Labor is Not a Commodity

Electronics Industry has Difficulty Enforcing Labor Laws

By Evelyn Holt, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Do you know where your computer came from? Most likely not. Parts are manufactured and assembled all over the world, and labor protections are hard to identify and track.  ILRF has also done research and campaigning on the substances such as coltan that is used in every cell phone and computer.



This year is the 5th anniversary of the formation of the electronics industry code of conduct. The Mexican Electronic Industry National Workers Coalition led by CEREAL is speaking out against corporations that still violate basic labor rights in their manufacturing plants.  Two other organizations that are leaders in the movement to hold the electronics industry accountable: makeITfair which is sponsored by the Dutch labor union SOMO has published many hard hitting reports on the lagging electronics industry and GoodElectronics Network that works to contribute to human rights and sustainability in the global electronics sector.

Thoughts from Kenya: It is time for a workers bailout!

By Steve O. Akoth, Labour Awareness and Resource Centre

When reports appeared in the media two years ago detailing failure in mortgage repayments in the United States, the government of Kenya alongside many others in Africa, claimed that that was a US affair.  The treasury bureaucrats and politicians were quick to reassure Kenyans that our economy was safe.  In fact, new projections of 2% annual growth were given.  But this was nothing more than the usual political talk show and regular political performance that is not uncommon in Kenya.

Our government, rather than deceive us, should appreciate that Kenyan workers know that they are part of a huge interconnected web.  When a small scale farmer in Tigoni plants runner beans to sell to Homegrown for instance, she knows that the beans shall end up in the supermarket of Mars and Spencer in the United Kingdom.  For that reason, the farmer is interested and is affected by the purchasing power of a consumer in the UK.  Similarly, a worker on the stitching line in an Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Ruaraka, knows that the garment shall be sold off through Wal-Mart's shelves.  The workers are therefore invested in the purchasing power of the average American who wants to buy a "cheap" designer garment from Wal-Mart.  So the shrinking global market and the resulting economic nationalism in the northern countries in the name of bailout is an important subject for the worker in Kenya and trade unions engaged in Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) discussions in Kenya.  In the long run, it is the working poor who experience the recession most, it does not matter whether it starts in China or the US.

Dole Food Company Goes Public: The Importance of Socially Responsible Investing

By Jeremy Silva, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Dole Food Company Inc. released a $500 million initial public equity offering (IPO) today.  By becoming a public company, Dole will be required to make its corporate governance more transparent and accessible to the public by providing institutional investors and individual shareholders with the opportunity to become stakeholders in Dole’s policies and practices worldwide.  For concerned investors, Dole’s IPO represents an unprecedented opportunity to review and revise the more questionable policies of the company.  This blog is the fourth blog in this series of exposing Dole and its history of labor rights violations.  You can read the other blogs here, here and here.

ILRF has taken this opportunity to engage with investors, NGOs, and unions to send a letter to Dole expressing our concerns related to its labor rights violations.  The letter was sent to Dole yesterday and included over 35 organizations including International Labor Rights Forum, CREA: Center for Reflection, Education and Action, Interfaith Center of Corporate Responsibility, Harrington Investments, and Domini Social Investments, Trillium Asset Management, and Green America.  You can read the press release here.  An except of the letter is below:

"We would like to take this opportunity to raise some of our human rights and labor rights concerns in relation to Dole’s supply chain practices in hopes of contributing to the future long-term success of Dole as a responsible corporate actor.  In addition to our concern for those individuals affected by Dole’s activities, we are also concerned that alleged breaches of workers’ rights throughout Dole’s corporate supply chain may impact long term shareholder value.

"While Dole claims adherence to high social standards, we are concerned by credible reports such as “The Sour Taste of Pineapple: How an Expanding Export Industry Undermines Workers and Their Communities” and “A Valentine’s Day Report: Worker Justice and Basic Rights on Flower Plantations in Colombia and Ecuador” by the International Labor Rights Forum claiming that Dole has pursued management practices that subject many of Dole’s workers throughout its global supply chain to sub-standard working conditions."

Dole Foods Recent Growth Marred by Allegations of Violence and Intimidation

By Brian Campbell and Eva Seidelman, International Labor Rights Forum

Over the past few years, Dole Foods has achieved consistent growth in revenues. Fueled in part by expanding pineapple and banana production by its subsidiaries or exclusive suppliers around the globe, Dole’s global production has been steadily increasing along with its revenue. To achieve sustained growth, Dole has worked closely with national and local governments to gain access land for its farming needs and to shift local farming into producing for Dole. In Colombia and the Philippines, where politics and government are dominated by the military or paramilitary organizations, and which are two of the world’s two most dangerous countries for trade union leaders, expanded production for Dole has been marred with allegations of violence and intimidation of local workers and farmers by the local military and paramilitary units.

In Colombia, a group of 73 plaintiffs recently filed a civil wrongful death suit against Dole in a California court alleging that the company hired local units of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), an illegal right-wing paramilitary group that was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 2001, to murder labor union organizers or small farmers fighting attempts by Dole to obtain their land and plant bananas. According to the suit, DOLE “made arrangements with the AUC’s founder, Carlos Castaño, to provide major support to the AUC in exchange for ‘security services’, . . . including driving small farmers from their land to allow DOLE to plant bananas; driving leftist guerillas out of the banana zones, and in the process murdering thousands of innocent people, including the relatives of plaintiffs.”

