Labor is Not a Commodity

ILRF and SweatFree Communities at the US Social Forum

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Next week, activists from across the country will be converging in Detroit for the second US Social Forum (USSF).  United in a belief that "Another World is Possible," organizers working on a broad range of social justice issues will gather from June 22 to 26th to share information about their work and discuss how to work together to build a stronger movement for change in the US. 

Unions and worker rights advocates will be planning many activities throughout the week.  The International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities are working with our partners to organize several events during the USSF.  Keep reading to find out more about the workshops we are participating in!

Sign the Stop Child Labor Petition TODAY!

ILRF is proud to join with the Stop Child Labor - School is the Best Place to Work Campaign in calling for commitments from governments, employers and workers represented in the International Labor Organization to develop and implement a time-bound global action plan to eliminate all forms of child labor as all children have the right to free full-time quality education. Governments have the main responsibility to make this happen. However, also employers have to guarantee not to make use of or otherwise benefit from child labor, including in their supply-chain.

ILRF has a long history of focused work to end child labor.  ILRF envisions a world where families aren't forced to chose between income and education.  

It is essential that you add your voice to this worldwide petition and help to end child labor on rubber plantations, cotton fields, cocoa farms and within other industries.  You can help to spread the word by downloading ILRF's child labor posters.  For more specifics on the most popular chocolate companies and how they rate on child labor, check out free2work.org.

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?

Responding to Bridgestone/Firestone

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

After ILRF and our campaign partners launched a new e-mail campaign targeting Bridgestone/Firestone for its abuses of worker rights on its rubber plantation in Liberia, the company sent an e-mail response to the activists who participated in the campaign.

Our recent e-mail campaign focused specifically on one issue: the system under which workers must carry two heavy buckets of raw latex weighing 75 pounds each on both ends of a stick on their back for miles – day after day.  Unfortunately, Firestone did little to respond to this specific abuse of workers in their response to our e-mail campaign. 

In one part of Firestone's response, the company stated, "The work Firestone's agricultural employees do is typical of the work that goes on in the fields and farms across Africa and the rest of the world." This type of work system is not typical of other rubber plantations globally where workers often do have access to trucks, wagons or other means of transporting heavy loads.  It is unacceptable that the world's largest tire company refuses to provide some kind of transportation on wheels to ease the burden on workers.  Additionally, even if this were typical work, Firestone should set a higher standard for working conditions that respects the human rights of workers and does not cause them injury.  If Firestone were serious about "ensur[ing] employees have safe working conditions and use proven, safe methods to tap rubber trees and collect the latex" as they say they are then they would not make workers carry latex in this manner. 

Firestone is Listening -- Keep up the action!

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Yesterday, ILRF launched a new action targeting Superbowl Halftime sponsor, Bridgestone/Firestone, for its long history of exploiting workers on its rubber plantation in Liberia.  Check it out here. 

Since we launched the action, many of you posted message on the Facebook wall of Bridgestone Tires.  When the company they found out, they initially posted a response to each comment directing people to continue the conversation about Firestone's plantation in Liberia on their Facebook discussion board.  The company started a discussion directing people to their company website.  The new Stop Firestone campaign action focuses specifically on a key demand that workers are calling for.  For years, Firestone workers have had to carry buckets weighing 75 pounds each on each end of a stick on their backs for miles, all day for days on end.  While most rubber plantation have moved on from this archaic system of work, Firestone continues this exploitation.  When campaign supporters wrote on Firestone's Facebook discussion board that they wanted a substantive response on this specific issue, the company promptly shut down the discussion board.  Then, when people posted more direct questions and comments about the bucket-carrying issue on Firestone's Facebook wall, the company deleted those comments.

Time for Bridgestone/Firestone to Play Fair!

Timothy Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

For the third year in a row, the Bridgestone/Firestone tire company will be the title sponsor of the NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show on February 7, 2010.  While the Firestone, the largest tire company in the world, spends millions on two glitzy new TV ads and The Who rocks out in front of a Bridgestone Americas logo, the thousands of workers on the company's rubber plantation in Liberia that produce the key resource that keeps those tires running will be working in conditions like this:

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!

New DOL Report Lists Products Made Using Child or Forced Labor

Jade Batstone, intern, International Labor Rights Forum           

On September 10th the Department of Labor released an official list of U.S imported goods believed to be produced using child or forced labor. The list was created as a part of the new Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and, for the first time, recognized that the U.S imports 122 goods from 58 different countries that force children and adults to produce U.S. consumer supported goods. ILRF has maintained campaigns around products documented in the report and some goods on the list were included in ILRF’s testimony to the Department of Labor in 2008. These items include cocoa from the Ivory Coast, cotton from Tajikistan, cottonseed, stones, and soccer balls from India, sugarcane from Guatemala, tobacco from Malawi, and surgical instruments from Pakistan. To view the complete list click here.

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.

What Sec. Clinton and US politicians could say in Liberia

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has arrived in Liberia as part of her seven-nation tour of Africa.  During her brief visit, Secretary Clinton focused her remarks on supporting the leadership of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as well as the role good governance and strong security forces play in ensuring a peaceful recovery from conflict.  In addition to Sec. Clinton's visit to Liberia, a Congressional delegation led by Congressman Bobby Rush and including  will visit Liberia (as well as Nigeria, Angola and South Africa) this weekend.

As readers of this blog know, we have tracked labor rights violations on the rubber plantation in Liberia owned by the Firestone tire company, the largest employer and foreign investor in Liberia.  As Firestone's investment in Liberia has historically been a major part of US relations with the country, what can Sec. Clinton and the Congressional delegation do and say to ensure that the rights of workers and the environment are protected as part of Liberia's development process after years of conflict?