Union Calls on Other States and Cities to Join the Anti-Sweatshop Group
07/30/08
UNITE HERE welcomes the recent resolution by Governor Edward G. Rendell committing Pennsylvania to participate in the State and Local Government SweatFree Consortium.
A new report released today details a wide range of abuses occurring on a rubber plantation in Liberia owned by the Bridgestone/Firestone tire company.
Trina Tocco, International Labor Rights Forum, Mobile (269) 873-1000, Trina.tocco [at] ilrf.org
Group celebrates Mother’s Day at Home by Supporting Working Moms Abroad
The International Labor Rights Forum is hosting the Mother’s Day Roses Raffle to offer people throughout the United States a chance to send a special gift to a loved one while also advancing the rights of women in the Latin American rose industry.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the statement by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman that the China Ocean Shipping Company which owns the An Yue Jiang, has decided to recall the ship because Zimbabwe cannot take delivery of the 77 tonnes of weapons and ammunition onboard.
If true, this is an historic victory for the international trade union movement and civil society, and in particular for the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, whose members refused to unload or transport its deadly cargo.
Agricultural corporations Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland have started an aggressive lobbying effort to drop a provision from the Farm Bill which would establish a voluntary certification program related to imports made using forced labor and child labor.
In recognition of the extraordinary courage, strength and solidarity of Liberian rubber workers at one of the world’s largest rubber plantations, we are proud to nominate the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) for the 2007 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award.
Unrest at footwear factory exposes consequences of NAFTA-style trade deals as presidential candidates make appeals to displaced Ohio manufacturing workers
02/28/08
Human rights and labor organizations in Ohio today called on presidential candidates and Governor Ted Strickland to adopt “sweatfree” purchasing policies to stop tax dollar support for sweatshop abuses that have sent thousands of Ohio jobs overseas. The call comes as the groups exposed workplace abuses in a Rocky Shoes-contracted facility in China, where as many as 4000 workers went on strike last month to protest non-payment of wages.
This February 14, while sweethearts in the US and Europe give flowers, the workers in Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, and other flower-producing countries will celebrate the 7th annual International Flower Workers’ Day, with municipal festivals, and education sessions in schools and daycare centers where workers’ children study.
The Cambodian League for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (LICADHO) condemns the violent crackdown by authorities against workers on strike outside a Phnom Penh garment factory yesterday.
At least 10 members of the Cambodia Confederation of Apparel Worker Democratic Unions (CCAWDU) were injured in the violence. Four were struck by vehicles leaving the factory at high speed, and the remainder beaten by police or military police officers.
Stop Firestone Coalition Decries Conditions on Tire Company’s Rubber Plantation
02/06/08
The 2008 Chicago Auto Show starting February 8, 2008 will be partly sponsored by Bridgestone Firestone. While Bridgestone enjoys the public attention from the show, workers on the company’s rubber plantation in Liberia continue to be exploited. Since 1926, Bridgestone Firestone has operated the world’s largest rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia where there is child labor, widespread abuse of workers’ rights and environmental damage. Workers on the plantation earn just $3.19 per day – less than the cost of admission to the Chicago Auto Show.
Chocolate industry still a long way from meeting its promises for child labor free chocolate
While people across the country celebrate Valentine’s Day by purchasing chocolate for their loved ones, the chocolate industry continues to be tainted by child labor on cocoa farms in West Africa.
Agreement reached between Clean Clothes Campaign / India Committee of the Netherlands and Indian clothing manufacturer
Amsterdam / Utrecht, January 29th, 2008
Today, the Indian clothing manufacturer Fibre and Fabrics International
(FFI) and subsidiary JKPL have withdrawn all court cases against the Clean Clothes Campaign, the India Committee of the Netherlands, a number of local Indian labour rights organisations and internet/ADSL-providers Antenna and XS4ALL.
January, 2009. After nine years of struggle and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ solid affirmation of the garment manufacturer’s responsibility for unpaid wages of its subcontractor’s employees, immigrant garment workers will have their day in court in a trial which began in the Southern District of New York last week.
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa asked Major League Baseball (MLB) to intervene with the MLB’s exclusive on-field cap manufacturer, New Era Cap, in an effort to end racial discrimination and worker rights violations in New Era’s distribution center in Mobile, Alabama. The NAACP also released today its report of the investigation it recently undertook at the request of workers at the facility.
After a lengthy strike by workers on a rubber plantation owned by the Firestone Natural Rubber Company in Liberia, the Supreme Court of Liberia ruled today that recent union elections held in July 2007 on the plantation were indeed legitimate. The first free, fair and independent union elections to take place on the plantation in its 81 year history in Liberia ushered in a new union leadership, but the previous company-controlled union challenged the elections through the legal system.
The International Labor Rights Forum condemns General Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan. In recent days, Pakistan’s government has detained, beaten and tear-gassed opposition party leaders, lawyers and human rights advocates and has clamped down on the media. Of particular concern to ILRF are Musharraf’s assaults on labor organizations and workers’ rights.