Labor is Not a Commodity

Last Chance for Fair Trade S’mores!

By Courtney Smith, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

As summer is winding down and everyone is gearing up for their Labor Day barbeques, here is one last reminder to make sure that your S’mores are Fair Trade. ILRF has been working with Global Exchange and other organizations to promote Fair Trade S’mores all summer long.  

Many of the cocoa farms in Cote d’Ivoire, the world’s largest cocoa exporter, are notorious for their use of forced child labor.  According to the U.S. Department of State, about 109,000 children are used on Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa farms and 10,000 of these children are victims of human trafficking or enslavement.  Not only are these children subject to abuse and harsh and dangerous working conditions, they also lose their chance to gain an education.  In a country like Cote d’Ivoire, where over 50% of the population is illiterate, this lack of education will have serious repercussions for the nation’s development and future well-being.     

Rally for Justice for Bangladesh Workers

Nayeli Luis, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) was among several labor activists groups that met yesterday to rally at the Embassy of Bangladesh to urge the government to release Kalpona Akter and Babul Ahkter, leaders of the peaceful labor activist organization the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCSW), who were detained last month in connection with the recent labor protests.

Jeff Vogt, Associate Director of AFL-CIO’s International Department and rally organizer, approached the Bangladeshi representative with a letter to the Bangladeshi government requesting that the police stop the harassment and persecution of labor activists. The representative who affirmed the protesters that they did not have both sides of the issue; an apathetic “we will look into it” was their response. 

Labor activists in Bangladesh arrested

Jessica Jones, Programs Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum 

Kalpona Akter, a friend and colleague of the International Labor Rights Forum, and founder of the  Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), was arrested early this morning by twenty armed police. She is an internationally recognized labor rights activist who has been integral to the education, empowerment, and struggle of Bangladesh garment workers. BCWS conducts worker rights training and legal and public advocacy to improve labor standards.

Can you imagine living on no more than 21 cents an hour? This is the daily reality for the garment workers of Bangladesh.

Regional Day of Action against Labor Flexibility!

Nayeli Luis, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Yes you heard right. The Regional Campaign against the Flexibility of Labor Rights (or Regional Campaign), comprised of labor rights organizations from throughout Central America, declared August 12, 2010 as the Regional Day against Labor Flexibility. There is already an Earth Day and a World Peace Day so why not a day against labor violations and labor flexibility?  Sure, everyone would like no labor violations to occur every day, but organizing one day to raise awareness and fight back against labor flexibility is a good start.

Labor flexibility allows employers to make exceptions to rights granted to workers. Last year, the Regional Campaign chose August 12 as the Regional Day of Action to coincide with the day in 1995 where law 44, a law that made labor standards more flexible was passed in Panama. In Panama, law 44 was the biggest legal labor flexibilization in Central America and caused Panamanian labor contracts to be flexibilized by employers. Central American organizations fear that the economic crisis may be used as a justification to undermine workers rights without labor unions being able to do anything. A study done by the Regional Campaign reveals how labor “flexibilization” has affected workers in Central America and how it is used as a long term strategy by employers to escape accountability for respecting labor rights. Among the primary steps taken by industries to “flexibilize” the labor force are: outsourcing, persecution of labor unions, and the hiring of temporary workers instead of full-time employees. Click here to read the report.

Ramadan Brings No Peace for Vulnerable Domestic Workers

Matthew Hale, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

This week marks the start of Ramadan, and from sunrise to sunset Muslims households will engage in an act of purification, reflection and fasting.  For many Muslims, Ramadan is also synonymous with the gathering of extended family for Iftar, the breaking of the fast with food and festivities.   Extra hungry mouths mean extensive preparations, cooking and cleaning.  In a number of Middle Eastern and Asian countries, much of this work falls on the domestic workers.   Far from a time of refection and celebration, these workers, who are often migrant women and girls, will experience increased pressure, working hours, and in the worst case scenario, violence or other forms of abuse from their employers. 

