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Remembering Rana Plaza, Advancing Women Workers’ Rights in Global Supply Chains

April 27, 2016

This week marks three years since the most horrific tragedy in the history of the global apparel industry - the collapse of the Rana Plaza factories in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 workers and caused hundreds of others to lose a limb or suffer long-term injuries.

Honduran Women Farm Workers Are Fighting Back Against Fyffes Company’s Abuses

March 7, 2016

On the morning of December 3rd, in Choluteca, Honduras, 14 women melon workers had to be hospitalized after their exposure to toxic chemicals on a Suragroh melon plantation owned by the Irish food and fresh produce multinational Fyffes.  None of the 150 workers sickened that day were provided with the necessary safety gear to protect them.  One of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous, told a local newspaper

Human Trafficking and Smuggling Course Highlights

February 23, 2016
Human Trafficking and Smuggling 
2015 – Course Highlights
 
It has been 15 years since the adoption of the United Nations Trafficking and Smuggling Protocols and one can argue that improvements have been made on the forefront of combatting modern day slavery, but still much work is left to do. The turbulent times we live in require special measures and a creative way forward to address the issue.
 

ILRF Urges Congress to Reject TPP Over Failed Labor Enforcement Model

February 5, 2016
An anti-TPP rally in the Washington, DC area in April 2015. Credit: AFGE

Yesterday ILRF’s Legal and Policy Director Eric Gottwald presented at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by the AFL-CIO on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and labor rights, entitled: “TPP: Is it a Gold Standard for Working People?”

Panelists at the event addressed the question, “Can workers count on the TPP to secure more freedoms and higher wages?” Along with other human rights and labor experts (Ben Davis from United Steelworkers, John Sifton from Human Rights Watch and Celeste Drake from the AFL-CIO) Eric Gottwald laid out ILRF’s opposition to the  proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), emphasizing that, based on past experience, the trade treaty’s labor provisions are unlikely to be enforced in practice.

TPP Ignores Workers' Needs and Fails to Address Weaknesses from Past Trade Agreements

November 12, 2015

The text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) finally became accessible to workers and the public last week, though insiders from more than 500 major companies have had access to the negotiation and writing process for years. The result predictably values the rights of corporations over the needs of workers and fails to address the most glaring weakness of past trade deals: the utter failure of the parties to uphold their commitments to respect workers' rights.

Fast Fashion Giant Needs to Move Faster for Worker Safety

October 6, 2015

Originally published on Huffington Post.

Fall fashion week is wrapping up in Paris today, but in the world of fast fashion consumers don't need to wait for the announcement of seasonal trends. Apparel industry leaders like H&M have hit warp speed supplying new styles almost weekly at affordable prices.

U.S. Department of Labor Accepts ILRF Complaint Against Peru

September 22, 2015
"Camino a Puno Golpeando quinoa" by Michael Hermann - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

On September 21, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) formally accepted a complaint filed by ILRF and Peruvian unions against the government of Peru for violating labor rights provisions of the 2009 U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

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