Browse Cases

Showing 1-25 of 119 results

Vermont Migrant Farmworkers March and Picket for Return of Withheld Pay, 2014

Country
United States
Time period
15 May, 2014 to 16 May, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Matt Koucky 28/05/2019

The St. Albans Cooperative Creamery was a farmer/member-owned milk-processing plant in St. Albans, Vermont (VT) in the United States with a supplying base of 360 farms. Ray Brands owned one of these farms—called Deer Valley Farm—and on 15 May 2014, two immigrant workers at his farm quit due to poor living conditions and Brands’ withholding of paychecks. Earlier that May, another worker quit for the same reasons.

Vermont Migrant Farmworkers picket and march for Ben and Jerry’s to sign pledge for Milk With Dignity

Country
United States
Time period
23 October, 2014 to 3 October, 2017
Classification
Defense
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Matt Koucky, 27/05/2019

Migrant Justice conducted a survey of Vermont farm workers in June 2014 to find potential areas of concern. The group found that businesses paid 40 percent of workers less than the state minimum wage of $8.73, 40 percent worked every day each week, and 28 percent consistently worked shifts or 7 hours or more without breaks.

Pennsylvanians Block Natural Gas Facility, 2014-2015

Country
United States
Time period
March 21, 2014 to February 6, 2015
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
AV Lee-A-Yong, 29/05/2019

South Heidelberg is a rural Pennsylvania community in Berks County with natural gas reserves. On 3 March  2014, the South Heidelberg planning commission gave preliminary approval to a Canadian corporation, EmberClear,to construct a gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility in the town. The facility would primarily harvest natural gas resources from the town.

Newark residents and students campaign to stop the building of 279 MW power plant (2013-2014)

Country
United States
Time period
June, 2013 to July, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 10/5/2019

The Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) campus, a satellite campus of the University of Delaware (UD) is located just half a mile from the primary campus in Newark, Delaware. During the efforts to fully develop the STAR campus, UD offered to lease 43 acres of the campus to The Data Center (TDC) to build a 900,000 square foot data center with an attached 279 megawatt natural gas power plant, an amount five times the energy demand of the city of Newark.

Brown University students campaign for Brown to cancel contract with Adidas, 2012-2013

Country
United States
Time period
November, 2012 to 24 April, 2013
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 02/05/2019

PT Kizone, an apparel factory in Tangerang, Indonesia, held major contracts with Nike and Adidas. In September of 2010, the factory started to withhold its workers’ severance pay. In January 2011, the factory failed to pay its workers their monthly compensation. At the end of the month, the owner of PT Kizone, Jin Woo Kim, fled to his home country of South Korea. The factory declared bankruptcy and closed on 1 April 2011. PT Kizone fired all its workers, to whom the factory owed $3.4 million in severance compensation.

Chinese-Americans protest conviction of NYPD Officer Peter Liang, 2016

Country
United States
Time period
8 March, 2015 to 20 February, 2016
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Juli Pham 20/04/2017

On 20 November 2014, a New York police officer Peter Liang, joined by his partner, Shaun Landau, entered the Louis H. Pink Houses for a routine patrol of the Brooklyn public housing complex. During the vertical-patrol of the building, Liang drew his weapon as he opened the door to the stairwell. According to Liang’s defense, a loud noise startled him which caused him to accidentally pull the trigger. The bullet ricocheted against the wall and fatally struck Akai Gurley, who had entered the stairwell with his friend, Melissa Butler, a floor below.

ACT UP activists resist New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s AIDS policies, 1994-95

Country
United States
Time period
3 January, 1994 to 25 April, 1995
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Juli Pham 12/04/2017

When Rudolph (Rudy) Giuliani took office as New York City’s 107th Mayor on 1 January 1994, the city had a budget deficit of $2.3 billion. The Republican candidate planned to close the city deficit by eliminating 15,000 city jobs. Police, firefighters, and teachers, which made up 60 percent of total city employees, were exempt from the job cuts. With these exemptions, the city administration had to find its staff reductions from less that 40 percent of its 216,000-strong work force.

Black residents of Diamond win fight with Shell Chemical for relocation 1989-2002

Country
United States
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 29/03/2017

In the early 1950s, Royal Dutch/Shell purchased land in the community of Diamond, Louisiana and built a chemical plant. Margie Richard, a Black resident of Diamond, founded Concerned Citizens of Norco (CCN) in 1989 after two large-scale accidents at the Shell/Motiva Chemical plant. A pipeline explosion in 1973 killed two Diamond residents, while another event in 1988 killed seven workers.

