Labor Rights in Jordon: With the passage of the 2001 U.S.-Jordan free trade deal, increasing numbers of mutinational have moved operations to Jordanian export processing zones to take advantage of quota-free access to US markets. The results according to recent undercover investigation by the New York based National Labor Committee are "slave-like conditions" whereby workers are "stripped of their passports, trapped in involuntary servitude, sewing clothing for Wal-Mart, Gloria Vanderbilt, Target, Kohl's, Thalia Sodi for Kmart, Victoria's Secret, L.L.Bean and others." The majority of the EPZ employees are foreign guest workers, mostly from Bangladesh, China, India and Sri Lanka. Read the NLC report here. In response, Jordanian labor leaders recently called on the government to allow these estimated 44,000 workers to join unions. Read the full Jordan Times article here.
Building Bridges with South Korea: On July 7th, an AFL-CIO-ILWU (International Longshore Union) delegation sets off for South Korea to meet with fellow unionists to discuss joint strategies for combatting the impending Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement (KORUS), as well seek support for the Blue Diamond workers’ union drive. According to the AFL-CIO blog "The delegation, which includes senior staff from the AFL-CIO and the ILWU, follows a round of joint lobbying and protests when talks on KORUS opened in Washington, D.C. The AFL-CIO, CTW, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions issued a joint declaration June 6 on KORUS. Their statement called on both governments to ensure the trade agreements do not undercut workers’ rights, environmental protection, food security or public services." Marcy Rein, communications specialist in the Organizing Department of the ILWU will be blogging the progress of the delegation on the AFL-CIO blog, available here.
Recent Comments