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February 2017 E-News

Save the Date: 2017 Labor Rights Defenders Awards
ILRF Joins More than 100 Groups to Oppose Puzder
Call for the Release of Jailed Activists in Bangladesh
Global Campaign Launches in Support of Melon and Pineapple Workers in Central America
ILO Identifies Forced Labor Risk in Uzbek Cotton Harvest
Godiva: No Love for Cocoa Farmers
Job Opening: Corporate Accountability Program Coordinator

 


Save the Date: 2017 Labor Rights Defenders Awards

Save the date for this year's Labor Rights Defenders Awards Ceremony & Reception, celebrating leading workers' rights advocates from around the world: Wednesday, May 24th at 5:30pm at Studio Theatre (1501 14th St. NW, Washington, DC 20005). Please join us in honoring:

  • Eve Ensler, Playwright/Founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising
  • Familias Unidas para la Justicia, a growing farmworker union in Washington State 
  • Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS), a Honduran agricultural workers’ union

Sponsorship opportunities are available here

 

ILRF Joins More than 100 Groups to Oppose Puzder

Organizations concerned with labor rights and building a sustainable food system joined together to voice opposition to the nomination of fast food CEO Andrew Puzder for U.S. Secretary of Labor. Puzder has been a vocal critic against raising the minimum wage. The Department of Labor has found multiple labor law violations - including wage theft, employment discrimination and sexual harassment - at his restaurants, which include the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. chains. Puzder's record shows he is an irresponsible choice to head the department charged with protecting American workers. Join us now in speaking out against the #AntiLaborSecretary! If you're in the U.S. and haven't called your Senators yet, please call 202-224-3121 to ask them to oppose the Puzder nomination

 

Call for the Release of Jailed Activists in Bangladesh

In December, workers from 20 garment factories in Bangladesh held peaceful walk-outs to call for a higher wage. The garment industry and the government of Bangladesh used the protests as an opportunity for a broad crackdown on labor. At least two dozen labor activists – many not involved in the strike – are being held in jail, without bail, since December. Nine more were arrested yesterday while attending a union training. And multiple union offices have been forcibly closed. This is an outrageous repression of workers' rights. Please join the actions taking place next week at Bangladesh’s embassies around the world. Join us in DC on February 15th to call on the government of Bangladesh to immediately release the detainees, dismiss all falsified complaints against organizers and workers, and end the repression of trade unions. And, if you haven't yet signed our petition to H&M, Gap, Inditex (Zara), and VF (North Face), click here.   

 

Global Campaign Launches in Support of Melon and Pineapple Workers in Central America

Last month, USLEAP Fellow Gabriela Rosazza traveled to Costa Rica and Honduras to document labor violations taking place on Fyffes pineapple and melon plantations. After nearly two years of union-attempted dialogue with local management, USLEAP and allied organizations in Europe launched a global solidarity campaign called “Freedom and Fairness for Fyffes Workers.” The demand is for Fyffes to establish and implement a company-wide policy to ensure respect for workers’ rights throughout its supply chains. The fruit shows up in U.S. supermarkets under the Sol sticker. You can support this global campaign by checking the stickers on pineapples, melons and bananas at supermarkets in your area. Read this form first and then head to the supermarket chain nearest to you.

 

ILO Identifies Forced Labor Risk in Uzbek Cotton Harvest

For the second year in a row, the International Labour Organization (ILO) monitored forced and child labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton harvest. It released its final report on the 2016 harvest this week, which confirms high risk of forced labor in the government-run annual mobilization of cotton pickers. Although we agree with much in the report, ILRF is concerned about the methodology and many of the report’s conclusions, which in our view do not go far enough in challenging the Uzbek government's lack of progress in stopping the forced and child labor. Read more here.

 


Godiva: No Love for Cocoa Farmers

Before Valentine's Day, take action to show you demand fairly traded cocoa in your chocolate! Godiva remains one of the biggest industry laggards, taking no real action to rid forced and child labor from its cocoa supply chain. We're partnering with Green America to send Godiva a message. Send yours today!

 


Job Opening: Corporate Accountability Program Coordinator

ILRF seeks a skilled facilitator and popular educator with a strong feminist and power-based analysis to support grassroots worker leaders’ advocacy for effective corporate accountability. An ideal candidate will have familiarity with the anti-sweatshop movement, collective bargaining, union-brand agreements, and worker participation in factory monitoring as well as several years of previous experience with worker organizing and/or grassroots NGO capacity-building internationally. For further details, see the job description. Applications are due February 15.

 
 

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