thumbnail

CLC press release: Tobacco Companies Should Prevent Child Labor in US Tobacco Farming—Letter to tobacco CEOs from 54 leading health, children’s, and labor organizations

/in , /by

For immediate release: June 26, 2014
Contact: Reid Maki, (202) 207-2820, reidm@nclnet.org

(Washington, DC) Over 50 US-based organizations called on leading tobacco companies to address hazardous child labor in US tobacco farming in a letter released today. The groups expressed alarm that children are risking acute nicotine poisoning and other health and safety hazards in US tobacco fields.

“Children in the US can’t legally buy cigarettes, but children working in tobacco fields are suffering acute nicotine poisoning,” said Sally Greenberg, co-chair of the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) and executive director of the National Consumers League. “Tobacco companies need to ensure that their products are not made with child labor.”

The organizations, representing millions of teachers, healthcare professionals, workers, farmworkers, and advocates concerned about the safety, education, and welfare of children, called on the chief executive officers of the top ten global tobacco companies and tobacco leaf merchants to adopt and implement policies that prohibit children under age 18 from hazardous work in tobacco farming, including direct contact with tobacco.

A recent report, “Tobacco’s Hidden Children: Hazardous Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming,” by Human Rights Watch found that of 141 child tobacco workers interviewed in North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee, three-quarters reported getting sick while working on US tobacco farms. Many of their symptoms—nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, and dizziness—are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning.

“Child tobacco workers also reported working long hours, often in extreme heat and without protective gear,” noted Dr. Lorretta Johnson, co-chair of the CLC and the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers. “Unfortunately, child labor is a common practice in the United States, and it’s legal. We stand with Human Rights Watch, Sen. Tom Harkin, the CLC and many others to call attention to the great dangers faced by children working on tobacco farms, and we urge the world’s largest tobacco companies to take measures to end hazardous child labor in tobacco farming.”

Under US law, children as young as 12 can work for hire on any farm with their parent’s permission. Even younger children can work on small farms.

“Agriculture is already the most dangerous area of employment open to children in the US,” said Norma Flores López, the director of the Children in the Fields Campaign for the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and the chair of the CLC’s domestic issues committee. “Tobacco farming is particularly hazardous because of nicotine exposure and toxic pesticides.  We worry about children developing cancer—and neurological and reproductive health problems—linked to the exposure of toxic pesticides. We also need to prevent injuries from working with machinery and dangerous tools, lifting heavy loads, and climbing to significant heights in curing barns.”

In addition to adopting effective child labor policies, the organizations also urged tobacco companies to:

  • include provisions prohibiting child labor in all contracts with growers and suppliers that child labor is prohibited;
  • implement both internal and external monitoring to ensure effective enforcement of child labor policies;
  • provide support to remediate child labor in tobacco, including educational, recreational, and vocational programs for children in areas where the companies source tobacco; and
  • establish and enforce policies that will ensure fair compensation for adult tobacco workers so that they receive a living wage.

The letter was addressed to the chief executive officers of Altria Group, Inc., British American Tobacco PLC, China National Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, Japan Tobacco Inc., Lorillard, Inc., Philip Morris International Inc., Reynolds American Inc., Alliance One International, Inc., and Universal Corporation.

The letter with full list of signers can be found here.

 ###

About the Child Labor Coalition

The Child Labor Coalition represents consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad [The CLC’s website and membership list can be found at www.stopchildlabor.org ].

thumbnail

CLC-NGO Sign-on Letter to Big Tobacco: 54 Groups Urge Companies to Act Now to Protect Children Who Work in US Tobacco Fields

/in , , , /by

On June 24th, 2014, the following letter was sent by the CLC on behalf of over 50 NGOs  to the CEOs of Altria Group, Inc., British American Tobacco PLC, China National Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco Group PLC, Japan Tobacco Inc., Lorillard, Inc., Philip Morris International Inc., Alliance One International, Inc., and Universal Corporation.

We write to you as organizations representing millions of Americans, including teachers, healthcare professionals, workers, farmworkers, and advocates concerned about the safety, education, and welfare of children.  We are alarmed at recent reports that children are risking acute nicotine poisoning and other health and safety hazards in US tobacco fields. We urge you to take action to ensure that your company’s products are not made with child labor, and specifically, to adopt and implement policies that prohibit children under age 18 from hazardous work in tobacco, including direct contact with tobacco.

Public health studies have shown that adult non-smoking tobacco workers have similar amounts of nicotine in their bodies as active smokers. Because their bodies and brains are still developing, children working in tobacco fields are even more vulnerable to the effects of nicotine exposure. As you know, symptoms of nicotine poisoning (also known as Green Tobacco Sickness) include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, and dizziness.

In addition to nicotine poisoning, research has found that children working in tobacco are also vulnerable to illnesses from toiling in extreme heat; cancer, neurological and reproductive health problems from pesticide exposure; injuries from working with machinery and dangerous tools, lifting heavy loads, and climbing significant heights in curing barns; and respiratory problems from breathing tobacco dust.

We support efforts among tobacco workers in North Carolina to address their poverty and poor working conditions through industry-wide negotiations, from the workers on the farms to the growers who own the farms to the tobacco companies that purchase, process and distribute the tobacco and the retailers that sell tobacco products.  The tobacco companies have the ability to improve wages and working conditions in their supply chain and they should exercise that ability, including by recognizing and respecting the workers’ freedom of association and right to organize and by negotiating in good faith to reach a fair resolution of longstanding problems.

Read more

thumbnail

2014 World Day Against Child Labor Speech by Tom Harkin on the Senate Floor

/in , , , /by

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) delivered this speech on the Senate floor on  – June 12, 2014:

Mr. President, today, June 12, 2014, is the day set aside by the International Labor Organization to bring attention to the tragic predicament of millions of children across the globe who continue to be trapped in forced and abusive labor, often in extremely hazardous conditions.

So today is the World Day Against Child Labor. It is a day set aside every year globally for people to take a look at what is happening to kids around the globe who are forced into very abusive and exploitative labor conditions.

I think we should obviously think about these children more than just one day a year. We should think about them every day.

In my travels I have seen the scourge of forced and abusive child labor firsthand. Previously on the floor–going back for almost 20 years–I have spoken about how shocked I was to see the deplorable conditions under which some of these kids are forced to work. I have witnessed this personally in places from South Asia to Latin America, to Africa.

These pictures I have in the Chamber are, as a matter of fact, pictures I took myself. This picture was taken in a rug-making place in Kathmandu, Nepal. We were told there were no children being forced into this kind of labor, but under the cover of darkness, on a Sunday night–it was probably after about 8 o’clock in the evening–we were able to make entry into one of these back-alley places, and this is what we came across: young people, girls and boys, some as young as 8 years of age, working at these looms. I remind you, this is at 8 p.m. on a Sunday night. They lived in barracks. They were housed, kind of stacked in barracks, so they could not leave, they could not go anywhere, they could not see their families.

Here is another picture of some older girls. These are young teenage girls working at the same place. I did not take that picture because this is me in the picture. This picture was taken by Rosemary Gutierrez, my staff person.

So I witnessed this firsthand. Even though we were told no such thing existed, we found it did exist.

Read more