The Obama administration announced Thursday it is suspending trade privileges for Bangladesh because of that country's poor record of safety and protection of workers' rights in the garment industry. After a recent building collapse killed more than 1,100 workers and a fire in a separate factory led to another 112 deaths, the administration was under pressure to take action. The suspension means Bangladesh no longer will be able to avoid paying duties on more than 5,000 products the country exports to the United States.

After the catastrophic Rana Plaza garment factory building collapse that resulted in 1,129 dead and 1,500 injured Bangladeshi workers, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), held a hearing to investigate “Labor Issues in Bangladesh.” I testified for the AFL-CIO at the hearing.

Managers at a Finnish-owned maquiladora located in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, producing wire harnesses for the North American auto industry, have obstructed workers’ right to freely join a union and sexually harassed female employees, according to a report released today by Worker Rights Consortium, an independent organization that monitors labor rights abuses around the world.

Over the past few weeks, Turkey has been rocked by unrest. The protests were sparked by peaceful resistance to the destruction of Istanbul’s Gezi Park in Taksim Square, the only green public place in central Istanbul, which was to be turned into a shopping mall and historical recreation of Ottoman Artillery Barracks. 

A harsh response from the state, characterized by extreme police brutality, has ensued in response to what have become the largest demonstrations the country has seen for decades. Protests have now spread to 77 cities in Turkey.

Workers this week are marking the second anniversary of the historic passage of a global standard covering the rights of domestic workers. The International Labor Organization's (ILO's) Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) covers written employment contracts, protection from harassment, abuse and violence, hours of work, job safety and other workplace safeguards.

Celeste Drake, trade policy specialist for the AFL-CIO, is testifying on labor rights abuses in Bangladesh this morning, during a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing presided over by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). 

Watch the hearing live here. 

Following the tragic building collapse that killed more than 1,300 Bangladeshi garment workers and recent fires that have claimed the lives of more than 400 Bangladeshi clothing workers, more than 40 clothing retailers have signed on to the Accord on Building and Fire Safety. But two of the major retailers that count on low-wage Bangladeshi workers to make the clothes they sell have refused.

Today. Walmart and Gap announced they would develop their own nonbinding safety code and turned their backs on the accord developed by international and Bangladeshi unions, retailers and other groups—groups with firsthand knowledge of what’s needed for worker safety and of the deadly consequences of inaction.

In Paris on Tuesday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned the leaders and policymakers of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that the financial austerity measures, like those taken by European nations, destroy jobs, increase inequality and likely feed the public’s mistrust of government.

CBS News secretly filmed inside a Bangladesh apparel factory recently. There they found emergency fire doors blocked and just two fire extinguishers for a 100,000-square-foot area—another 11 shown on an evacuation plan were nowhere to be seen. Recent fires have claimed the lives of more than 400 Bangladeshi clothing workers.

At today’s Mondelēz International's shareholder meeting, the IUF, the international union body representing food workers worldwide, and unions representing the company’s North American employees raised concerns about human rights abuses in the company’s overseas operations. Many Mondelēz-branded cookies and crackers are produced by union members, including Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz and Triscuit.