Department of Labor Releases List of Slave-Made Goods
posted by: Natasha G. 71 days ago
The U.S. Department of Labor has released a list of goods produced by child and slave labor, targeted at Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Although this list was authorized in 2005 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, it has only now been compiled and released.
According to the International Labor Organization, over 12 million people are enslaved, and about 218 million children work, with the majority subjected to hazardous conditions. Those most vulnerable to slave labor include women, migrants and indigenous peoples.
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) found 122 goods produced by slave or child labor in 58 countries.The most common goods include:
-Agriculture: cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, rice, cocoa
-Manufacturing: bricks, garments, carpet, footwear
-Mining: gold, coal
Slave and child labor stretches the globe, but some of the worst offenders are Bolivia, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan and North Korea. However it should be noted that although these specific countries have high levels of slave and child labor, the entire world is compliant. As long as corporations enable these conditions and consumers purchase goods, slave and child labor will continue.
Some countries were absent from the list because the government does not collect statistics on slave and child labor, or such information is suppressed. It is also often difficult to gather accurate data because slave and child labor is typically conducted in isolated or hidden locations.
The report notes that the global economic crisis has only exacerbated conditions. Those vulnerable to slave labor are typically the poorest and powerless. With rising food prices, the World Bank estimates that 100 million more people will be pushed into poverty this year.
The entire report is available here .
According to the International Labor Organization, over 12 million people are enslaved, and about 218 million children work, with the majority subjected to hazardous conditions. Those most vulnerable to slave labor include women, migrants and indigenous peoples.
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) found 122 goods produced by slave or child labor in 58 countries.The most common goods include:
-Agriculture: cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, rice, cocoa
-Manufacturing: bricks, garments, carpet, footwear
-Mining: gold, coal
Slave and child labor stretches the globe, but some of the worst offenders are Bolivia, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, Pakistan and North Korea. However it should be noted that although these specific countries have high levels of slave and child labor, the entire world is compliant. As long as corporations enable these conditions and consumers purchase goods, slave and child labor will continue.
Some countries were absent from the list because the government does not collect statistics on slave and child labor, or such information is suppressed. It is also often difficult to gather accurate data because slave and child labor is typically conducted in isolated or hidden locations.
The report notes that the global economic crisis has only exacerbated conditions. Those vulnerable to slave labor are typically the poorest and powerless. With rising food prices, the World Bank estimates that 100 million more people will be pushed into poverty this year.
The entire report is available here .
Read more: slavery, human rights, department of labor, child labor
comments
Black T. Good for you. But don't think that you are unique.
I taught in New Zealand and one evening I went down town for a Chinese meal. Imagine my surprise when I was greeted in the restaurant by a waiter, a thirteen-year-old from my form at the school, attired in immaculate dinner jacket, etc. He helped me choose what was an excellent meal and afterwards I asked him how he managed as he was top of the form and his work, including homework, was always exemplary.
"I stop work and go to bed at ten o'clock, get up at six to do my homework. My parents pay me the right wages and by the time I leave school I shall be able to pay my way through university." He was very proud of his accomplishment, and his parents, whom I met later, were very proud of their son.
Yes, his employment, though seven days a week, was certainly not as arduous as that on a farm. I merely cite this example to show that not all child labour is not slavery. I have had other younger pupils who have of their own volition regularly cut lawns, polished cars, gone shopping as a way to earn funds.
Of course, this does not equate to the sweat-shops in which some children are employed, but in some lands the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction, hampering a child's ambition.
Nancy Thackston: In some countries employees in their greed have priced themselves out of the market.
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Nicki R, as usual, you right wing Nancy haters are barking up the wrong tree, attempting to deflect attention away from the real culprit. There is no time to play dumb any more. Do you think we have a free market system . There are no free markets when you have international corps from several countries fixing prices on various resources so that small businesses can't complete, nor can they compete in the labor market and pay a decent wage even when they want too when the giants are useing slave labor.And of course there's healthcare costs.If you're supporting a party that won't work actively to reform healthcare because they say it cost too much [like what we've got now doesn't] and oh my gosh we just can't have the 'gov'ment' involved in providin' anything for those lazy tax payin' poor folks.They might help some undeserving illegal alian or an unemployed minority person.Put single payer back on the table and you can still keep your over priced insurence.You want to get out from under the yoke of privately run government who puts profit for itself and its share holders above the well being of the people of this country? See if you can grasp which party is the most complient with the idea of privetizing government.The Wall Street gang is how they keep track of how well the economy is going for the high ups, not Main Street.I'm going to assume you know what you're doing and your chosing deliberately to try to hide the criminals.
