Tag Archives: Sweden

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Two dolphins dead at party


Two dolphins are dead after the Connyland themepark in Switzerland allowed a two-day rave to take place just a few yards from their tank.

The pair died agonizing, drawn-out deaths, seizing and foaming at the mouth. Veterinarians now say their deaths were likely caused by the ear-splitting music of the rave and drugs that ravers threw into the dolphins’ tank.

Carin Zellerman is an animal activist living in Sweden. After hearing about the tragedy — and the fact that Connyland ignored protests by local activists who warned a rave would endanger the dolphins — she decided to start a petition on Change.org to save the remaining dolphins from Connyland’s negligence. Please sign Carin’s petition calling on Swiss officials to shut down the Connyland dolphinarium where two dolphins died after a rave last month.

Eight dolphins have died at Connyland in the past three years, and a 2010 investigation into alleged violations of Swiss animal welfare laws at Connyland is still pending. Meanwhile, the health of the remaining dolphins at Connyland is slowly deterioriating  (due to illness and chemical poisoning as well as claustrophobia that results in depressive behavior and sometimes self-abuse).

The good news is that a  global outcry over this disaster is fueling the longstanding domestic movement to get Connyland’s dolphin tank — the last dolphinarium in Switzerland — shut down. Swiss officials can’t ignore this gross violation of animal welfare; they need to know that the world is watching, and that thousands expect them to save Connyland’s remaining dolphins.

Please sign Carin’s petition to shut down Switzerland’s last remaining dolphinarium, where two dolphins were killed last month, and eight have died in the last three years:

http://www.change.org/petitions/dolphins-die-after-rave-at-connyland

Thanks for being a change-maker,

– Stephanie and the Change.org team

 

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

IKEA’s dangerous little secret


In Sweden, IKEA‘s factory workers are paid $19 per hour and get five weeks of paid vacation every year. In America? Not so much.

IKEA’s Swedwood plant in Danville, Virginia is the most dangerous plant in the wood furniture industry — workers there have suffered more than 1,536 days of lost work due to accidents on the job in a 30-month period. According to the LA Times, IKEA’s Danville workers are paid as little as $8 an hour and face racial discrimination from their managers. Workers often find out on Friday night that they’ll be forced to work for the entire weekend — and if they can’t make it, they face disciplinary action.

In Sweden, IKEA’s factory workers are unionized, which is one reason they receive better wages and have a safer workplace — but the company is going all out to prevent American workers from receiving those same rights and protections. Please sign the petition to tell IKEA to give its American workers the freedom to organize.

The workers in Danville have filed for an election to start a union of their own — the election could come as soon as six weeks from now. But rather than pay its workers fair wages, Swedwood pays the notorious union-busting firm Jackson Lewis thousands of dollars a day to hold mandatory “captive audience meetings” with the Danville workers. At these meetings, the Jackson Lewis associates inundate the workers with anti-union propaganda and veiled threats that are backed up with random firings.

Here’s the good news: The publicity surrounding this organizing drive has already made a difference — last month, Swedwood announced that Danville workers would no longer be forced to work mandatory overtime. But Liz Cattaneo of American Rights at Work stresses that continued public pressure is extremely important: “If IKEA thinks the public isn’t paying attention, they’re going to play hardball … throughout the election process — which could mean more firings and more union busting.”

Now that the workers have filed for a union election, you can bet IKEA will redouble its efforts to squash their rights. They need our support now more than ever.

Please sign the petition to tell IKEA’s head of Corporate PR that we are paying attention, and we expect IKEA to treat its American workers just as well as its Swedish workers:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-ikea-to-respect-its-workers

Thanks for taking action,

– Jess and the Change.org team