Labor is Not a Commodity

Former ILRF Intern Avoids Immediate Deportation with the Help of her Activist Community

By Maggie Smith, intern, International Labor Rights Forum

This is a blog slightly out of the ordinary here at Labor is Not a Commodity.  We just can’t ignore when one of our own gets caught in the same system that has had so many negative impacts on working people around the world.  The issues surrounding migration and the right to due process are at the center of this blog and these are issues that ILRF has highlighted on our website and past blog entries.  This is also a blog about solidarity, and for this ILRF is in awe at the power we all carry when we work collectively to end injustice.

Andrea Huerfano, who was an intern at ILRF in the spring of 2008, moved to the United States from Colombia with her family in 2001, just prior to her freshman year of high school.  Andrea cared deeply about working class folks and issues surrounding immigration.  You can read one of her blogs here about the roots of immigration. 

Working for Scrooge: Worst Companies of 2009 for the Right to Associate

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

Today is International Human Rights Day!  People around the world are celebrating and taking action  today to protect the rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).  Among other protections for workers, the UDHR states that “everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests” (Article 23, Section 4).

However, despite the labor rights protections in the UDHR, UN and ILO declarations and national labor laws, workers continue to see their rights trampled on a daily basis. In fact, in its most recently released survey of violations of trade union rights, the International Trade Union Confederation reports at least 76 unionists were killed globally as a result of their organizing efforts in 2008.  Additionally, as the global economic crisis spreads, many labor advocates fear that companies are using the crisis as a pretext for cracking down on unionized workers and instituting employment schemes that reduce the number of workers guaranteed union protections. 

Many times it is multinational corporations -- many of which are based here in the US -- that are violating workers' right to organize globally.  That is why ILRF released a new report today called "Working for Scrooge: Worst Companies of 2009 for the Right to Associate."  The report lists four companies and you can tell them to start protecting worker rights by sending an e-mail here! 

Pakistani Labor Leader Killed by Suicide Bomber

Brett Eisenbrown, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

While on his way to a meeting, Pakistani labor leader, Master Khudadad Khan, was killed by a suicide bomber on October 15th.  Master Khudadad was not the target of the attack, but instead he was one of several innocent civilians killed when the suicide bomber attacked an intelligence center in Peshawar.  

Master Khudadad was the General Secretary of the Pakistani Workers Federation (PWF).  The PFW is the single largest trade union federation in Pakistan. It consists of 419 unions and more then 880,000 workers, which represents a majority of unionized workers in Pakistan.  Master Khudadad and the PWF have worked tirelessly to help promote the organization of free and independent trade unions that would improve the lives of workers throughout Pakistan.  

Assassination of Farmworker Organizer Santiago Rafael and the FLOC Campaign to Organize Tobacco Workers in the Southern US

Jade Batstone, intern, International Labor Rights Forum
 
 A briefing took place on November 5th at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C regarding the assassination of Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). member Santiago Rafael in 2007. FLOC President, and newly elected AFL-CIO executive committee member, Baldemar Velasquez spoke about how his organization seeks justice for this heinous crime as well as actions FLOC is currently taking to bring about justice for Reynolds Tobacco field workers in the southern US. The organizing of tobacco workers around the world is absolutely essential in creating a secure livelihood for tobacco workers in Mexico, Malawi and the US.  In addition, ILRF has long targeted the tobacco industry as an industry that uses child labor.  Also attending the event was Leonel Rivero, the Mexican human rights lawyer providing council for Rafeal’s family and FLOC. Rivero discussed the obstacles to working on this case given government and police corruption on the Mexican side.

Central American Labor Groups Share Challenges

Central American Labor Representatives Gather to Discuss Shared Challenges

By Jeremy Silva, ILRF Intern

Representatives from Central American labor and human rights organizations came to the U.S. on November 4th to testify in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of the Regional Campaign Against Labor Flexibility. At the hearing, the campaign presented various cases demonstrating a systematic assault on workers’ basic labor rights throughout Central America. Before testifying on Friday, nine representatives covering all 6 countries in Central America gathered last Thursday at the AFL-CIO to share their struggles and develop strategies for the region. The discussion was sponsored by the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center, WOLA and the ILRF.   While representatives detailed the unique cases of labor rights violations within their own countries, all agreed that a general failure to enforce labor rights existed throughout Central America as a result of almost universally deficient justice systems. 