Emelle residents protest Chemical Waste Management hazardous waste landfill 1978-1995

Country
United States
Time period
1978 to 1988
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 22/03/2017

In 1978, Chemical Waste Management Inc. (CWM), a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. (WMX), bought 300-acres of land near Emelle, Alabama for a hazardous waste landfill. Residents did not have the opportunity to protest the landfill prior to its construction because CWM was not legally obligated to disclose information about land use.

Brown University library workers campaign to fill empty union positions 2014

Country
United States
Time period
24 October, 2014 to 11 December, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Juli Pham 18/03/2017

In 2014, Brown University, a private research university located in Providence, Rhode Island, enrolled nearly 9,000 students and employed over 1,500 workers, more than a hundred of whom worked in the school’s libraries. The United Service and Allied Workers of Rhode Island (USAW-RI) is the workers union that represented nearly half of these library workers in addition to the school’s dining employees, parking officers, service responders, and mailroom drivers.

Brown University students support library workers’ bid to win contract, Rhode Island, 2010

Country
United States
Time period
30 September, 2010 to 9 November, 2010
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao and Juli Pham, 02/22/2017

Brown University, a private Ivy League research university located in Providence, Rhode Island, enrolls nearly 9,000 students and employs over 1,500 workers, over a hundred of which are employed in the school’s libraries. The 2007-2010 collective bargaining agreement between the university and the United Service and Allied Workers Rhode Island (USAW-RI) Library Unit was officially set to conclude on 30 September 2010.

Massachusetts residents block construction of Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline 2014-2016

Country
United States
Time period
27 February, 2014 to 3 May, 2016
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 15/02/2017

In September 2014, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, L.L.C. (TGP), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., proposed a 346-mile pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The proposal included two paths: a 220-mile “supply path” and a 126-mile “market path”. The Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline (NED) would supply natural gas from fracking fields in Pennsylvania to energy companies in New England. TGP was a well-known gas supplier, having operated in the New England region for over 60 years.

Environmentalist groups stop construction of oil export terminal in Philadelphia, 2016

Country
United States
Time period
9 March, 2016 to 22 November, 2016
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao, 09/02/2017

Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES) is a private oil and gas manufacturer that owns the largest oil unloading and refining facility on the East Coast of the United States. Labelled by the Environmental Protection Agency as a high priority violator since April 2012, the PES has long been criticized by environmentalist groups for releasing air and water pollutants and failing to  comply with the Clean Air Act.

PETA pressures Avon to stop animal testing, United States, 1989

Country
United States
Time period
February, 1989 to June, 1989
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Rebecca Griest 03/12/2016

The animal rights movement of the 1980’s moved into the mainstream media as it was joined by professionals and academics. The new public attention increased demand from concerned consumers for products developed without animal testing, and companies began more widely using alternatives such as in vitro cell cultures and computer catalogs of known substances.

Paul Robeson High School Students in New York Campaign Against Closing, 2009-2011

Country
United States
Time period
15 December, 2009 to 1 May, 2011
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
1 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Celine Anderson 06/12/96

Paul Robeson High School opened in Brooklyn, New York, 1984, as a replacement for the closed Alexander Hamilton High School. The school board’s vision for the new Robeson High School focused primarily on decreasing the dropout rate. To ensure this, the board replaced most of the Hamilton teachers with new ones and created a new application process for students. At first, Robeson did see an increase in the graduation rate, earning it recognition in The New York Times. However, in 2004, the graduation rate began to slowly decrease.

Campaign Successfully Stops Liquefied Natural Gas Pipeline and Export Terminal Oregon, 2005-2012

Country
United States
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lewis Fitzgerald-Holland, 12/11/2015

On 8 August 2007, Columbia Riverkeeper, a group dedicated to the environmental restoration of the Columbia River, launched a protest against the proposed plant. Two hundred protesters picketed on the beach at the proposed site and sailed into the river in kayaks holding signs and banners.

North American 'Lactivists' hold nurse-ins against Applebee's, United States, 2007

Country
United States
Time period
September 8th, 2007 to September 9th, 2007
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Andrew Steele 11/09/2015

In the state of Kentucky, specific breastfeeding laws exist in order to protect women while breastfeeding their babies. Section 211.755 mandates that “a mother may breastfeed her baby or express breast milk in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be.” Furthermore, women seen in the act of breastfeeding will not be considered for “indecent exposure, sexual conduct, lewd touching, or obscenity.”

