Brussels, 2 February 2009 (ITUC OnLine): A new ITUC report on core labour standards in Guatemala issued today to coincide with the trade policy review at the WTO demonstrates how trade unionists are being discriminated against, threatened and even murdered as a result of their trade union activities.

No Sweat

Student protesters have spent years at the forefront of the anti-sweatshop movement, and they may now be seeing some of the fruits of their labor.

By Robert B. Reich

Why is this recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?

Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America's middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to allow us to buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs.

Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Charlotte M. Ponticelli today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor is presenting the first annual Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor to Maria Cecilia Flores-Oebanda of the Philippines. Flores-Oebanda, president and executive director of the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFF) based in Quezon City, Philippines, has dedicated her life to combating the use of child domestic workers and the trafficking of women and children for domestic servitude and commercial sexual exploitation in the Philippines and internationally.