Dear ILRF Colleagues,

Democracy, Social Justice, Human Development.  These core principles that move progressive politics are all direct outcomes of labor rights: living wages, non-discrimination, safe workplaces, and, most importantly, the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining.  No justice without fair pay, no development without rising incomes, and no democracy without participation in corporate decision-making. 

Led by the 3-year-old daughter of a laid-off longshore worker whose sign read “Del Monte ruined my Christmas,” more than 400 dockworkers and community and labor allies marched in the busy noontime streets around City Hall here on Nov. 22. They were protesting the layoffs of more than 200 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1291 due to the decision by Fresh Del Monte Products to dock its incoming ships at a below-union-wage pier in Gloucester City, N.J.

UNIVERSITY CITY-- This city has become the first in the state to pledge that it will not purchase apparel manufactured under sweatshop conditions.

It joins a growing movement of about 180 governments, schools and other jurisdictions to adopt a policy against buying from manufacturers that violate basic humane and labor standards.

"This is simply a commitment by University City to be an educated buyer of clothing," said Jim Adams, one of a group of residents who asked the city to take action.

During a 13-month tour in Iraq with her National Guard unit, Amber Hicks ate her share of the military rations known as "meals ready to eat," or MREs. Then, as chance would have it, she returned to her hometown of Cincinnati and found a job in the Wornick Company's factory -- making those familiar MREs.