central to a new lawsuit filed by four Indonesian fishermen. They say they want to right a wrong that, according to them, was tolerated by one of America’s oldest tuna brands, Bumble Bee Foods.They are suing the company in federal court in California, accusing it of being aware of and benefiting from forced labor on ships operated by its suppliers. Bumble Bee, which is based in San Diego, said it would not comment on pending litigation.“I want justice,” Muhammad Syafi’i, one of the plaintiffs, said in a Zoom interview from his home in the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. “For myself, for my fate. And for my friends who are still out there.”In 2021, he was employed as a cook on a boat that caught tuna that was sold to Bumble Bee (but also had to help with the fishing). He was forced to fork over nearly half of his $320 monthly salary for months. That July, he was severely burned when hot oil from his wok spilled onto the lower half of his body. He said the captain refused to get him medical care for months. Eventually, he was allowed to return home.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Meta Seeks to Block Further Sales of Ex-Employee’s Scathing Memoir

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      An arbitrator has prevented the employee from promoting her book and disparaging the company until private arbitration concludes.Meta won a legal victory on Wednesday against a former employee who published an explosive, tell-all memoir, as an arbitrator temporarily prohibited the author from promoting or further distributing copies.Sarah Wynn-Williams last week released “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” a book that describes a series of incendiary allegations of sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by senior executives during her tenure at the company. Meta pursued arbitration, arguing that the book is prohibited under a nondisparagement contract she signed as a global affairs employee.During an emergency hearing on Wednesday, the arbitrator, Nicholas Gowen, found that Meta had provided enough grounds that Ms. Wynn-Williams had potentially violated her contract, according to a legal filing posted by Meta. The two parties will now begin private arbitration.In addition to halting book promotions and sales, Ms. Wynn-Williams must refrain from engaging in or “amplifying any further disparaging, critical or otherwise detrimental comments,” according to the filing. She also must retract all previous disparaging comments “to the extent within her control.”The filing did not appear to limit the publisher, Flatiron Books, or its parent company, Macmillan, from continuing publication of the memoir.“Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism” was released last week.Flatiron, via Associated PressMeta has vehemently denied the allegations in the book.The book is a “mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a Meta spokesman, Andy Stone, said in a statement. Ms. Wynn-Williams was fired for cause, he added, and an investigation at the time determined that “she made misleading and unfounded allegations of harassment.”A spokeswoman for Flatiron Books did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Ms. Wynn-Williams, who worked at what was then called Facebook from 2011 to 2018, did not comment.The move to publish the arbitration filing is one of Meta’s most forceful public repudiations of a former employee’s tell-all memoir, several of which have been published over the past two decades.Meta executives have also responded online to Ms. Wynn-Williams’s claims, calling most of them wildly exaggerated or flat-out false.It is unclear whether Meta’s attempts to claw back Ms. Wynn-Williams’s book will ultimately be successful. In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it is generally illegal for companies to offer severance agreements that prohibit workers from making potentially disparaging statements about former employers, including discussing sexual harassment or sexual assault accusations.In a Meta shareholder report in 2022, the company’s board of directors said that it did not require employees “to remain silent about harassment or discrimination,” and that the company “strictly prohibits retaliation against any personnel” for speaking up on these issues.And in 2018, Meta said it would no longer force employees to settle sexual harassment claims in private arbitration, following a similar stance taken by Google at the time.Sheera Frenkel More

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      Hochul May Deploy National Guard as Wildcat Strikes Hit 25 N.Y. Prisons

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      Corrections officers, without their union’s approval, refused to show up for work to protest what they say are hazardous conditions and severe staff shortages.Gov. Kathy Hochul threatened on Tuesday to use the National Guard to ensure the safety of New York’s prisons after wildcat strikes by corrections officers spread to more than half of the state’s 42 penitentiaries.The threat was a response to labor actions that began on Monday with officers assigned to two upstate prisons refusing to come to work to protest staff shortages and other conditions. By Tuesday, strikes had emerged at 25 prisons, state officials said.The officers’ union said it had not authorized the job actions, and Ms. Hochul, calling them “illegal and unlawful,” said she was considering forcing the officers back to work by invoking a state law that prohibits most public employees in New York from going out on strike.“We will not allow these individuals to jeopardize the safety of their colleagues, incarcerated people and the residents of communities surrounding our correctional facilities,” the governor said in a statement.The strikes, the first widespread work stoppage in New York’s prisons since a 16-day walkout by officers in 1979, come as the state correctional system faces close scrutiny stemming from the fatal beating of a 43-year-old inmate by officers in December.Criminal charges are likely to be announced on Thursday against at least some of the officers and other corrections department employees whom state officials have implicated in the killing of the man, Robert Brooks, at Marcy Correctional Facility near Utica.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Gold Mine Collapse in Mali Kills at Least 43