Lipton Temporary Workers Gain Permanent Status!

Jeremy Silva, ILRF intern

We at ILRF were thrilled to hear that the long-running campaign by workers at the Unilever/Lipton tea factory in Khanewal has resulted in a successful settlement.  200 workers have received permanent employment and back wages, as a result of which they will receive livable wages and better job security.  The struggles and perseverance of the Pakistani workers drew a number of international groups to their side, including the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), the Dutch Decent Work campaign, the Tropical Commodity Coalition, the Center for Research on International Corporations, the India Committee of the Netherlands and the MVO Platform.  

Another Drummond Worker Dies on the Job

Eva Seidelman, ILRF Program Assistant                        

The La Loma coal mine owned by the Alabama based company, Drummond, is a major danger zone for workers. On October 30, 2009, yet another worker died on the job due to a work accident, the third death at a Drummmond owned-mine since March 2009. 16 workers producing for Drummond have died within the short period Drummond has maintained operations in Colombia.

Luis Eduardo Manrriquez, a 37 years old father had worked for just 3 months as a welder for Drummond's contractor, H L Ingenieros before falling to his death. Drummond is yet again, refusing to claim responsibility for the worker's death under the grounds that Manrriquez was not a direct employee of Drummond. Drummond is clearly taking advantage of the Colombia's anti-worker climate where labor  subcontracting is a pervasive way for corporations to evade accountability with regards to worker rights.

Additionally, Drummond is actively engaged in a battle against the union representing its' workers, Sintraminergetica. In March of 2009, 4000 workers peacefully protested poor and precarious working conditions at Drummond owned mines. The strike was called as a worker had just died on the job and Fenoco, Drummond's coal transport contractor, was refusing to negotiate a labor proposal (CBA) despite its' legal obligation to bargain with 600 union members. The strike was deemed illegal and Fenoco brought in the Colombian National Guard to violently attack workers. Drummond initially refused to move Fenoco towards negotiations.  In addition, Drummond suspended and/or fired at least 9 workers in retaliation for the strike at its mines.

For its part, Fenoco (which is partially owned by Drummond) illegally fired 25 workers, 8 of whom were union leaders. The U.S. based United Steel Workers union (USW) have
been informing Secretary of State Clinton of Drummond's actions against workers in hopes that the U.S. government will put pressure on both the Colombian Government and the profitable U.S. company, Drummond to end labor rights violations.

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.”

How much should you value a corporation’s respect for freedom of speech?

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

For a company like Dole, where part of the appeal for investors this week is the brand image that drives its Dole’s sales, the company’s corporate culture and the values management infuses in its daily decision-making can be a barometer of the future value. For a company like Dole, which requires significant amount of land and ultimately leaves a huge footprint in the areas where it produces its fresh and packaged produce, management practices also influences how local communities benefit from the company’s large presence. Thus, it bears asking, do Dole’s management practices promote strong relationships with its workers and the communities in which they live?

Dole argues that it does. In filings before the US Trade Representative in support of reduced tariffs for its products, Dole argued that it has garnered the respect of the people of Polomolok, Mindanao, a company town that has grown up around the Dole 20,000 hectare pineapple plantation over the past several decades. Dole runs the local hospital, distributes wheelchairs, and raises money for local anti-poverty and health-related causes. Because it dominates the economic landscape in an impoverished region of Mindanao, Dole enjoys tremendous political support.

Oscar Serihijos would disagree. Mr. Serohijos, a long-time employee and union officer at Dole Philippines subsidiary, faces up to four years in jail and a criminal conviction because Dole is accusing him of spreading false rumors. Charged by Dole with the crime of defamation, Mr. Serohijos has lost his job, faces a lengthy and costly legal defense that may end up with him in jail and the loss of his right to vote because a news magazine article raised health and safety concerns about the disposal of chemicals that Dole uses.