Labor Trafficking and Trade
South Korea's Disposable People
Published October 20, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Abolitionist Kevin Bales was the first to coin the term "disposable people" as a reference to modern-day slavery. It's remained a popular term because it has both great descriptive power and great accuracy. Victims of human trafficking are treated temporary, replaceable items -- not individual human beings. Amnesty International has recently shined a light on one group of people who are particularly treated as such -- migrant laborers in South Korea.
South Korea was actually one of the first Asian countries to grant equal rights to migrant workers, including the same status as Korean workers. In 2004, they passed legislation guaranteeing equal labor rights, pay, and benefits for all migrant workers. However, five years later, many migrant workers continue to face the hardships and abuse they experienced before legal reform. Workers often work with heavy machinery and dangerous chemicals without sufficient training or protective equipment, putting them at greater risk of accidents and fatalities. They receive less pay than South Korean workers in the same jobs. Female migrant workers face sexual harassment, rape, and trafficking into prostitution. Many workers have had wages withheld without cause and been cheated out of wages.
South Korea is an example of the importance of implementation of law. On the books, migrant workers have great legal protections and full rights. However, in reality, no mechanism for implementing the law exists. Workplaces are not monitored for safety violations, the claims of unfair dismissals and wage theft are not addressed. Unfortunately, this sort of situation is not unique to South Korea. Since the U.S. began issuing it's annual Trafficking in Persons report and rating countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking, more countries have passed better anti-trafficking legislation. Strong laws are important, but ultimately meaningless if the country lacks any mechanism to enforce that law. Too often, strong anti-trafficking laws have failed to make a difference in the lives of at-risk and trafficked people because of a lack of enforcement. We should learn from South Korea's example that the "how" of law is often just as imporant as the "what."
Until a better enforcement mechanism is in place, Amnesty International is asking South Korea to do the following:
- to ensure that employers respect, protect and promote the rights of migrant workers through rigorous labour inspections so that the workplace is safe, training is provided and migrant workers are paid fairly and on time;
- to protect and promote the rights of all female migrant workers and stamp out sexual harassment and sexual exploitation;
- to allow irregular migrant workers to remain in South Korea while accessing justice and seeking compensation for abuses by employees; and
- to ensure that during immigration raids, immigration authorities adhere to South Korean law requiring them to identify themselves, present a warrant, caution and inform migrant workers of their rights, and provide those under their custody prompt medical treatment when needed or requested.
Photo credit: 2017
Buy Responsibly Campaign Helps You Buy Better
Published October 19, 2009 @ 06:40AM PT
The new International Organization for Migration "Buy Responsibly" campaign is sleek, sexy, and simple. It's a call to consumers to take themselves and the stores at which they shop to task about slavery in consumer-made goods and supply chains. The campaign is Euro-centric, but has implications for anyone who buys anything. You can check it out here.
Here's their short, to-the-point and well-produced PSA about slavery in consumer items, specifically tomatoes. Take a look.
Our demand for cheaper products is one of the big drivers behind human trafficking in a number of industries, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear to the houses we live in. In fact, slavery in the production of consumer goods is so pervasive, I can guarantee that both you and I own at least a handful of items made by slaves; we have eaten food grown, harvested, or produced by slaves. So if we are going to get serious about ending human trafficking, we need to take the Buy Responsibly campaign's message to heart and make an effort to purge our buying habits of slave-made goods.
So does that mean you should boycott every industry that has used slavery? No. For one, it's not a very sustainable lifestyle choice. Information about which products have been tainted by slavery is often outdated or inaccurate. Plus, the use of human trafficking in supply chains is so prolific, you'd be starving and naked before long, and very few people are willing to live like that voluntarily. While boycotts have changed and can improve corporate behaviour, boycotting may put non-trafficked workers' jobs at risk, making some workers worse off. Before considering boycotting a certain product, think about who will profit from and who will be affected by the boycott. If you do boycott, make specific demands and agree to end the boycott when those demands are met.
Another effective way to buy more responsibly is to buy products from companies that have a commitment to fair labor practices. When given a choice between a Fair Trade item and another one, go with the Fair Trade option. Choose products from companies with reputations for treating workers fairly. Tell companies that the rights of workers is an important consideration in your choice of products. These may seem like very small steps, but as companies see that fair labor standards are important to consumers, they will meet that demand like they now meet our demand for low prices.
The Slave-Made Prius and the Future of Green, Fair Labor
Published October 15, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
This post is part of Blog Action Day, which is uniting over 8300 blogs in 147 countries to talk about how climate change affects all our lives.
The creation of "green collar" jobs and "greenification" of production is a scorching hot topic these days, especially as climate change rises to the top of the international agenda. Reducing the environmental impact of production needs to happen in the U.S., China, and everywhere in between. But can we make production greener while protecting the rights of those humans who are doing the producing?
Conrad MacKerron, the Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program at the As You Sow Foundation based in San Francisco, CA, asked that question when a recent report from the National Labor Committee alleged abusive working conditions in Japanese factories assembling the Prius. According to the report, a full third of assembly line workers are very low-wage temporary employees and the supply chain that leads to the Prius is riddled with sweatshop abuse and human trafficking. The report also found that two years ago, Toyota, GM and Ford were all linked to human trafficking in making the pig iron for the steel that ends up in their vehicles. Even that staple of the the new, more conscious consumer -- the Toyota Prius -- may have been tainted by slavery.
To me, slave labor being used to make Priuses -- arguably one of the most visible symbols of consumers working to reduce climate change -- is the ultimate sad irony. That purchasers of the Prius who are making a conscious effort to be greener could be inadvertently supporting slavery is ironic and sad. And that a car which aims to protect the environment could ultimately harm the people who build it is also terrible. But it's an important moment for us to remember that just because a product is "greener", doesn't mean the company making it always puts the employees' rights first. "Green" and "fair" should never be strange bedfellows, but too often they are.
We cannot choose between green supply chains and fair supply chains, nor should we have to. We shouldn't have to live in a world where what we buy destroys the environment or the lives of the people who make it. But to continue to build a progressive vision of the future, we don't just need better environmental and better labor practices around the world, we need an overhaul of the system. We need to change the bottom line and change corporate incentives, so that the many companies who now to rely on fossil fuel and slave labor to create the cheapest possible product have a different aim. But perhaps most importantly, we need the green labor movement and the fair labor movement to focus more energy on working together, and confirm that they need each other to be part of a bigger, better picture: a fairer, greener world.
Photo credit: greenforall.org
Is Fossil Fuel the New Slavery?
Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:51AM PT
This post is part of Blog Action Day, which is uniting over 8300 blogs in 147 countries to talk about how climate change affects all our lives.
Robin Chase poses this interesting question on Huffington Post. Her theory: The U.S. economy has always been based on some under-valued energy source, which is how it has grown so fast and large. That energy source used to be slavery, and now it's fossil fuel. In general, I steer away from "blank is the new blank" statements because they practically drop to their knees and beg for criticism as imperfect analogies. In this case, the comparison holds some water, but it over-simplifies the historical and current connection between fossil fuels and slavery.
First of all, let's stop talking about slavery like is disappeared at the end of the U.S. civil war. The legal institution of slavery may have been shot down, but what we now call human trafficking, or modern-day slavery, has existed a long, long time and continues to thrive. And secondly, if we're going to talk about either slavery or fossil fuels today, we need to do so in a global context. Neither environmental damage from fossil fuels nor slavery stop at international borders, so why should out thinking?
These few criticisms aside, Ms. Chase is very right about one thing: the American economy is built on under-valued resources. Here's your 10 second American economics lesson: in a capitalist system, a business hoping to make a profit must make sure that the cost of labor plus the cost of production is less than the market value of what he's producing. Easy peasy, huh? For the plantation owners in the American South, the answer to reducing labor costs was chattel slavery. Today, some business traffic or exploit workers and cut back on benefits like health care to reduce labor costs. Others, and arguably a whole lot more, use dirty, non-sustainable, cheap energy to reduce production costs.
The problem with this thinking is that fossil fuels, like slavery, have an actual cost that is higher than the perceived cost. Trafficking appears to be an easy way to save money on workers to the business owner, but it incurs high social costs when you factor in the cost of rehabilitation for survivors, prosecution of traffickers, and the social disorder which human trafficking and other forms of exploitation create. Similarly, using fossil fuels to power a factory may seem like a bargain when compared to more sustainable choices, but the high environmental costs of fossil fuels includes global warming, natural disasters, increase public health problems and more. They are both short-term, lazy ways to produce increased profit at a high cost to society and to the future.
Chattel slavery in the U.S. brought about a civil war. The fight against global human trafficking has embatteled millions -- government officials, students, law enforcement, business owners, religious leaders, and more. With one war the bloodiest in American history and another still raging on the global stage, what will the war against fossil fuel look like? And more importantly, which side will you be on when it is waged?
Photo credit: Don Hankin
Porsche Investigates Forced Labor Under Hitler
Published October 13, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
With the galactically-high price tag that comes with a Porsche, you'd think each of the people involved in making one are being paid pretty handsomely. That might be the case today, but it wasn't always so. Porsche has admitted to using forced labor in their factories during Hitler's regime in Germany before and during WWII, and are now investigating the extent of the abuses.
Porsche has owned up to enslaving at least 50 workers during that period, but journalist and researcher Ulrich Viehoefer claims that up to 300 might have been enslaved during that period, and possibly more. 300 people might not seem like a huge number, but it represents over half of the workforce of Porsche at the time. Porsche has thus far paid 2.5 million euros in reparations to victims of forced labor in their factories, but the discovery of an additional 300 could increase that amount.
Why is it important that Porsche is investigating allegations of forced slavery over 60 years ago? For one, it sets a great precedent for companies that abused or enslaved workers in Nazi Germany and under other regimes with a general disdain for human rights to face up to their history. The reparations especially could help pave the way for other companies to repay the individuals and families of those they have wrong. The investigation also practically puts a halo on Porsche's head -- so few corporations are willing to examine, much less address, serious human rights abuses in their past. The investigation has the potential not just to help Porsche's former victims, but cement better labor practices for Porsche and it's competitors.
So props to Porsche for taking on a hard but important task. Hopefully their initiative and focus on justice will help encourage other companies -- you know who you are -- to address historical human rights abuses. After all, if you can't face the problems in your past, how can you face the problems in your present?
Photo credit: stephenhanafin
Sweet Sugar for Us, Bitter Life for Bolivian Children
Published October 12, 2009 @ 01:00PM PT
Luis is thirteen now, but he first left school to work full-time harvesting sugarcane when he was ten. He spends all day, sometimes up to 14 hours, every day cutting, hauling, and chopping the plants to be eventually processed into chocolate and slurpies and cupcakes for Americans and other wealthy Westerners. It's dangerous and incredibly difficult work. But Luis is not alone. He is just one of around 320,000 children in Bolivia thought to be exploited in child labor. And sugarcane production is one of the worst forms exploitative child labor.
Exploited and forced child labor in sugar production is an issue all over the world, from the Philippines to Bolivia. Sugarcane harvesting is an industry in which child labor and slave labor thrive for a number of reasons. First of all, the price of raw sugar today is the highest it's been in over 30 years, which is causing many farmers who left the industry to switch back. The crop is also an economic draw for poor and migrant families; the long growing season and multiple harvests provide steady income roughly between April and November, longer than most crops. Harvesting sugarcane is a dangerous and dirty task since most of it is still done manually. The crops must be cut in the field, burned to remove unwanted foliage, and then chopped down the canes. They also must be stacked and loaded for transportation and processing. All of these factors mean that the job of harvesting sugarcane often go the the most powerless -- children and slaves.
Too much of the sugar available at the grocery store today and used to the create sweet treats that we enjoy come from places like Bolivia and the Philippines, where large portions of the industry uses child and exploited labor to harvest the sugarcane. In part, exploitation is so prolific because of a global demand for cheap sugar. And we are the people who are demanding that sugar.
So how can you reduce that demand and help reduce child labor in sugar? The easiest step is to buy Fair Trade sugar at the grocery store. Increasingly, grocery stores are carrying Fair Trade staples, like sugar and coffee, but they may still be difficult to find in some areas. If that's the case, you can buy it online.
But if you're busy and/or domestically-challenged like me, you're not making a lot of cookies from scratch. So how can you make a difference? There are a number of ways you can encourage the products you buy and the businesses you frequent to buy Fair Trade sugar. Does your workplace provide coffee and sugar for employees? Try creating a petition for Fair Trade sugar. Do you have a favorite coffee shop or bakery? Let them know that you're concerned about the sugar you eat being made by exploited children. When businesses hear from customers they value, they are more likely to meet those customers' requests and increase demand for fairly-produced sugar.
Child exploitation in the sugar industry is a serious problem, but it's something you can help by making better choices about the sugar you buy and encouraging businesses to do the same. When sugar is fair, it can be a sweet life for all of us.
Photo credit: dweekly
Child Slavery at the Circus
Published October 11, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
Lions and tigers and bears and slaves, oh my! In the West, we most often associate the circus with acrobats, clowns, cotton candy, and animals (which are often abused as well). But for many Nepalese girls, the circus in India represents a life of slavery, rape, and exploitation.
It's difficult to estimate the number of children who have been trafficked into Indian circuses. One estimate is about 500 at any given time, with new ones being recruited as others age out or escape. They are mostly girls from small villages in Nepal. Some are kidnapped, some a tricked, and some are signed into a contract to work by their parents. But no matter how they enter, these girls rehearse and perform for hours a day, for as little as $3 per month. At night, many are abused and raped by men in the circus or sold in prostitution for extra money. Those who go to see the circus may never know that bright smiles and stage makeup hide nefarious exploitation and slavery backstage.
The Nepalese government has only recently begun to treat the recruitment and captivity of children in circuses as a crime. But now, they are even reaching out to the Indian government to work in partnership to reduced the number of Nepalese girls trafficked into circuses. This is a vast improvement of policy for both governments, and has the potential to prevent more girls from being trafficked into circuses.
I stumbled upon a video that's a great example of human trafficking in circuses. In 2007, a British rescue organization teamed up with a group of Nepalese parents to try and find and rescue the children they had lost to circuses. This is short documentary video of their efforts, which creates an vivid picture of what human trafficking in Indian circuses is like, complete with police corruption, difficulty in finding the victims and traffickers, and a happy ending for at least some of the enslaved girls. It's the reality faced by so many children hoping to escape slavery in an industry created for the joy and amusement of children.
