ILRF's poster series highlights child labor in the supermarket and chocolate industries. In addition, one poster highlights the connection between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and child labor.
Email laborrights [at] ilrf.org (subject: Order%20Placement%3A%20Child%20Labor%20Poster%20Series) if you would like to order durable 11x17 full color posters.
Supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Dole, & Whole Foods)
Chocolate (Nestle, Cargill, & ADM)
Cotton (Cargill & Fruit of the Loom)
World Bank/IMF
Supermarket Poster
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Children plant and pick fruits and vegetables in nearly every country around the world, including the United States. The International Labor Organization’s estimate of 218 million child laborers around the world, 70 percent of them in agriculture.
Write to grocery stores and fruit and vegetable suppliers (listed below) to ask:
- Where do the fruits and vegetables come from?
- How does the store make sure that children who should be in school are not picking fruit and vegetables?
- What assurances does the store have that their produce is made under fair labor conditions?
Addresses:
- WAL-MART: CEO Lee Scott, Corporate Offices, 702 SW 8th St., Bentonville, AR 72716
- DOLE Food Company: CEO David H. Murdock, Corporate Headquarters, One Dole Drive, Westlake Village, CA 91362
- WHOLE FOODS: CEO John Mackey, Whole Foods Market, 550 Bowie Street, Austin, TX 78703
Chocolate Poster
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All the sweetness in chocolate cannot hide the bitter taste of slavery and child labor used to produce chocolate’s basic ingredient, cocoa.
Children as young as nine are tricked or sold into slavery to work on cocoa plantations in Cote d’Ivoire, where almost half of the world's
cocoa is grown. Cocoa in the U.S. is imported by companies such as Nestlé, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland.
Write your own letter to the chocolate companies listed below and include the following demands:
- Identify and take responsibility for every farm producing their cocoa worldwide.
- Make a substantial and sustained investment in Fair Trade Certified cocoa.
- Monitor all farms that produce their cocoa to make sure no child labor is used.
- Commit more funding for rehabilitation and education programs for cocoa children.
Addresses:
- NESTLE USA: Brad Alford, Chairman and CEO, 800 North Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91203 (view sample letter)
- CARGILL: Gregory Page, Chairman and CEO, Cargill, Inc. PO Box 9300 Minneapolis, MN 55440-9300 (view sample letter)
- ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND COMPANY (ADM): Patricia Woertz, CEO, 4666 Faries Parkway, Decatur, IL 62526 (view sample letter)
Cotton Poster
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Thousands of children around the world are forced to pick cotton. In India, child workers in the cottonseed industry are often in a state of debt bondage and work at least nine hours a day. Pesticides used during production cause health problems for the children and they report experiencing headaches, convulsions and respiratory problems. The long-term effects of exposure to toxic chemicals have not been measured.
In Uzbekistan, one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton, as many as two million children are forced to leave school and pick cotton in order to meet government-imposed cotton production quotas. Up to one third of the country’s population is conscripted each fall to labor on cotton farms. While the cotton industry is very profitable for a few large landowners and political elites, the vast majority of cotton farmers live in dire poverty. Independent union representation is almost nonexistent for workers.
This cotton is exported to produce the jeans, T-shirts, and other clothing worn by consumers in the United States and in Europe.
What YOU can do:
- Find out more about our campaign to stop child labor in the cotton industry by visiting www.LaborRights.org
- The next time you buy a T-shirt or a pair of jeans, ask the company where their cotton comes from, and how they ensure child labor was not used in its production
Write to the companies below demanding that they:
- Institute a company-wide human rights policy covering their cotton suppliers which bans child labor and upholds core labor rights
- Stop buying cotton from Uzbekistan
Addresses:
- Cargill: Gregory Page, Cargill, Inc., PO Box 9300, Minneapolis, MN, 55440-9300
World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Poster
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The World Bank and IMF are two of the most powerful players in the world, who, by providing aid and loans to poor countries, can <br />dictate a country’s economic policies. These policy reforms conditioned in exchange for aid force poor countries to reduce social <br />spending in education and health system resulting in an increase in child labor. Poor countries trapped in a cycle of debt owed to the <br />World Bank and IMF are also forced to further reduce social spending.
Write to the World Bank and the IMF and demand:
- Increase support for education and health programs.
- Ensure that aid and loans are conditioned with protecting working conditions of adult workers as better conditions and higher wages for adults mean fewer children have to work.
- Provide technical assistance to countries in their implementation of national plan of action to fulfill the goal of “Education for All.”
- Forgive debt which is crippling many poor countries.
- Request meetings with the World Bank and IMF officials and take field trips to their Washington office to demand a response.
Addresses:
- WORLD BANK: Robert Zoellick, President, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433
- INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director, 700, 19th St. NW, Washington, DC 20431
