Labor is Not a Commodity

Gulf Coast Guestworkers Launch Hunger Strike Against Labor Abuses

By Brian Tierney, International Labor Rights Forum

A corporate model that puts profit before people is not interested in leaving the brutal practice of human trafficking and slavery to rot in the proverbial dustbin of history, much less modern worker exploitation. Today that callous model is resurrecting such long-denounced practices through the temporary H2B worker program and stripping the dignity of some 550 Indian guestworkers brought to the U.S. to work in the post-Katrina reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.   

On Wednesday May 14, the Alliance of Guestworkers with Dignity and the Indian Worker Congress – with the support of organizations like the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, Jobs with Justice, and the AFL-CIO among others – held a rally in front of the White House to launch a hunger strike by Indian guestworkers who are demanding the federal government to investigate the guestworker program and labor abuses against Gulf Coast reconstruction workers. The workers are calling on the Department of Justice to prosecute the marine construction company Signal International for its use of human trafficking and working conditions which unmistakably amount to indentured servitude and modern day slavery in the 21st Century. 

CAFTA Exposed: Omar Salazar Highlights 3 Weak Points in Labor Enforcement and 3 Reasons Why It Was Passed

By Justin Lam, International Labor Rights Forum

Last Wednesday, Omar Salazar, director of Costa Rican labor advocacy NGO Asociación Servicios de Promoción Laboral (ASEPROLA), spoke as part of a lunchtime talk at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, DC. Omar discussed key obstacles to the labor movement that have arisen since CAFTA from a Costa Rican perspective, including:

1. Costa Rican Ministry of Labor: They think it is the workers’ job to denounce labor rights violations. Hardly do you find people in Central America who go and seek out labor violations, Omar said.
2. Courts: Judges often have no background in labor laws and are unqualified to try cases. Trials take very long, and most lawyers do not want to defend labor unions. Laws don’t exist to protect workers in these situations.
3. International Labor Organization (ILO) standards: Often not followed, because local courts have declared some of its rules unconstitutional (despite the fact that its conventions should take precedence over local law).

Thoughts from the Jobs With Justice National Conference

By Beth Myers, Executive DIrector, STITCH and Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

From May 2-4, labor, community, religious and student activists converged in Providence, Rhode Island for the 2008 Jobs With Justice National Conference.  Jobs With Justice is a national organization which brings together workers and community allies to fight for workers' rights and economic and social justice and their conference is filled with exciting speakers, workshops, celebration, networking and of course, a great protest for workers' rights.  Here are some reports from Labor is Not a Commodity contributors on the conference.

China's New Arbitration Law

By Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF

At around the time of the child trafficking investigations in Dongguan City that I reported on in my last post, China began implementing its new “Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law” (LDMAL or simply “The Arbitration Law”). The legislation, which went into effect on May 1, has attracted little attention abroad, aside from a good piece at the Global Labor Strategies blog in October 2007. Nonetheless, LDMAL is a significant, if incomplete, step forward.

The Arbitration Law was bound to pale in comparison with the drama that accompanied the recent drafting, passage and implementation of the “Employment Contracts Law” (ECL, also called the “Labor Contract Law”): debates between foreign businesses and labor groups, an unprecedented outpouring of public comment—over 190,000 responses in only a month—criticisms by entrepreneur-delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, and continued scandals involving companies trying to shirk their new responsibilities to workers (see here, here, here, here and here).

Think before you pick up that banana or pineapple

By Didier Leiton, SITRAP union organizer in Costa Rica

The Union of Workers of Agricultural Plantations (Sindicato de Trabajadores de Plantaciones Agricolas – SITRAP), through this letter, wants to inform unions, NGO’s, consumers, local governments, churches, and citizens in general of the working conditions in which bananas and pineapples are produced in Costa Rica. These are, in turn, purchased by the supermarkets in the USA, mostly through Wal-Mart.

Port Workers Take Action for Global Justice

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

In the past few weeks, there have been two exciting examples of global labor solidarity.  Port workers in South Africa and the U.S. have both taken action in recently to show their support for global justice. 

South Africa

In South Africa, the SA Transit and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), refused to unload a ship carrying weapons from China to be sent to Zimbabwe.  SATAWU, with the support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), took action to stand in solidarity with workers in Zimbabwe.  After the controversial recent election in Zimbabwe, many are concerned that Mugabe would use the weapons to crack down on activists, including trade union members.  Mozambique and other Southern African nations have also refused to unload weapons for the landlocked government of Zimbabwe. 

Randal Howard, secretary general of SATAWU said, "We have a moral obligation to provide solidarity that does not allow the Mugabe regime to continue to undermine human and trade union rights with impunity.  We are not puppets of any imperialist forces as we equally deplore imperialism that undermines the sovereignty of African nation states to determine their own destinies."

Check out this statement from COSATU for more information.

Child Labor in China

Manfred Elfstrom, International Labor Rights Forum

On the day before May Day, police in one of China's great industrial boomtowns, Dongguan, raided a child labor trafficking ring. The children, most of whom were between the ages of 13 and 15, had been tricked or forced from their homes in Sichuan Province to work in an unnamed toy plant. 

The pioneering newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily, which triggered the investigation with a devastating report on markets where children were sold "like cabbages," followed the story up with a report on a fifteen-year-old boy who lost his left hand to the Hongsen Plastic Cement Factory's machinery. When labor inspectors later accompanied the reporter to the plant, they found more children on the company's payroll---children listed on paper with their real, illegal ages, in other words. 

Vermont Becomes Seventh Sweatfree State

By Liana Foxvog, National Organizer, SweatFree Communities

Yesterday Vermont became the seventh “sweatfree” state in the United States when Governor Jim Douglas signed a sweatshop-free purchasing policy into law.

The Governor's signing ceremony was held at Brattleboro Union High School. Members of the student organization Child Labor Education and Action (CLEA) had initiated and led the campaign to pass the law.

Hannah Viens, a senior, said: “CLEA advocates for the human rights of child laborers and sweatshop workers. We've held conferences to educate students. Today, before the bill signing, we presented to our classmates about how the bill is a concrete way to humanize the global economy.”

Celebrate Mother's Day by Supporting Flower Workers

By Justin Lam, ILRF intern

The International Labor Rights Forum is hosting the Mother’s Day Roses Raffle to offer people throughout the United States a chance to send a special gift to a loved one while also advancing the rights of women in the Latin American rose industry.

Support Cut Flower Workers Today -- Buy a Ticket

 Each entry costs $10. With a $30 donation, participants will not only get 3 raffle entries, but ILRF will also send a fair trade chocolate bar and a special card letting a loved one know that a donation was made in their name.FOUR winners will be chosen at random from the raffle to receive a fair trade bouquet. Winning entrants will be notified by May 5 and the 4 lucky recipients will be congratulated on the ILRF website and e-newsletter on May 12.

Show your love for working mothers this Mother’s Day!

By Rachel Wallis, USLEAP

Instead of getting your mom chocolates or flowers again this year, think about making a donation in her name to support the basic rights of working mothers in Latin America. The US Labor Education in the America Project (USLEAP) has designed two beautiful Mother’s Day cards, each featuring a photo of a Colombian flower worker and her child. In exchange for a $25 donation to USLEAP’s Flower Worker Economic Justice Campaign, your mother will receive a card in the mail, with a personalized message from you inside.