After last week's Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, which killed at least 377 garment workers, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) started a petition calling on three of the leading users of Bangladeshi garment workers—Walmart, the Gap and H&M—to demand that factories in the country be made safe for workers. The building collapse is already the deadliest garment factory disaster in known history and the death toll is not yet final. USAS says the deaths could have easily been prevented, as cracks appeared in the structure the day before it collapsed. Workers were ordered to work in the building anyway, under threat of losing a month's pay.

Women still make only 77 cents to the dollar men earn in America. Worldwide, "women are paid 18 percent on average less than their male counterparts at work." This pay gap has persisted without change for a decade. 

In a 52-47 vote, the U.S. Senate blocked a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act this afternoon. With 60 votes needed to proceed to a vote on the bill, Republicans succeeded in blocking pay equity for women for the second time. 

Guatemalan workers received support from an unexpected quarter this week. A group of global clothing brands (including the Gap, Liz Claiborne, Nike, Under Armour, American Eagle, Adidas, PVH and PF) and an association to which they are affiliated with, the Fair Labor Association, wrote to the Government of Guatemala to urge it to move swiftly to reach a satisfactory resolution to a complaint filed four years ago by the AFL-CIO and six Guatemalan unions under DR-CAFTA (the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement).