As Global Labor Justice - International Labor Rights Forum (GLJ-ILRF), we call on the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation to act in accordance with their mandates to block union busting and respect freedom of association and collective bargaining where workers have chosen to be represented.  This must include the reinstatement of hotel union General Secretary Amadou Diallo and Deputy General Secretary Alhassane Diallo, who were both terminated on October 7th, 2020 as leaders of the newly elected union, raising awareness around fundamental workplace issues, including health and safety. 

Groups file petition with Customs and Border Patrol for a regional Withold Release Order on cotton products from the Xinjiang Region 

Today a group of human rights, labor and investor organizations, filed a formal petition with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), urging it to issue a regional withhold release order (WRO) on all cotton-made goods linked to the Xinjiang region of China based on evidence of widespread forced labor. Under U.S. law 19 U.S.C. §1307 it is illegal for the United States to allow entry of goods, “produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor or/and forced labor or/and indentured labor.” 

Today, 72 Uyghur rights groups are joined by over 100 civil society organisations and labour unions from around the world in calling on apparel brands and retailers to stop using forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Uyghur Region”), known to local people as East Turkistan, and end their complicity in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses. The groups have issued a call to action seeking brand commitments to cut all ties with suppliers implicated in forced labour and end all sourcing from the Uyghur Region, from cotton to finished garments, within twelve months.

June 23, 2020 (Washington, D.C. / Berlin) – A new report released today by Uzbek Forum for Human Rights (formerly Uzbek-German Forum / UGF) on the 2019 cotton harvest in Uzbekistan documents both meaningful progress toward ending forced labor and the persistence of government-organized forced labor, said the Cotton Campaign.

Seven years ago today at least 1,134 workers died in the garment industry’s deadliest factory incident in history. Today, we remember the workers who died in the Rana Plaza collapse, sending our thoughts to those affected by this tragedy. While we commemorate this crisis, workers’ lives are again at risk.

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis sweeping through the garment industry and across the world is undermining the ongoing worker struggles for social protection, living wages, freedom to organise, and safe factories in Bangladesh.

A joint report by the International Labor Rights Forum, Fair World Project, and the International Union of Food Workers (IUF) Latin America Regional Secretariat, with support from 3F International, published today reveals long-term, ongoing human and labor rights violations on Fyffes’ melon plantations in Honduras.

Cotton Campaign Developing Framework to Encourage Responsible Sourcing

The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to grow and spread. Half of the world’s population is under some form of lock-down or movement restriction in order to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. Garment workers in global supply chains, who already grapple with poverty wages and precarious living situations, face increasing insecurity as factories close in response to steep drops in orders and as governments shut down manufacturing to protect public health.