Dole Goes to the NY Stock Exchange but will This Mean Anything for Workers?

By Brian Campbell, Director of Policy and Legal Programs, International Labor Rights Forum

According to many stock market analysts, Dole Food Company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), which is scheduled to go on sale on the New York Stock Exchange this Friday, will be a test whether investor confidence has improved and the economy is on the rise once again. For Dole Foods, the IPO is an effort to find investors to bail the company out from under $2 billion in debt. So, the question on many peoples’ mind this week: Should I invest my money with Dole Foods, and what will I get if I do?

So, for the next few days, we here at the Labor is Not a Commodity Blog and International Labor Rights Forum will invite you into Dole’s global production system and provide you an on-the-ground account of what you will be purchasing with each Dole share. That way, you can better understand the impact you will have as part owner of Dole’s global empire and see how your potential future company controls and influences the lives of those who produce Dole’s fresh and packaged produce.  There is no better place to start than with an inside view from those who make up the Dole family, its global workforce.

Khalid Mahmood Speaks Out on Labor Unions in Pakistan

By Evelyn Holt, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum
 
Khalid Mahmood, Director of the Labor Education Foundation in Pakistan, spoke yesterday at the Service Employees International Union in Washington, DC about the current condition of worker's rights and organizing in Pakistan.  Pakistan produces many products for the US such as clothing, soccer balls, and surgical instruments.  ILRF has been active in working to support the efforts of soccer ball factory workers in Sialkot especially given the long history of child labor used to stitch soccer balls.

Of the 46 million person workforce in Pakistan, only 2.8 percent are unionized, and less than 1 percent work under collective bargaining agreements essential to ensuring worker rights are respected. There is no recognition among economic elites that workers deserve rights or benefits. A tradition of feudalism permeates Pakistani society, dating back to before the south Asian subcontinent was divided into the countries of India and Pakistan in 1947. After the divide, land reform in Pakistan was little to none, which is still an obstacle to democracy today.

Asian Floor Wage Campaign Launches on World Day for Decent Work

Brett Eisenbrown, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

Today, October 7th, marks the International Trade Union Confederations’ (ITUC) World Day for Decent Work (WDDW).  Started in 2008, the WDDW is an opportunity for trade unions and other organizations to come together around the world to carry out events and activities that highlight the importance of decent work. 

The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines what decent work is through four strategic objectives.  These objectives consist of: “fundamental principles and rights at work and international labor standards; employment and income opportunities; social protection and social security; and social dialogue and tripartism.”  Additionally, for decent work to exist these objectives must apply to “all workers, women and men, in both formal and informal economies; in wage employment or working on their own account; in the fields, factories and offices; in their home or in the community.”

One of the vital aspects of decent work is the ability to work for a decent wage.  As part of the WDDW, an alliance of over 70 trade unions, labor and human rights organizations, development NGOs, women's rights groups and academics in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and North America launched the Asia Floor Wage (AFW) Campaign today.  The Campaign is focusing its attention on elevating the wages of garment workers throughout Asia.  This campaign while in its infancy has a chance to really put the pressure on the major players in the garment industry that continue to pay artificially low prices which leave the factories ill-equipped to bargain with workers for any meaningful wage increases.

Cambodian Labor Rights in Jeopardy

Brett Eisenbrown, intern, International Labor Rights Forum

On September 10th, Mr. Tola Moeun, of the Community Legal Education Center went before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to discuss Cambodian labor rights issues.  Upon reading his testimony, there are many points that deserve to be highlighted.  Mr. Moeun’s testimony sheds light on the fact that workers rights in Cambodia are beginning to deteriorate and unless something is done, Cambodia could undercut many of the labor rights advances that have occurred in the last ten plus years. 

Cambodia has the reputation of being one of the more socially responsible nations when it comes to labor rights.  This is because of the passage of the 1997 labor law that was co-written by the International Labor Organization, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Cambodian Government.  Additionally, in 2003 Cambodia established an independent Cambodian Arbitration Council and now receives funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to help support its Better Factories Project.

US Dept. of Labor Releases List of Goods Produced by Forced, Child Labor

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

As part of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the US Department of Labor (DOL)  released today a list of 122 goods from 58 countries that are produced by forced labor and child labor.  Find out more and see the list here.  Included in the list are many of the products that ILRF recommend to the DOL during our testimony in 2008, for example: cocoa in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, cotton from Uzbekistan, rubber from Liberia, tobacco from Malawi, cottonseed, stones and soccer balls from India, sugar from Guatemala and surgical instruments from Pakistan.  You can check out ILRF's press release here and our press release about Uzbek cotton with the American Federation of Teachers and Calvert here.

Reminders of Why We Need to Protect the Right to Organize

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Last week, ILRF released a new toolkit about the right to organize globally in advance of Labor Day here in the US.  As ILRF Board President Bill Fletcher, Jr. noted in his Labor Day article on the Huffington Post:

Anti-worker efforts come in various forms. There are the more blatant and barbaric forms of repression such as the assassinations of pro-union activists. A case in point is Colombia which, per capita, has the highest number of union activists murdered in the world. Yet the repression is not always so blatant, and it is also not simply a problem that happens "...over there..." in some other country. The repression is very evident here in the USA.

Since we released the toolkit, there have been a number of examples around the world of the types of intimidation workers face when they attempt to organize.