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      The accident took place in an open-pit area people had gone into in search of gold. Informal mining is a common and dangerous practice in much of West Africa.At least 43 people, mostly women, were killed after an informal gold mine collapsed in western Mali on Saturday, the head of an industry union said.The accident took place near the town of Kéniéba in Mali’s gold-rich Kayes region, Taoule Camara, the secretary general of the national union of gold counters and refineries, told Reuters. The women had climbed down into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth collapsed around them, he said.A mines ministry representative confirmed the accident had taken place between the towns of Kenieba and Dabia, but declined to give further details, as ministry teams at the scene had not yet shared their report.Informal mining, also known as artisanal mining, is a common activity across much of West Africa and has become more lucrative in recent years because of a growing demand for metals and rising prices. Deadly accidents are frequent, as such miners often use unregulated methods and work in unsafe conditions.Thirteen artisanal miners, including women and three children, died in southwest Mali in late January, after a tunnel in which they were digging for gold flooded. More

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      House Committee to Examine Secret Navy Effort on Pilot Brain Injuries

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      The Navy quietly started screening elite fighter pilots for signs of brain injuries caused by flying, a risk it officially denies exists.The Navy’s elite TOPGUN pilot school quietly undertook an effort called Project Odin’s Eye in the fall of 2024 to try to detect and treat brain injuries in fighter crew members, and leaders kept it so confidential that not even the broader Navy knew about it.Now, the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding to learn about the project, and what the Navy knows about the risk that high-performance jets pose to the brains of the crew members who fly in them.“It is imperative to ensure the warfighter has full and accurate information about health risks and the tools, both mental and physical, to safeguard their health,” the chairman of the committee, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, said in a letter sent on Thursday to the acting secretary of the Navy.The letter cited a report by The New York Times published in December that detailed how a number of F/A-18 Super Hornet crew members, after years of catapult takeoffs from aircraft carriers and dogfighting training under crushing G-forces, experienced sudden and unexplained mental health problems. The problems included insomnia, anxiety, depression and PTSD-like symptoms — all of which can be caused by repeated sub-concussive brain injuries.Many of the problems started when the aviators were in their 40s, near the end of their careers, but those affected often kept their struggles hidden, even after leaving the Navy, so that they could continue to fly.The Navy tells its pilots that it has no evidence that flying poses a risk of brain injury. That remained the official line even after three pilots with symptoms consistent with brain injuries died by suicide in a span of 12 months.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Children Worked Dangerous Shifts at Iowa Slaughterhouse, Inquiry Finds

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      Qvest Sanitation was ordered to pay nearly $172,000 after the Labor Department found it had employed 11 children to clean equipment on overnight shifts at a pork processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa.An Oklahoma-based cleaning company has been fined nearly $172,000 after federal investigators found that it had hired nearly a dozen children to work dangerous overnight shifts at an Iowa slaughterhouse.The 11 children were hired by Qvest Sanitation of Guymon, Okla., to work at a pork processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa, operated by Seaboard Triumph Foods, the Labor Department said. The children used corrosive cleaners to wash equipment, including head splitters, jaw pullers, band saws and neck clippers, the department said last week.The department did not say how old the children were when they were working in the plant.Adam Greer, Qvest’s vice president of operations, said in a statement that the company had not been able to confirm the allegations because the Labor Department “has declined to provide us with any names or specific information related to the alleged violations.”“In spite of this, Qvest has not only fully cooperated with the Department of Labor but is and has been committed to strengthening our onboarding process,” he said.It was the second time this year that a company that had been hired to clean the Seaboard Triumph Foods plant in Sioux City had been the target of enforcement action by the Labor Department.In May, a Tennessee-based company, Fayette Janitorial Service, was ordered to pay $649,000 in civil penalties after an investigation found that it had hired at least two dozen children as young as 13 to work overnight shifts cleaning equipment at Seaboard’s Sioux City plant and a Perdue Farms plant on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Nine of those children worked at the Seaboard plant, the Labor Department said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ex-Dancer Accuses Shen Yun of Forced Labor and Trafficking in Lawsuit