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Here is a sampling of websites that bill themselves as selling or promoting green, fair-trade and organic products such as cotton, coffee and chocolate. No slavery or lead involved! Search for the fair-trade items you need online if you don't see them here. You can make a difference! (Care2, if you didn't know about these people, why don't you invite them to advertise here?)
http://www.choice.com.au/printFriendly.aspx?ID=105927
http://www.reallynatural.com/archives/cat_fair_trade.php?page=2
http://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/default.aspx
http://www.naturalmomresource.com/catalog/516-organics-dark-chocolate-kona-coffee-ergo-carrier-organics-dark-chocolate-kona-BC9ODCK
http://experiencespokane.com/kizuri/index.shtml
http://www.greenpromise.com/gifts/green-gift-baskets.php
http://www.leafygreen.info/tag/leafy-green/
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Ms. Pelosi instigated the new CPSIA rulings, mandating lead testing for any product manufacturered for children. Unless the item is a ONE of a kind, handmade item, it has to be "batch tested" for lead, the testing usually running around $1500.00. Corporate America may be able to bear this burden, but I don't know of many small handicrafters that can.
Try finding ONE bolt of cottoncloth at the local quilt shop, at $10 a yard, that isn't made in China (I dare you), yet cotton mills all across our own South have shut down business because they didn't want to pay their workers a living wage.
But Pelosi and others don't seem to be worried about the formaldehyde content of goods coming from these sweatshops overseas. A couple of my kids & I walk the aisles of our local Walmart store almost every day (2.5 miles of indoor walking), and we hold our breaths for many of the shoe department aisles because we can smell the chemicals coming off these shoes (that are then absorbed through the skin of any man/woman/child wearing them).
Sick.
Leave it to American Legislators to drive small business under, while making it easy for countries like China to continue to exploit children.
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Because of NAFTA, it's difficult to find clothes that are made in the US. They're either manufactured in countries that uses slave labor, or they're assembled in those countries from materials made in America. So, what do we do besides sew our own wardrobe. (I don't sew--don't own a sewing machine. I HATED sewing in elementary school and jr. high!)
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another issue, child labor, is a natural thing over here , u can see scavenging garbage bags, and as a bad education , we don't have recycle consciousness so every body throws their crap in the same bags...anothe problen , political shoul i say of the many ones we ahve here in Argentina . specially in the capital, Buenos aires.
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HELLO PEOPLE, I'M FROM ARGENTINA AND IN THIS COUNTRY LABOUR HAND IS CHEAP SO MOST PEOPLE FROM BOLIVIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN SOUTH AMERICA , COME HER TO SLAVE WORK AND IN CLANDESTINE PLACES.....REALLY A SHAME.
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Black, your life on the farm WAS NOT child labor. It was your family farm. The chores you did helped sustain your family and you lived and ate the toil of your labor. I am sure that if you were ill, your family let you stay in bed. It sounds as if your farm gave you principles, and strength of character.
These kids, forced into child labor for the factories, work long hard hours for very little money. If they are sick, there is no one saying it's OK honey, take it easy. They work from sunup to sundown and then some No one looks after their welfare. They get a bit of money to help sustain their families but it is quite different from the life you led on the farm. You probably had good clean air, food grown yourself, and drinking water that was clean. You obviously had parents that cared for you.
There is a BIG difference between children who work in sweat shops & children who grow up on a farm doing chores. Chores are one thing - forced labor is another.
You got to go to school. Most of the time these kids do not.
YOU WERE LUCKY and let's face it, you are proud of what you did and acomplished - it shows in your writing. it is said that as Americans, we don't know how lucky we are, and that is true.
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I am at odds with the term "child labor". I was raised on a farm, no electricity, running water, gas, etc.. At the age of 4 yrs. I was up at 4-5 AM to get ready for chores, milking cow[by hand], feed chickens, carry arm loads of hay to the horses and cows. As I grew older the heavier work like carrying pails of water, pumping water[by hand] came my way. At age 14 I was able to lift and curl 5 gallon pails full of feed for the pigs, lifting over the fence[no gates]. We had a grain grinder run by a small gas motor which meant I had to be able to hoist a 100lb. sack of grain to my shoulder and tip it into the top. Then carry the finished "Chop" to the feed room were it would be divided for feeding different animals. In the winter all animals got warm food!!! Yes warm! Which meant bringing barley into the house and onto the large wood stove into a large container to cook. Do you have any idea how much a 5 gallon pail full of cooked grain would weigh??? So is this child labor, or is it developing work ethic. Oh yes by age 7 I also had to get ready to go to school on top of chores and walk 3/4ths of a mile to catch school bus. Children in the western world get up, go to school, come home, do homework, play games etc. and they still get into trouble because they have time on their hands, and the saying "idle hands are Satan's hands" and he will find something for them to do!!! Children in the 3rd world are birthed to expand the family work force and the biggest fault,no school!!!
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Lets face it. Corporate greed at any expense. The great American Idol. We buy too much, have to have too much. We have been well programmed. Buy at your local farm market, don't eat fast food garbage, we have to change, better health is a must Watch Dr Oz
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