The daily tasks of a household domestic worker certainly entails difficult physical labor, which is dirty and often dangerous, and that by any stretch constitutes a full day’s work if not more than a full days work because many domestic workers are required to be “on call” in the evenings to care for elders or children. Moreover, because the work is carried out behind closed doors by predominantly by women and other vulnerable groups, such as migrants, victims of caste discrimination, and children, domestic workers struggles to gain due recognition as actual laborers.  Domestic workers frequently suffer from lack of regulation and the same institutional failure to prosecute domestic abuse crimes that require crossing the public-private threshold.  Many domestic workers report crimes almost identical in character to victims of domestic violence as this blog has covered before.  Such abuse often includes repeated physical assaults, psychological abuse and sexual assault.  Migrant and trafficked domestic workers are in a particularly vulnerable position when their employers illegally confiscate their passports and documents or retain the majority of the workers’ wages to tether them to the household. Some are even kept under lock and key in conditions that are nothing short of modern day slavery. 

Thailand: World's Largest Pineapple Producer

By Evelyn Holt, Past Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The pineapple industry is one that has been increasingly more commercialized as demand for pineapple and its derivative products rise. In 2008, the ILRF produced a major report, “The Sour Taste of Pineapple,” on working conditions in the pineapple industry in Costa Rica and the Phillipines. Big business has increasingly exploited workers and prevented unionization in pursuit of the lowest possible production costs. First hand stories of how workers have suffered from chemicals and unforgiving labor laws abound. It is in Thailand, however,  that most of the world's pineapple supply is grown and processed.

Thailand is the world's leading producer of pineapples, though the fruit is not native to Southeast Asia. As land and labor costs rose in temperate zones such as Hawaii, production shifted to tropical climates, which had lots of land, low labor costs, and little in the way of environmental protection laws. The Thai government has helped the pineapple export industry grow by creating investment incentives and liberal trade policies to attract foreign investors.

United Steelworkers and Los Mineros Unite in a Joint Commission to Pursue Organizing Rights

By Meera Alexander, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Just last month on June 6 a copper mine and coal mine in Mexico were raided by federal Mexican police officers in efforts to put an end to the three year strike that the union members created due to improper health and safety standards. According to the ITUC, 400 federal police officers attacked the Cananea copper mining plant located in Sonora with tear gas and forcibly removed picketing workers who have been striking for three years for justice. The National Union for Mine and Metal Workers of the Mexican Republic (also known as Los Mineros) reports that three people were injured during this raid. Later that same day Coahuila’s armed forces took control over the Pasta de Conchos coal mine owned by Group Mexico, where 63 miners had lost their lives in February 2006 during an explosion. Military action is just one of the 10 ways ILRF identifies as strategies to bust unions.

According to USLEAP “Federal police arrested five Mineros and issued federal warrants for the union leaders, General Secretary of Mineros Section 65, Sergio Tolano Lizárraga, Juan Gutiérrez Ballesteros, Sonora delegate of the National Executive Committee, and Jacinto Martínez, a member of the local executive committee.”

Mexico’s right to strike was removed when the Mexican Supreme Court permitted Group Mexico to fire striking workers in Section 65 on February 11, 2010. “Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon, has launched a reign of terror against working people,” said Leo W. Gerard, United Steelworkers (USW) international president. Legislation that eliminates organizing rights opens the gates for violent police raids like those in the Cananea and Pasta de Conchos mines.

Evaluating Strategies for Combating Child Labor in India

By Alex Bernshteyn, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

When I stood to present in front of a conference of government school teachers in the Andhra Pradesh district, one teacher mistakenly thought I worked for the U.S. Department of Labor and started shouting at me in Telugu.  When the teachers realized that I was only a law school student, they calmed down but still expressed strong opinions about how to combat child labor, which often paralleled the mission of the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) .  As an intern with the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), I am spending half my summer in Hyderabad, India interning with one of their partner organizations, MVF.  MVF’s mandate is that all children out of school are child laborers and through social mobilization strategies, MVF believes they can convince parents and whole communities to take their children out of labor fields and integrate them into bridge schools.  The bridge schools are interim schooling camps where children are prepared for integration into formal schools.