Labor is Not a Commodity

Is the BBC Fair to Fair Trade?

By Bama Athreya, Executive Director, and Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

A recent program on the BBC revealed the continued use of child labor and trafficking in West Africa's cocoa industry. 

Since 2001, major chocolate companies like Hershey, Mars and Nestlé have said that they would eliminate trafficking, forced labor and abusive child labor from their cocoa supply chains and yet, we know that thousands of children are still working under these conditions to produce the primary ingredient in these companies' chocolate.  Yet, somehow the BBC failed to expose any of these companies in their investigation.  Instead they focused on the few actors that have been transparent about the challenges of ending child labor: the Fair Trade Certified cooperatives.

For years, the world's major chocolate brands have hid behind "studies" and "monitoring" that claim that NO forced or trafficked labor is occurring in West Africa.  As we have learned over the years, if the monitoring does not reveal problems then it is not working.  BBC reporters should have realized that companies claiming a clean bill of health were probably the worst exploiters.  Ironically, the fact that Fair Trade cooperatives and certifiers identified abuses is a signal that they are making a serious effort to monitor and address labor conditions among cocoa farmers. 

Human Trafficking - International and National Implications

By Vanessa León, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Twenty-seven hours into my internship at ILRF and I already find myself on Capitol Hill. It’s a bittersweet feeling really. On the one hand, I am excited to be amongst the hustle and bustle of the Hill while at the same time uneasy about the reason for which the hearing was held for in the first place. That reason you ask? Human trafficking- definitely an all bitter, not at all sweet topic.

Human trafficking, as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), is the induction of a person to perform labor or commercial sex acts through force, fraud, or coercion. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that at least 12.3 million children and adults are in forced labor, bonded labor and commercial sex servitude at any given time. This $28 billion enterprise preys on some of the most vulnerable populations with promises of employment only to later entrap them in an endless organized crime network negligent of basic freedoms and proper health and safety conditions. Second only to the drug trade, this business thrives on the fact that humans, unlike drugs, can be sold over and over again. Sold?! Really? What are we, some type of produce on aisle seven?!

Oil palm worker's physical vulnerability

By Diana Carolina Vega Higuera, Bogotá Regional Intern, US Labor Education in the Americas Project

Bogotá, Colombia- Carlos is a twenty-year-old young man, who worked in the African oil palm plantations as a harvester. After working there for two years, he had an accident and the company refused to recognize it as an occupational injury. Shortly afterward, he was fired for poor performance at work. Since then, his dream of joining the army was truncated because he was injured for life.

There are many other similar cases like Carlos’. All of these demonstrate the vulnerable situation of oil palm workers, who after an accident at work, must fight for job relocation, or compensation for the occupational accident. The injuries vary case by case, ranging from lumbar injuries, to carpal tunnel syndrome, to vision loss. All of these diminish and degrade their quality and standard of living.

In some cases the accident is recognized; however the medical diagnosis does not reach the percentage required for compensation or disability pay (medical declaration that the worker has lost 50% of his/her working capacity and over).

Global Advocacy Days 2010: Advocates From Across the Country Descend on Capitol Hill in an Effort to Re-Abolish the Slave Trade

By Maggie Smith, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Today, I am still recovering from two intense but satisfying days of advocacy organized by the Not For Sale campaign, a non-profit organization that “equips and mobilizes Smart Activists to deploy innovative solutions to re-abolish slavery in their own backyards and across the globe.”  Their goal: to end slavery in our life time. 

I have a feeling that there are more than a few of you reading this and thinking, RE-abolish slavery?  Slavery?!  What on earth is she talking about?!  Yes, it is a shocking and unfortunate realization for most, when they learn that modern-day slavery, know as human trafficking, not only exists today, but is thriving.  Although slavery is legal nowhere, it is happening everywhere.  Fact: there are more than 27 million people are forced to work in the world today.  It is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world – a nine billion dollar industry, according to the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST).  In fact, the global labor trade of today is larger than the trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 18th and 19th century was at its height.

Prominent Environmental Lawyer speaks about Stop Firestone Campaign

By: Jessica Jones, Administrative Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

Alfred Brownell, Liberian Environment Justice Lawyer, recently visited the Institute for Policy Studies to discuss Firestone Tire and Rubber Company's domination and oppression that has gripped the Liberian people for generations and how the the nonprofit sector can assist to end this reign of power. 

Brownell stated “there is no way to talk about democratic social reform…there is no way anyone can think about addressing those issues without thinking about Firestone.” Firestone has, for the last 82 years, entrenched itself deeply into Liberia’s economic, political and social structure. In a country whose average life-span is lower than 59 years (World Bank), Firestone has reaped generations that have yet to experience a life without forced labor, child labor, poor working conditions, and environmental destruction. Brownell, simply, offered the question: What kind of institutions do the Liberian people need to achieve their goals?

Rights for Working Women on International Women's Day

By Michelle Petrotta, Program Officer, International Labor Rights Forum

As the world celebrates the 100th International Women's Day, the United Nations Commission on Women is in New York, reviewing progress of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that was agreed upon in 1995.  Fifteen years after the international communities committed to take all necessary measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and the girl child, women are still not free from discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Women often make up between 70-90 percent of the total work force in export processing zones in developing countries throughout Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. While increased access to employment has provided new economic opportunities for women, the work they perform remains precarious as they are systematically denied rights to regular pay, working hours, equal pay for equal work, safe and non-hazardous work environments, and permanent contracts where their right to organize in labor unions is respected. Sexual harassment in the workplace is especially atrocious and widespread form of discrimination against women that completely impedes their economic empowerment and autonomy. Forced pregnancy tests as a pre-condition for employment are another form of discrimination that reduce a woman's ability to demand a living wage and break out of poverty. Women working in the garments, agricultural, and light manufacturing industries face overwhelming barriers as they attempt to earn a living wage to support themselves and their families.

Attend Public Hearing on DC Sweatfree Purchasing on March 23

Maggie Smith, Sweatfree DC Coordinator, International Labor Rights Forum

Join the ILRF Sweatfree DC campaign, SEIU Local 32BJ, and others in supporting responsible contracting with strong labor standards in the District NOW! 

This is your money, have your voice be heard!  On MARCH 23 at 10:30am a public hearing will be held to discuss procurement reform in DC.  This is our chance to make the case for labor standards and enforcement in all contracts with DC.  We must tell DC government that we DO NOT WANT OUR TAX DOLLARS SUPPORTING COMPANIES THAT VIOLATE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LABOR STANDARDS!  Show your support by attending the hearing or testifying on behalf of responsible contracting (written testimony, in lieu of spoken, is also encouraged)!

SIGN UP TO ATTEND THE HEARING AT www.unionvoice.org/laborrights/events/SweatfreeDC_Hearing/details.tcl.

The International Labor Rights Forum launched the Sweatfree DC Campaign on Tax Day 2009.  The campaign is calling on Mayor Fenty and our local elected officials to join the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium and pass a strong sweatfree purchasing policy to end tax dollar support for sweatshops.  A sweatfree purchasing policy would stipulate that apparel purchased by the district could not be produced using substandard labor practices, such as sweatshop labor.  The Consortium would help to enforce the policy and monitor factories here in the U.S. and abroad.

Twenty-one Locked-In Apparel Workers Die in another Factory Fire in Bangladesh

By Bjorn Claeson, Director of SweatFree Communities

How many more workers will have to pay with their lives to absorb the terrible cost of apparel companies’ low-road, bottom-price business model?

Close to 10 p.m. on Thursday, February 26, 2010, twenty-one workers died when the Garib & Garib Sweater Factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh, caught fire for the second time in six months. Local news media reported thick black smoke caused by burning acrylic yarn spreading throughout the building.  Lasting nearly two hours, the fire consumed the oxygen in the air, suffocating the workers.  The smoke could not get out because the building was poorly ventilated.  Workers could not escape because exits were locked.  Fire fighters had to cut the window grills to get in, hampering rescue efforts.  The factory’s own fire-fighting equipment, they report, was "virtually useless."

Swedish news media quoted a surviving worker, Abdul Momin, who lost an aunt in the fire:

Everyone who worked on the top floor died, because the exits were locked.  All of them were women.  They were trapped and they suffocated.

Garib & Garib makes sweaters for major apparel brands and retailers, including Swedish H&M, Canadian Mark’s Work Wearhouse, and Italian Terranova.  These retailers assure consumers their brands are safe-to-buy, pointing to codes of conduct for factory suppliers, factory auditing, and ethical sourcing programs.