Time to Unleash the Power of the U.S National Contact Point

September 26, 2017

One of the many items in the packed agenda at the UN General Assembly in New York last week was the establishment of more concrete standards for companies seeking to do business sustainably in pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals. More and more top business leaders are seeking guidance on how to ensure good corporate behavior. But the UN standards are not the only resource to CEOs that want to make environmental and social protection part of their business model.

Nike Signs Factory Access Agreement

September 1, 2017

There is a thirst for truth, accuracy and transparency among the public in our current political climate, and global multinationals are no exception to those expectations.

PepsiCo Delays, Palm Oil Workers Despair

August 22, 2017

Eric Gottwald, International Labor Rights Forum

Palm oil fruit held in a child worker's hands - courtesy of OneVillage/Flickr

More than a year after the publication of a detailed report showing child labor, exposure to toxic pesticides, and other serious labor rights violations in its palm oil supply chain, PepsiCo has failed to take meaningful steps to remedy the abuses.

Is Foxconn a fantasy?

August 7, 2017

Sarah Newell, International Labor Rights Forum

Foxconn factory. Prachatai/Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Last week, President Trump, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn – an electronics manufacturing company owned by a wealthy Taiwanese tycoon – announced plans to build a factory in the United States to produce LCD screens. Trump lauded this as a victory in his stated quest to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States. But the reality may be something different.

Minimum Freedom, Minimum Wages: Legal Repression in Cambodia

July 28, 2017

Sarah Newell, International Labor Rights Forum

Minimum Freedom, Minimum Wages: Legal Repression in Cambodia

This month, the Cambodian National Institute of Statistics will carry out a survey of 1,500 garment workers in Phnom Penh in preparation for upcoming national minimum wage negotiations.

The highs and lows of the 2017 TIP Report

July 2, 2017

Abby McGill, International Labor Rights Forum

Last week, the U.S. Department of State delivered its annual Trafficking in Persons report. Though the report is much anticipated each year by anti-trafficking advocates, this year drew extra attention as the first report released by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the Trump administration, and in the wake of two straight years of allegations that political considerations had weighted some country rankings.

There is much in this report for which the State Department should be commended, in particular:

Bangladesh Accord Fourth Anniversary: Reflections and Recommendations

May 13, 2017

Judy Gearhart, International Labor Rights Forum

Remembering Mom in a Time of Resistance

May 4, 2017

Judy Gearhart, International Labor Rights Forum

Originally published in Huffington Post

This Mother’s Day, it is 50 weeks and three days that I am living without a mother, missing her every single day and so grateful for the drive and fight she instilled in me to demand an equal voice for myself and for all women. As the daughter of immigrants – a home-based seamstress and a coal miner who plied his trade as a stone mason on the weekends – my mother committed every waking moment to making our world better than she had it.