Labor is Not a Commodity

Student Guestworkers Stand up for their Rights and Call for Justice at Hershey

Mitch Ellmauer, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

One week ago, 300 foreign student guestworkers walked off the job and staged a rally at a Hershey’s packaging warehouse in Pennsylvania. The International Labor Rights Forum has been asking Hershey to "raise the bar" for responsible cocoa sourcing and eliminate child labor in its cocoa, and the recent struggle of student guestworkers reveals that Hershey must do more to respect worker rights from bean to bar.

The students, who come from a number of countries including China, Nigeria, Poland, and Mongolia, thought they were signing up for a cultural exchange program when they were signing up for a cultural exchange program where they paid the Council for Educational Travel, U.S.A. $3,000 to $6,000 for a visa and a trip to the United States. The students were told that they would get to see the US, practice their English, and learn important career skills. Instead, they were sent to Hershey’s Eastern Distribution Center III to lift heavy boxes for as much as 60 hours a week, often during the night shift. The students were subject to threats and harassment by the warehouse managers; they were threatened with deportation if they spoke out about their conditions.

Globalization and the US Construction Industry

By Ed Mattos, International Labor Rights Forum

Having worked in the construction industry for nearly 40 years, I’ve noticed many changes.  From the current emphasis on safety to newer work processes and materials, today’s construction sites are very different than the one onto which I walked in 1971. Gone is the summertime practice of working in cut-off shorts, hard hat, work shoes and nothing else other than the tool belt. These have been replaced by long pants, shirts with minimum 4-inch sleeves, high visibility vests, safety glasses, ear plugs and tools suspended on a safety harness with twin lanyards and, often, a climbing hook. Today’s North American construction worker carries a lot of weight – and that’s before picking up any material!

Why the “North American” qualifier?  Labor standards in other countries are not as stringent.  Hard hats are much less ubiquitous, shoes are often optional as are gloves and other personal protective equipment.  Ironically, many countries in the Global South produce an abundance of shoes, gloves and vests – largely for export to North America.  The Global South also produces building materials and tools which are exported to the US and Canada. All of these products are manufactured under conditions of labor that are questionable at best.

Labor Groups Rally to Oppose the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

By Ed Mattos, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

It was very hot at noontime on July 11. That did not deter a few hundred opponents of the proposed US – Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) from gathering in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC and energetically denouncing the agreement and the attempts to push it through the US Congress. Among those speaking out were environmentalists, Presbyterians, Colombian and US unionists, and representatives of the indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations.  Each of them described how the proposed FTA would do harm. Increased US investment in the extraction of oil, gas, and minerals would deprive indigenous people of their traditional homes; ecological consequences would be disastrous and permanent. Many questioned why the US Congress and President Obama wanted to reward Colombia’s dismal record on labor rights and the unpunished assassinations of trade union leaders.

Despite the heat, the demonstrators were ready to march to the nearby White House and let the President know how they felt. They carried 51 black “coffins” representing the number of Colombian unionists murdered in 2010. Accompanied by drummers and buglers, the crowd marched and chanted their way to the fence surrounding the White House. There were Teamsters, Steelworkers, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees [AFSCME] and Service Employees International Union [SEIU], and at least one Ironworker. The coffins were laid on the sidewalk nearest the presidential mansion as curious tourists watched and learned about the issues. As the crowd chanted, “Fair Trade not Free Trade”, US Park Police moved to arrest those who had decided to non-violently disobey their order to disburse. All of the demonstrators remained to show support for those arrested and ensure that they were not harmed.  

Solidarity with Striking Verizon Workers

Mitch Ellmauer, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

On August 7th 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike when the company demanded over a billion dollars in concessions from workers despite receiving $19 billion in profits over the past four years. Almost ten days into the strike, Verizon still refuses to back down from its concessions. Negotiations with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have been stalled since July. The CWA has filed a complaint with the NLRB charging Verizon with refusing to negotiate in good faith with the unions.

The concessions Verizon is asking its employees to make would cost each worker $20,000 per year. Verizon is demanding that workers: pay up healthcare premiums of up to $6,800 per year, surrender their bargaining rights over healthcare, and freeze their pensions. Verizon also wants to deny new hires most of the benefits that current employees now enjoy. 

Join ILRF in DC on Aug. 11 for a Screening of a Film about Labor Rights in Banana Production

Mitch Ellmauer, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The International Labor Rights Forum, TransAfrica Forum, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Center for Food Safety are sponsoring the the DC premeire of The Big Banana, a new documentary about the dirty secrets and workers’ rights violations of the banana industry and the struggle of a few brave farmers in Cameroon who stood up for their rights and took on took on a multinational fruit corporation. Check out the trailer below and find all the details online here.

The Big Banana examines working conditions at the Plantation du Haute Penja in Cameroon. PHP’s 6,0000 farm workers earn just $50 a month working 15-hour days in inhuman conditions. Many of these plantation workers were once independent smallholders whose land was stolen by PHP and the Cameroonian government. When the farmers try to organize a union they are met with intimidation, violence, and unlawful termination.

The Big Banana will be showing at Busboys and Poets 5th and K St. NW tomorrow, August 11th, from 6:30 to 8:30pm. After the film, director Franck Bieleu will lead a discussion about workers’ rights and land rights in Africa.

Tell the World Health Organization to Call Action to Labor Rights Abuses in Tobacco

Mitch Ellmauer, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Tobacco executives aren’t known for being the most ethical businessmen. They sell millions of cancer- causing products every day, they market cigarettes to children, and they lie about the tobacco’s negative health effects. Considering how bad Big Tobacco treats its customers, it should come as no surprise that tobacco companies subject their workers and farmers to extremely exploitative labor practices, including: child labor, forced labor, debt bondage, human trafficking, and wage theft. 

Like it or not, tobacco is one of the most profitable industries in the world. Over 100 million workers are employed in the industry, and tobacco is a major cash crop in 100 countries. The poorest of these countries have become dependent on tobacco exports and the victims of tobacco companies’ unfair trade policies.  

Malawi, one of the world’s least developed countries, depends on tobacco for 70% of its yearly export revenues. Rampant poverty, widespread unemployment, and deep inequities in land distribution have driven down wages and working conditions for the county’s tobacco farmers and farmworkers. Malawi has the highest incidence of child labor in southern Africa; 66% of working children are employed on tobacco farms. 

Check out "The Harvest" - A New Film about Child Labor in US Agriculture

Mitch Ellmauer, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

If you are in Los Angeles this week, you should check out The Harvest/ La Cosecha, a new documentary about child migrant farmworkers in the United States. We often view child labor as a problem for other countries; as something that happens far away, as an issue to be dealt with in developing economies where labor protections and poverty is widespread. But child labor is a problem here in United States as well.

Every year over 400,000 American children are torn from their homes to harvest the food we all eat. The children travel from Texas onion fields to Michigan apple orchards and then on to tomato fields in Florida; they work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week without the protection of American labor law.

The Harvest was directed by U. Roberto Romano and produced by Eva Longoria. It follows the travels of three young migrant farmworkers: Zulema Lopez, age 12, Perla Sanchez, age 14, and victor Huapilla, age 16, as they work through the 2009 harvest. Check out this preview of the film:

The Harvest/La Cosecha - Theatrical Trailer from Shine Global on Vimeo.