Labor is Not a Commodity

LL Bean Responds with Grace

Bama Athreya, Executive Director, ILRF
 
Just in time for Thanksgiving, the outdoor clothing brand LL Bean has made a significant commitment  to work with ILRF to end forced child labor in cotton.  Last week, we released our Sweatshop Hall of Shame, and to our surprise, were compelled to name LL Bean as one of the companies that had been non-responsive to our efforts over the past year to help us end the terrible abuse of children in cotton production in Central Asia. 
 
This is a company that, in the past, had always been quick to respond when we identified sweatshop abuses in their supplier factories in Asia, and had worked with us to correct some of those abuses.  So our surprise turned to relief when, within 24 hours of being identified in the "Sweatshop Hall of Shame," a senior official in the company, in charge of the company's labor rights monitoring program, called to ask what the company could do to work with ILRF and ensure that they were not profiting from forced child labor.

Honduran Workers Win Major Victory with the help of Students and Activists like You!

By Jeremy Silva and Eva Seidelman, International Labor Rights Forum

Over the weekend was a time for of celebration and relief for many Honduran workers and their families: 1,200 workers who were fired from Russell's Jerzees de Honduras (a sports apparel company owned by Fruit of Loom which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway) when the factory closed in October 2008, will now gain their jobs back.  A new settlement between Russell/Fruit of the Loom and the General Workers Confederation of Honduras/Sintrajerzeesh will, when implemented, open up a new unionized factory in Honduras with greatly improved labor standards.  Mike Powers, of Cornell, called the decision a “landmark.”  Scott Nova, executive director of the Workers’ Rights Consortium told the New York Times that the victory was unprecedented in “the transformative impact it can have in one of the hardest regions of the world to win respect for workers’ rights.”  Nova went on to tell the AP that the decision represented a “toehold that people have been trying to get for a decade.”

Some background: Last January, Russell decided to close its Jerzees de Honduras factory after negotiations between the SintraJersheez union and Russell broke down given Russell's refusal to bargain in good faith. Thousands of workers lost their jobs after the closing and union leaders received death threats after Russell blamed the factory closure on the union. But Sintrajerzeesh union leaders didn't give up--they spread the word about Russell's tactics to U.S. consumers and won!

Colbert takes on child labor

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Last week, I wrote about how big businesses in the US are lobbying against bans on the importation of products made using forced and child labor and linked to a clip from the Rachel Maddow Show.  Sadly, this is not the first time companies like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland have lobbied against similar legislation.  Well, for those of you who consider yourselves members of "Colbert Nation," check out Stephen Colbert's take on this issue on The Colbert Report on November 17th.  About 4:15 into the show, you'll also hear references to many of the corporations ILRF has active campaigns focused on like Firestone and ADM.  Keep checking this blog and sign up for ILRF's e-mail list for more updates as this story develops!

Check out the clip from the Colbert Report here!

ILRF announces Sweatshop Hall of Shame 2010

By Juontel White, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The Sweatshop Hall of Shame features apparel companies that have consistently flouted worker’s rights. This year’s hall of shame highlights companies whose labor practices have failed to comply with international fair labor standards. 

The 2010 inductees are: Abercrombie & Fitch, Gymboree, Hanes, Ikea, Kohl’s, LL Bean, Pier 1, Propper International, and Walmart.

Most, if not all, of the companies mentioned source from factories which pay workers poverty wages and use illegal tactics that suppress workers’ right to organize. Some of the brands (namely Gymboree, Hanes, and LL Bean) source cotton from Uzbekistan, which forces children to pick cotton instead of going to school. 
 
ILRF along with other labor rights organizations have contacted several inductees requesting them to ensure that their supplier’s adhere to fair labor practices, such as ensuring workers safe working conditions, treatment with respect and dignity, and sufficient wages to support the basic needs of their families. Companies such as Walmart and Kohl’s have ignored requests to resolve factory issues and all inductees have failed to take any meaningful action.

Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide Launched

By Brett Eisenbrown, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

As the holiday shopping season rolls around, I often find myself at a lost.  I am not what one calls a “good shopper.”  In fact, when I was younger my mother and I limited ourselves to one day of shopping a year in order to preserve our relationship.  As I have gotten older, while my aversion to shopping has not changed, the reason for that aversion has matured.  No longer do I simply see shopping as a tedious task that takes place in a crowed shopping mall, but as an action that has the potential to impact people’s lives around the world.

