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Bloggers and Twitizens: Fund anti-sweatshop organizing by shrinking your urls with 3bl.me

December 17, 2009

By Liana Foxvog, National Organizer, SweatFree Communities

Thanks to a nifty new tool from 3BL Media, you can now generate funds to support non-profits while shrinking urls with a simple click at 3bl.me.

Until January 31st, each time you use 3bl.me, 3BL Media will contribute 1 cent to be split equally among three non-profit beneficiaries, including SweatFree Communities.

When you need those lengthy urls shortened for posting on twitter or on your blog/website, please remember 3bl.me!

Climate Change, Copenhagen, and Workers

December 15, 2009

In a report released by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), the long-term effect of weather related changes caused by climate change has the potential to greatly impact employment.  The impacts on employment, reported by UNEP, are likely to arise “from extreme weather events such as droughts, cyclones and/or floods.  They will also arise from slower processes such as sea level rise.”  Major weather events, caused by climate change, carry with them the potential to cause damage and disrupt transportation lines and industrial infrastructure impact not only workers ability to be present at work, but also lead to the closin

Working for Scrooge: Worst Companies of 2009 for the Right to Associate

December 10, 2009

Our report this year highlights Dole (with violations in Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Philippines), Kohl's (with violations in Nicaragua and Turkey), Kraft (with violations in Argentina, China, Honduras and the United Kingdom) and Nestlé (with violations in Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Tunisia).

Report Exposes Poor Working Conditions at Government Contractors; New York State to Reign in Sweatshop Suppliers

December 10, 2009

Governor Paterson said: “I believe that the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium will serve as a crucial tool in creating and maintaining standards of workplace fairness and safety in our global economy.”

Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director of SweatFree Communities, said: “Labor rights violations are human rights violations. Today, International Human Rights Day, we call on all government agencies, including the federal government, to join with New York and the other pioneering members of the Consortium in ensuring labor rights for workers who manufacture goods purchased with our tax dollars.”

Norfolk, VA Fair Trade Festival Spreads Awareness about Sweatfree Campaigns

December 8, 2009

Besides heightening awareness about sweatshops and child labor in general, Trina and I were gaining supporters for the Norfolk sweatfree campaign.  The Friday preceding the festival, December 4th, Trina and I met with the Sacred Heart Catholic Church globalization community, a local Norfolk region faith based group interested in learning more about the social justice issues that sweatshops raise and more importantly, what concrete actions they could take as individuals and a community to both raise awareness and effect change.  We expected to be addressing a group that knew little about the global problems that lead to the use of Sweatshop labor but instead what we found was a well informed group of highly active ind

Organizations Question Nestlé’s Commitment to Fair Trade Cocoa

December 7, 2009

Nestlé SA announced today that it would begin to source Fair Trade Certified cocoa for its Kit Kat bars in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Since stories about the use of child, forced and trafficked labor and the widespread poverty among farmers in West Africa’s cocoa industry surfaced in 2001, organizations in the United States and around the world have been campaigning to convince major chocolate companies, especially Nestlé, to commit to sourcing Fair Trade Certified cocoa.  A lawsuit filed in 2005 in US courts against Nestlé on behalf of Malian children who were trafficked to Cote d’Ivoire to harvest cocoa is still ongoing.  

LL Bean Responds with Grace

November 25, 2009

 Here is the company's public statement, issued today:  "Since this issue was brought to our attention by the International Labor Rights Forum, we have begun contacting suppliers to convey to them that we do not intend to use Uzbekistan cotton. We have also agreed to join a coalition of organizations working with ILRF to develop next steps toward the elimination of Uzbekistan cotton in the supply chain. This is a complex issue that we believe is best addressed on a collaborative basis. We are pleased to work with ILRF, and others, to find solutions. "
 

Honduran Workers Win Major Victory with the help of Students and Activists like You!

November 20, 2009

This victory came after a long U.S. campaign, organized by United Students Against Sweatshops. Honduran union leaders and previous Jerzees de Honduras workers toured the U.S. all year, speaking up about Russell's anti-union tactics. 89 colleges and universities cut their apparel contracts with Russell out of protest.  According to the New York Times, some of these contracts were worth over $1 million dollars in sales.

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