KatyISD students protest over teacher layoffs, 2011

Country
United States
Time period
14 April, 2011 to 15 April, 2011
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Andrew Steele 11/01/2015

Texas has consistently ranked poorly among other states with regard to education. In 2010, Texas ranked dead last in the percentage of adults with high school diplomas and ranked very low in spending per student in public schools, a problem that became exacerbated in 2011. During the Great Recession in 2007, Texas was able to avoid the housing industry meltdown and soaring unemployment rates that plagued the rest of the United States due to its booming oil and gas industries.

Earth Quaker Action Team Campaigns Against PNC Bank for Financing Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining 2010-2015

Country
United States
Time period
March, 2010 to February, 2015
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Celine Anderson 27/9/2015

The Earth Quaker Action Team’s first campaign, BLAM! (Bank Like Appalachia Matters!) began on 18 February 2010. Ingrid Lakey, Board Member of EQAT, sent a letter to PNC Vice President Jean Caulfield, which described the health and environmental dangers of mountaintop mining and requested a meeting. Shortly after Lakey wrote her letter, three EQAT members met with J. William Mills (the president of the Philadelphia Regional PNC banks) and relayed their expectations of PNC Bank to him. Less than a week later, PNC Bank sponsored a flower show on 9 March 2010.

Citizens stop development companies’ destruction of bay habitat in Manatee County, Florida, 2013

Country
United States
Time period
6 June, 2013 to 23 December, 2013
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Total points
8.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko 07/04/2015

On 6 June 2013, developers Carlos Beruff and Larry Lieberman asked
Florida’s Manatee County Commission for environmental exceptions and
zoning changes to Long Bar Pointe, a 523-acre area of land along
Sarasota Bay. In 2012, Lieberman, the land’s owner, as well as the
president and founder of Sarasota’s Barrington Group, partnered with
Beruff of Medallion Homes to complete the development project. Beruff
and Lieberman aimed to build a 300-room hotel, two retail centers, a
convention center, 1,086 single-family homes, 1,587 low-rise multi

Newark Delaware USA community activists stop power plant in their neighborhood - 2013-2014

Country
United States
Time period
06-JUN, 2013 to 10-JUL, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jamie Irwin, 05-APR-2015

In 2013, Newark, Delaware, USA, was a town of 30,000 and home to the University of Delaware. Local citizens felt  great concern about job creation to recover from the losses resulting from the worldwide financial crisis of 2007-2008, and they pressured their politicians to bring job creation opportunities to Delaware. In June of 2013, a representative of a company called The Data Centers, LLC, contacted local leaders of the Delaware Sierra Club asking for their support to build a data center to provide retail IT services on property owned by the University of Delaware.

Sarasotan Students' school boycott stops neighborhood schools from closing, Florida, United States, 1969

Country
United States
Time period
3 May, 1969 to 9 May, 1969
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko 29/03/2015

Before Booker Grammar School, Sarasota’s first Black public school, was established in 1925, Black students received their education at home or in churches. The establishment of three other schools for Black students -- Amaryllis Park for first through third graders, Booker Junior High, for seventh and eighth graders, and Booker High School, for ninth through twelfth graders -- followed. These schools, located centrally within Sarasota’s African-American community, Newtown, became deeply rooted institutions within the community.

Environmentalists achieve a ban on fracking in New York, United States - 2012-2014

Country
United States
Time period
26-MAR, 2012 to 17-DEC, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jamie Irwin, 07/03/2015

Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” injects a mixture of water, sand and
chemicals under high pressure into dense shale rock formations to crack
the rock and release oil and/or natural gas. Oil companies began using
the process around 1950, but only in the mid 2000’s did it become a
widespread environmental issue as energy companies began developing new
ways to find oil and gas as the cheaper, easier sources were depleting.
One geologic formation, called the Marcellus Shale, included about 1/3
of southern New York state, including the Catskill mountains and the New

South Portland Maine activists get ban on use of port for exporting tar sands – 2014

Country
United States
Time period
06-JUN, 2013 to 21-JUL, 2014
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jamie Irwin, 01/03/2015

The campaign began 6 June 2013, and ended 21 July 2014, with the South Portland City Council vote to ban the export of unrefined crude from its port.

Pennsylvanian Methodists campaign for reinstatement of minister, United States, 2013

Country
United States
Time period
4 APR, 2013 to 27 OCT, 2014
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jamie Irwin, 30/01/2015

Gay rights advocates in the United Methodist Church had been arguing for decades, beginning at least since 1972, for changing the Church policy on gay rights, including their ban on officiating at same-sex weddings, and prohibiting openly gay clergy. The issues had been raised at each of the 2004 and 2008 General Conferences where policy for the Church could be debated and set.