In the globalized world that we live in, inexpensive t-shirts that we purchase from major retailers like Walmart and Target has possibly circled the world several times before arriving in the United States.  For example, cotton from Uzbekistan may be exported to Bangladesh, where the t-shirt is produced, prior to being sent to European and U.S. Markets.  While the previous example is simplistic it should make us stop and think about what goes into the production of the goods we buy.  While many people might say that the shirt is nothing more then a product of an interdependent global economy, one may think twice before purchasing that shirt when they learn about the child labor that was involved in the picking of cotton in Uzbekistan as well as the low wages or workers limited ability to form unions in Bangladesh.

Pakistani Labor Leader Killed by Suicide Bomber

Brett Eisenbrown, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

While on his way to a meeting, Pakistani labor leader, Master Khudadad Khan, was killed by a suicide bomber on October 15th.  Master Khudadad was not the target of the attack, but instead he was one of several innocent civilians killed when the suicide bomber attacked an intelligence center in Peshawar.  

Master Khudadad was the General Secretary of the Pakistani Workers Federation (PWF).  The PFW is the single largest trade union federation in Pakistan. It consists of 419 unions and more then 880,000 workers, which represents a majority of unionized workers in Pakistan.  Master Khudadad and the PWF have worked tirelessly to help promote the organization of free and independent trade unions that would improve the lives of workers throughout Pakistan.  

Government Purchasing Policy Forum in Washington, DC

Brett Eisenbrown, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The use of sweatshops to produce the goods we consume is not the exception but, unfortunately, it is the rule.  While the very idea of people having to endure such working conditions in order to try and provide for themselves and their families is deplorable, the idea that our tax dollars are being used to support sweatshop conditions only increases the injustice of the situation.  Unfortunately, it is true that our tax dollars are supporting sweatshops, poverty wage jobs in our economy, and employers that continually violate the rights of workers worldwide. 

It was the issue of public procurement and ending the use of taxpayer dollars to fund sweatshops, both domestically and internationally, that was central to the Policy Forum held on November 6th.  The Policy Forum, entitled Strengthening Core Labor Standards through Public Procurement Reform, was sponsored by U.S. Representatives Mike Michaud and Phil Hare and organized by SweatFree Communities (SFC) and the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF).  In addition, the forum was the first event held for the National SweatFree Summit that started November 6th and ran until November 8th in Washington, DC.  

Assassination of Farmworker Organizer Santiago Rafael and the FLOC Campaign to Organize Tobacco Workers in the Southern US

Jade Batstone, intern, International Labor Rights Forum
 
 A briefing took place on November 5th at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C regarding the assassination of Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). member Santiago Rafael in 2007. FLOC President, and newly elected AFL-CIO executive committee member, Baldemar Velasquez spoke about how his organization seeks justice for this heinous crime as well as actions FLOC is currently taking to bring about justice for Reynolds Tobacco field workers in the southern US. The organizing of tobacco workers around the world is absolutely essential in creating a secure livelihood for tobacco workers in Mexico, Malawi and the US.  In addition, ILRF has long targeted the tobacco industry as an industry that uses child labor.  Also attending the event was Leonel Rivero, the Mexican human rights lawyer providing council for Rafeal’s family and FLOC. Rivero discussed the obstacles to working on this case given government and police corruption on the Mexican side.

Rachel Maddow takes on corporations defending child and forced labor

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Recently, Rachel Maddow picked up on an article written by David Sirota about how business groups are lobbying against provisions in a customs bill that contains provisions banning the importation of goods produced by convict labor, forced labor or forced or indentured child labor.  Check out the video below (and there's a transcript here).

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What does Kraft's proposed takeover of Cadbury mean for workers?

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

The businesses world is buzzing over the news that Kraft has made a hostile takeover bid for Cadbury.  For weeks, there has been plenty of back and forth between the two companies in the media and Kraft finally placed its $16.3 billion bid for Cadbury before shareholders today.  Cadbury continued to object to the proposal and stated that Kraft was undervaluing the company.  Kraft now has 28 days to outline the offer and then has an additional 60 days to line up enough shareholders to approve the deal.

One of the major shareholders who will definitely play a role in whether or not the takeover is successful will be Warren Buffett, who is Kraft's largest shareholder.  Since Buffett is not exactly a friend of workers and Kraft is not a model for industrial relations, workers should be concerned about the impact of the changes at Cadbury.