NEWSCHILD LABOR

This Holiday season lets tell Macy’s why we need them to join almost every other major jewelry retailer committing to responsible metals sourcing. Lets tell Macy’s its time to join them and sign the “Golden Rules”.

It's time to crank up the pressure on Macy’s. We need 1 minute from you today! Today we are flooding Macy’s phone lines. Think of it as caroling against dirty gold.

We’re asking for 1 minute of your day to call Macy’s and ask them to sign the “Golden Rules” for responsible metals sourcing. We want to call two representatives at Macy’s If you can only make one call that’s great!

Don't know what to say? Here are some suggestions:

1. Hi, I'm calling to urge Terry Lundgren (CEO) and Macy’s to sign on to the No Dirty Gold campaign. I want to know that Macy’s is doing its part to ensure that the gold it sells is not tainted with human rights abuses or pollution. Please sign on to the Golden Rules. Your customers deserve better. Thank you.

Written on behalf of Nilton Deza

This year, Macy’s is asking people to write a letter to Santa to help them collect “A Million Reasons to Believe.”  We’re all for writing letters to Santa and we’ve got a couple of requests of our own:

-That gold and copper extraction in Peru will not include child and forced labor

-That one gold ring will not produce over 20 tons of waste during production

-That gold mining will not lead to the pollution of water systems and the destruction of local communities

and lastly...

-That Macy’s- one of the largest gold retailers in the world- will help to transform irresponsible gold mining by signing onto the "Golden Rules" for clean gold.

Santa might not be able to make this happen but you can.  Here’s how you can put the pressure on Macy’s this holiday season:

This week, Mars (the chocolate company behind popular favorites like M&M's) announced a major new commitment to support Fairtrade certified cocoa. Mars said that it would certify its Maltesers chocolate candy as Fairtrade in the UK and Ireland in 2012. While it may just be one product for now, Mars and Fairtrade International note that Maltesers are "the third biggest confectionery brand in the UK, and its switch will  represent more than a 10% increase in total UK Fairtrade sales," and most importantly, the commitment will lead to an excess of $1 million in additional funds as part of the Fairtrade Premium to cocoa farmers to invest in their communities. The announcement from Mars puts Hershey even further out of the mainstream by failing to commit to responsibly source its cocoa.

In 2009, Mars stepped forward as a leader among major chocolate companies in committing to certified cocoa when it announced that it would certify its entire cocoa supply as sustainably produced by 2020. This new announcement shows Mars' specific support for Fairtrade certification. Additionally, the company noted that it plans to "explore how best to scale up its purchases of Fairtrade cocoa, and will support Fairtrade’s continued efforts to develop measures that would allow more confectionery companies to increase their commitments to purchase more Fairtrade cocoa with the aim of impacting the lives of more cocoa farmers than ever before."

Conscious consumers have recently been growing concerned about child labor used to make imported goods -- rugs from India, chocolate bars from Ghana, clothing from China. But sadly, many of these consumers needn't look any further than their fruit bowl or vegetable bin to see the results of child labor -- even if they buy American. According to a report from Human Rights Watch, children as young as 12 regularly risk their health, safety, and future to work on farms in the U.S. growing food and other products for American consumers. But now, a growing movement of those consumers is looking to end exploitative labor for American kids.

At just 12 years old, a child in the U.S. can work for any farmer up to 14 hours a day during peak seasons -- and seeing children as young as 7 or 8 is not uncommon. They do not have to be paid minimum wage, and often see their small wages garnished for necessities like clean drinking water. Child farmworkers suffer fatalities at four times the rate of children performing other jobs, and their work can severely limit their educational opportunities.

Amid growing scrutiny of Hershey's labor rights abuses, from its cocoa beans to its packing facility in Pennsylvania, the company has hired additional lobbyists to deflect attention from its exploitation of workers. Hershey recently hired the services of Bank Rome Government Relations to advocate for the company on "government affairs issues related to labor practices." Unfortunately for Hershey, no amount of money thrown to lobbyists will end its connection the abuse of student guestworkers or child, forced and trafficked labor in its cocoa supply chain -- only changing its policies will solve these problems.

Last month, it was revealed that student guestworkers who came to the US on J-1 visas found themselves working long hours in poor conditions for paltry wages in a Hershey packing facility in Pennsylvania. The students staged a walk out, organized massive protests in Hershey and took their message across the country, even receiving support from labor rights advocates around the world. Almost 70,000 Change.org readers have joined the campaign calling for justice for guestworkers and for living wage jobs for Pennsylvania residents. Meanwhile, Hershey has hidden behind multiple layers of subcontractors and remained silent about its connection to the exploitation of these students.

Hundreds of sustainable and fair food activists have signed onto a campaign launched by Fairfood International on Change.org this week, asking Emerald Nuts to fight serious and ongoing child labor in the cashew industry by revealing where their nuts come from. The growing campaign is likely to put significant pressure on the snackfood giant to increase supply chain transparency.

While cashews might not be the product most people associate with severe labor abuses, the cashew industry has significant problems with both child and forced labor. The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 20,000 children are exploited in the cashew industry in India alone; child labor is also common in other major cashew producing regions including Africa and Southeast Asia. And a recent report from Human Rights Watch identified thousands of Vietnamese people who are forced to process cashews as part of so-called "labor therapy" at drug treatment facilities across the country. However, most of them receive no other treatment of their addiction, making these facilities more forced labor camp than rehabilitation center. And places like India and Vietnam where these labor abuses are common export cashews to the U.S. where they end up on grocery store shelves under recognizable labels.

Change.org readers have successfully shown the fashion industry that forced child labor is a fashion faux pas. Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of the President of Uzbekistan and the country's Ambassador to Spain and Permanent Representative to the UN office in Geneva, was scheduled to present her fashion line, GULI, at New York Fashion Week on September 15th. When the organizers learned of her connection to human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, they canceled her show. Karimova quickly went on the search for a new venue and Change.org readers jumped to action.

The International Labor Rights Forum started a petition on Change.org calling on Cipriani, a restaurant that Karimova was allegedly approaching, not to host her show. Uzbekistan is infamous for its state-sponsored policy of removing up to two million children from schools across the country and forcing them to pick cotton to meet government-imposed production quotas. Within days, 500 people had contacted Cipriani through Change.org and many concerned individuals flooded the New York City based restaurant with phone calls. The petition immediately generated pressure and negative media attention toward to Cipriani. The effort was even highlighted in the New York Post and on NYC's NPR affiliate.

In the midst of New York Fashion Week, 60 of the world's leading apparel companies and brands, as well as the American Apparel and Footwear Association which includes 800 members, have signed a pledge to not knowingly source cotton harvest by forced child labor in Uzbekistan. The pledge, endorsed by companies from Wal-Mart to high-end fashion leaders like Nordstrom's and Gucci, shows the growing concern among some of the largest companies about the egregious labor rights abuses in this major cotton exporting nation. Despite widespread industry condemnation, some companies like Aeropostale, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters and Toys R Us have remained silent.

The pledge states in part: "We are stating our firm opposition to the use of forced child labor in the harvest of Uzbek cotton. We commit to not knowingly source Uzbek cotton for the manufacturing of any of our products until the Government of Uzbekistan ends the practice of forced child labor in its cotton sector. Until the elimination of this practice is independently verified by the International Labor Organization, we will maintain this pledge."