In the News

Activists protest Drummond Co.'s employment practices, protection of union workers

The Birmingham News
11/21/2008

By Roy L. Williams

A group of Colombian union workers and peace activists on Thursday afternoon staged a protest in Linn Park against Drummond Co., accusing the Birmingham-based company of human rights violations and failure to protect union workers.

Drummond is a major supplier of coal, much of it from one of the world's largest open-pit mines, in La Loma, Colombia. The hour-long rally attracted about 50 people.

Asian textile mills circumventing boycott of Uzbekistan's cotton

Forrest Laws
11/20/2008

Several years ago a textile mill executive was extolling the virtues of hand-picked cotton from Ecuador. The problem, he said, was he just couldn't find enough of it.

He may still be searching - Ecuador produces 21,000 bales annually. But if the search proves fruitless, perhaps his company can buy cotton from Uzbekistan - if it can stand the glare of world opinion.

Citizen Nike

Fortune Magazine
11/17/2008

A decade ago the shoe giant was slammed as a sweatshop operator. Today it's taking responsibility to heart. Will it work?

Posing as a fashion buyer, an Australian TV reporter gained entry to a Malaysian T-shirt factory, where foreign migrant workers told a grim tale. They had been forced to surrender their passports while their wages were being garnished to pay off hefty recruiting fees. Worse still, they were living in crowded, filthy rooms.

15 and Broke in a Cut-Throat Congo Mining Town

New York Times
11/15/2008

By Lydia Polgreen

The people who toil in the tin ore mine here are links in a long, global chain that reaches all the way to the cellphones and digital music players so ubiquitous in modern life.

At the very bottom of that chain, hunched beneath the blasting sun in a deep red gash near the base of a mountain, a 15-year-old named Imani Mulumeo Derwa sifted through ochre-colored earth this summer with his slender fingers.

Child labor continues in Uzbek cotton fields

Fibre2Fashion
11/13/2008

International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) issued a report on ‘Child Labor’ in Uzbekistan. This report is based on information gathered by human rights defenders within Uzbekistan in September/October 2008. Contrary to the government of Uzbekistan’s assertions that it has banned forced child labor, recent information suggests it continues to compel children as young as 11 and 12 to pick cotton, closing schools and using other coercive measures to enforce compliance.

Tashkent Relies on Child Labor During 2008 Cotton Harvest

EurasiaNet
11/12/2008

Despite signing two international treaties and adopting domestic legislation prohibiting the use of child labor, Uzbekistan continued to rely on a "state-orchestrated mass mobilization of children to bring in the 2008 cotton harvest," a new report has found.

By the end of September, with the pace of cotton collection lagging way behind harvest projections, officials in some areas ordered students as young as first graders into the fields, according to the report prepared by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) and issued November 11.

Careful consumers can help flower workers

Duluth News Tribune
11/07/2008

Excerpt from article:

With the Rotary Rose Sale last month and the holidays coming up soon, our community is likely to purchase thousands of dozens of roses this year. Careful consumer purchases can assure that the flower workers in Colombia will benefit as well.

The international flower industry has a history of labor exploitation and environmental degradation.

The Rotary Rose Sale committee took an important step by selling certified flowers, indicated by the statement on their poster that the “roses are grown in a socially and responsible way.” 

Child Labor Migration-Soccer ball industry shifts from Pakistan to India, bringing labor violations

IndUS Business Journal
11/01/2008

By Chris Nelson

WASHINGTON – More than a decade after the international sporting-goods industry pledged to take steps toward ending the use of child labor in the production of soccer balls, it appears those efforts have paid off – but not in the way that human-rights groups envisioned.

Mankato 'Reverse Trick-or-Treaters' Give Fair Trade Chocolate

Fox 9 News (Twin Cities)
10/31/2008

Excerpt from article: 

Trick-or-treaters in Mankato are spreading awareness about Fair Trade chocolate and problems with the global cocoa trade this Halloween... 

The campaign hopes to raise awareness of child labor, poverty and other issues surrounding the global cocoa industry, and let people know about Fair Trade chocolate alternatives... 

Churches push fair-trade chocolates for Halloween

USA Today
10/31/2008

By Brittney Bain

Faith organizations and congregations around the country are promoting fair-trade chocolate for trick-or-treaters to raise consciousness about conditions and prices for cocoa farmers around the world.

"This is an example of how everybody has the ability to make some change," said Susan Burton, who works for the the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society in Washington... 

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