ISSUES AND CONCERNS

WARNING!!!!!!

LET'S STOP CHILD LABOR!!!!!!

PLANNING

Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy safe working conditions. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited. Because workers are paid a fair, above-market price for their goods, they earn a living that enables them to take care of their family. This diminishes the need for their children to work. Fair trade eliminates the middleman so more of each dollar spent on products goes back into the pockets of the farmers and workers who actually produced the goods. Some of this money is reinvested in community development projects like schools. Education helps prevent the cycle of poverty that is closely connected with child labor.

1)Supporting workers’ struggles to organize unions and reject child labor

2)Campaigning for institutions to adopt and enforce codes of conduct

3)Implementing and supporting fair trade or labeling initiatives

4)Using collective bargaining strategies

5)Promoting global labor standards in trade agreements

6)Filing suit against corporations for labor rights abuses abroad

7)Promoting access to education

STRATEGY

RESULTS

1)Strong unions are an important protection against child labor

2)When parents are able to improve conditions through effective unions, children are much less likely to have to work

3)Active struggles against child labor tend to strengthen unions and workers’ rights in general

THIS IS TRUE......

"I’m 7 years old and I work on a coffee plantation in Kenya. I have to reach up high to pick the ripe, red beans off of the coffee plants. To keep away bugs, the farmer sprayed the coffee plants with poisonous pesticides. About four million Kenyan children just like me are forced to work in hard, dangerous jobs."

Child Labor Statistics Video