In Viewpoint, we bring your attention to what we feel are the most pressing issues of the day, as well as bringing you up to date with what is going on with the Child Labor Coalition.
Tragic Story of Deaths in a Grain Bin Highlights the Need for Increased Safeguards and Larger Fines
Twenty-five to 30 kids a year die at work. Through its advocacy and co-chairmanship of the Child Labor Coalition, the National Consumers League (NCL) has worked to reduce that number over the years. Each spring, NCL produces a report called “The Five Most Dangerous for Teens.” For several years, we worked to help enact proposed [...]
The CLC’s and Cotton Campaign’s Protest of the Use of Forced Child Labor and Adult Labor in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Fields
When you are a child labor activist, you spend a surprising amount of time sitting at your desk writing emails and blogs or in meetings with federal officials and others concerned about child labor. Opportunities for street activism are not common, but earlier this month, the members of the Child Labor Coalition and the [...]
Of Ships and Men–Cameron Conaway’s Poem about the Children Who Break Ships Apart in Bangladesh
Of Ships and Men There are ships like hotels horizontal and there are children and children breaking, dragging these dead vessels through beach sand soiled with oil through the swirling peace rainbows of slavery, a six month deconstruction of scrap metal and tiny little lives scraping by one then two then [...]
Today is the Day to Think about the Plight of the World’s 300,000 Child Soldiers
Today is an important day if you care about the welfare of children. Advocates have named February 12 “International Day against the Use of Child Soldiers” to highlight one of the worst forms of child labor. It’s hard to imagine that in 2013 the use of child soldiers is alive and thriving, but the BBC [...]
The CLC’s Open Letter to President Obama on His Next Secretary of Labor
January 30, 2013 Dear Mr. President: The members of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC), representing millions of Americans through unions, human rights organizations, and socially-responsible investment organizations, write in regard to the pending nomination of Secretary of Labor. We urge you to select a nominee who will make protecting children here in the U.S. [...]