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      The former performer, who was recruited to join Shen Yun at age 13, said the prominent dance group coerced children into making money for it.A former dancer for Shen Yun Performing Arts, the prominent music and dance group operated by the Falun Gong religious movement, filed a lawsuit on Monday, accusing its leaders of trafficking vulnerable children to work for little to no pay.The lawsuit, brought in Federal District Court in Manhattan, describes Shen Yun as a “forced labor enterprise” that has exploited underage dancers through threats and public shaming to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.Shen Yun instills obedience in its dancers through a wide range of tactics, the lawsuit alleges, including by confiscating their passports, cutting them off from outside media, denouncing them as Chinese government spies if they questioned the group’s practices and subjecting rule-breakers to public critique sessions.The former dancer who filed the lawsuit, Chang Chun-Ko, said she was recruited from Taiwan to join Shen Yun as a dancer at age 13, in 2009. She performed with the group until she left in 2020, when she was 24.Ms. Chang sued under a federal law that allows victims of forced labor to bring lawsuits against their traffickers.The lawsuit comes three months after The New York Times revealed that Shen Yun’s performers had been working in abusive conditions for years. Ms. Chang, now 28, was among the former performers and instructors quoted in the article.The New York State Department of Labor has opened an inquiry into the company’s labor practices, including its use of child performers, The Times reported last week.The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages. Ms. Chang is the only named plaintiff, but she is seeking to certify the lawsuit as a class action.Shen Yun, which performed more than 800 times on five continents in its most recent tour, puts on a two-hour dance and music show that spreads the message of Falun Gong, a religious movement that is banned in China and has been persecuted by the Chinese government.Representatives of Shen Yun and Falun Gong did not immediately provide a comment on Monday. They have previously denied violating any laws and said labor laws did not apply to their underage performers because they are students who tour with Shen Yun as a learning opportunity, not employees. Every student participates in Shen Yun voluntarily, they have said.“Sure, some people leave because it’s not for them, and that’s perfectly fine,” Shen Yun’s representatives said in a recent statement. “But the vast majority of students will tell you this is their dream come true, and the parents rave about the positive changes in their children.”This is a developing story and will be updated. More

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      2-Year-Old Gorilla Dies After Being Struck by Hydraulic Door at Zoo

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      A Calgary Zoo staff member mistakenly activated a door that struck the western lowland gorilla named Eyare, a report found.A 2-year-old gorilla died of traumatic injuries last week at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada, after being struck by a hydraulic door that a staff member mistakenly activated, according to the zoo.The western lowland gorilla, named Eyare, who was the offspring of gorillas at the zoo, had been interacting with other gorillas on Nov. 12 in an enclosure where they are fed, observed and trained outside their habitat.A staff member was trying to separate Eyare, who weighed about 30 pounds, from the other gorillas for a vaccination training session.“A team member intended to activate a door that they were looking at, but accidentally used the control lever for a different door,” Colleen Baird, the zoo’s director of animal care, said in an interview on Saturday. “And as that door was closing, Eyare was passing through, and she was struck by it.”Teams attempted lifesaving measures, but Eyare died shortly after 9:30 a.m.Ms. Baird said that the staff member operating the door was “devastated,” and that the person was immediately removed from the workplace. The staff member was not a new employee, and was comfortable working with gorillas, Ms. Baird said.The staff member will undergo additional training before returning to work in that area of the zoo, which is home to six other western lowland gorillas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Barbara Lynch Will Close All Her Restaurants

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      She helped put her city on the modern culinary map, but many employees said they paid a price in workplace abuse.Barbara Lynch, the celebrated chef who helped kick-start Boston’s modern fine-dining scene, announced Wednesday that her remaining restaurants were closing, ending a starry 30-year run that was shadowed in recent years by accusations of toxic working conditions in her kitchens.Her flagship, No. 9 Park, popular among the city’s political class since it opened in 1998 on Beacon Hill, will close at the end of the year, according to a statement first reported by Eater Boston. Ms. Lynch also announced on Instagram that the Rudder, a storied seafood spot that she took over and reopened last year in Gloucester, on the North Shore, had already closed. Her company, the Barbara Lynch Collective, did not immediately respond to an email seeking details about the closing of B & G Oysters, in the South End of Boston.In a report last year in The New York Times, more than 20 former and current staff members described a variety of abuse Ms. Lynch had inflicted on employees, including verbal attacks, inappropriate propositions, and touching, shoving and hitting. She denied the allegations, saying they were “fantastical” and “seemed designed to bring me down.”In January, she closed her white-tablecloth restaurant Menton, along with Sportello and Drink, all in the same building in the city’s Fort Point neighborhood, blaming an “uncooperative landlord.” She sold the Butcher Shop and Stir, the South End spots where the chef Kristen Kish began her run from “Top Chef” winner in 2012 to the show’s current host.In her statement on Wednesday, Ms. Lynch attributed the final closings to “the harsh realities of the global pandemic” and other “difficulties.” Last week, her company was sued for outstanding debt by its linen supplier; a 2023 class-action lawsuit by former employees over tips withheld during the pandemic is scheduled to be heard in November.The closings mark the end of a prominent culinary career for Ms. Lynch, whose roles as a Boston native, an early leader among women chefs, and a survivor of childhood neglect and rape won her national attention. She has described physical abuse in the kitchen by her first high-profile boss, the chef Todd English, and campaigned against such practices. But among the hundreds of alumni of Ms. Lynch’s kitchens, her short temper and drinking problem became an open secret, especially after she was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated in 2017.That same year, when her memoir was published, she led seven restaurants and was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential Americans. She trained many young chefs, including Ms. Kish, Stephanie Cmar, Colin Lynch and Jason Bond.Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. More