Child Labor

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Child Labor
Melanie Rigsby 2nd Period 12/15/06
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Child Labor

• The International Labor Organization (ILO) has
  estimated that 250 million children between the
  ages of five and fourteen work in developing
  countriesat least 120 million on a full time
  basis. Sixty-one percent of these are in Asia, 32
  percent in Africa, and 7 percent in Latin
  America. Most working children in rural areas are
  found in agriculture many children work as
  domestics urban children work in trade and
  services, with fewer in manufacturing and
  construction.

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It Depends

• Child labor ranges from four-year-olds tied to
  rug looms to keep them from running away, to
  seventeen-year-olds helping out on the family
  farm. In some cases, a child's work can be
  helpful to him or her and to the family working
  and earning can be a positive experience in a
  child's growing up. This depends largely on the
  age of the child, the conditions in which the
  child works, and whether work prevents the child
  from going to school.

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The Results

• Children who work long hours, often in dangerous
  and unhealthy conditions, are exposed to lasting
  physical and psychological harm.
• Working at rug looms, for example, has left
  children disabled with eye damage, lung disease,
  stunted growth, and a susceptibility to arthritis
  as they grow older.
• Children making silk thread in India dip their
  hands into boiling water that burns and blisters
  them, breath smoke and fumes from machinery,
  handle dead worms that cause infections, and
  guide twisting threads that cut their fingers.
• Children harvesting sugar cane in El Salvador use
  machetes to cut cane for up to nine hours a day
  in the hot sun injuries to their hands and legs
  are common and medical care is often not
  available.

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Agriculture

• Of nearly 250 million children engaged in child
  labor around the world, the vast majority70
  percent, or some 170 millionare working in
  agriculture. Child agricultural workers
  frequently work for long hours in scorching heat,
  haul heavy loads of produce, are exposed to toxic
  pesticides, and suffer high rates of injury from
  sharp knives and other dangerous tools. Their
  work is grueling and harsh, violating their
  rights to health, education, and protection from
  work that is hazardous or exploitative.

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Agriculture

• According to the ILO's new report on child labor,
  the number of children working in agriculture is
  nearly ten times that of children involved in
  factory work such as garment manufacturing,
  carpet-weaving, or soccer-ball stitching. Yet
  despite their numbers and the difficult nature of
  their work, children working in agriculture have
  received little attention compared to child labor
  in manufacturing for export.

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Nike

• Nike has been accused of using child labor in the
  production of its soccer balls in Pakistan. This
  case study will examine the claims and describe
  the industry and its impact on laborers and their
  working conditions. While Pakistan has laws
  against child labor and slavery, the government
  has taken very little action to combat it. Only a
  boycott by the United States and other nations
  will have any impact on slavery and child-based
  industries.

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Child Labor Companies

• The AP was able to follow the work products of 50
  children to more than two dozen companies
  including Campbell Soup Co., Chi-Chi's Mexican
  restaurants, ConAgra, Costco, H.J. Heinz,
  Newman's Own, J.C. Penney, Pillsbury, Sears and
  Wal-Mart.
• All the companies that responded condemned
  illegal child labor. Many launched investigations
  when told of suppliers employing underage
  children.

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Bangladesh

• Dangerous work. Child labor is very common in
  Bangladesh. Recently, a lot of western companies
  have forbidden child workers in their sewing
  factories. Instead the children are forced to do
  more dangerous work. These girls sort garbage in
  a slum area in Dhaka to make less than a dollar a
  day.

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Wal-Mart Child Labor

• The documentary was aired Friday night. It was
  broadcast in the same week that another
  Radio-Canada exposed the use of child labor
  manufacturers in Bangladesh.
• the broadcaster quotes several guards as saying
  that spying was the job they were hired to
  perform by Wal-Mart at Jonquiere in early 2005.
  One guard said he patrolled the store in civilian
  clothes, watching employees. Another said store
  surveillance cameras were used to follow certain
  workers.
• An investigative journalist, posing as an
  international buyer, visited factories in where
  garments are manufactured for Wal-Mart. The
  products included house brands such as Simply
  Basic, BUM, 725 and George, all sold in Canadian
  Wal-Mart stores.
• Children who appeared to be under the age of 14
  were filmed, using hidden cameras, working in the
  factories. Wal-Mart has said since that it has
  stopped buying from the factories filmed in the
  report.
• The behavior of Wal-Mart has become an issue in
  the campaign for the Jan. 23 Canadian election.
• Jack Layton, the federal NDP leader, and Gilles
  Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, have both
  condemned the company.

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Credits

• http//www.lycos.com/info/child-labor--companies.h
  tml
• http//www.nupge.ca/news_2005/n04de05a.htm
• http//hometown.aol.com/munmei/labor.html
• http//www.american.edu/TED/nike.htm
• http//www.laborrights.org/projects/childlab/cocoa
  .htm