NEWSSLAVE 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:

More than 17,000 people have joined an explosive campaign on Change.org calling on Starbucks to sell at least one brewed fair trade coffee option in each U.S. store every day, and to make that commitment during October, which is National Fair Trade Month.

Greenblatt, a former Starbucks barista and coffee enthusiast, launched the online petition campaign on Change.org after learning that European Starbucks stores offer 100% fair trade-certified coffee and espresso to customers.

“When I worked as a barista for Starbucks, I admired the company’s commitment to treat employees and customers with fairness and respect,” said Greenblatt, who worked at a Starbucks store in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2006 and 2007. “It’s time for Starbucks to expand that commitment to the farmers who grow Starbucks coffee by offering at least one daily brewed fair trade coffee option in their U.S. stores.”

News of the campaign’s success is likely to increase pressure on Starbucks. In just a few days, thousands of people have joined the campaign, and Greenblatt says he hopes the thousands of signatures from Starbucks customers in the U.S. will prove to the company that Americans want the fair trade-certified choices European customers have.

“Sam has done an impressive job organizing thousands of supporters around an issue he cares deeply about,” said Amanda Kloer, Director of Organizing for Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. “As a former Starbucks barista, he’s in a unique position to call for change within the company. Change.org is about empowering people to fight for the issues that matter to them, and it’s been incredible watching Sam’s campaign take off.”

More than 40,000 consumers have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Hershey to commit to buying cocoa produced without child labor, forced labor, or trafficked labor in time for Halloween.

Raise the Bar, Hershey!, a coalition of organizations fighting ongoing labor abuses such as child slavery and child labor in the cocoa industry, is leading the campaign on Change.org following what they say is Hershey’s continued refusal to commit to purchasing Fair Trade cocoa for its chocolate candies.

“A decade ago, Hershey signed an agreement to help fight child slavery and other abuses in the cocoa industry,” said Elizabeth O’Connell, a member of the Raise the Bar, Hershey! coalition. “Yet it has done far less than other chocolate companies to address these abuses. This Halloween, thousands of consumers are telling Hershey they’re fed up with cocoa tainted by the abuse of children.”

News of the online petition campaign’s success is likely to increase pressure on Hershey. In addition to the petition, Raise the Bar, Hershey! is planning a call-in day, a Fair Trade Halloween costume contest, and rallies at Hershey stores in New York, Chicago, and Niagara Falls. The coalition has also produced a mock-commercial in an attempt to reveal the labor exploitation behind the Hershey chocolate many trick-or-treaters will receive this Halloween.

“What the consumers and activists of Raise the Bar, Hershey! have accomplished is remarkable,” said Amanda Kloer, Director of Organizing for Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change. “With limited resources but strategic planning and execution, they’ve recruited more than 30,000 supporters, developed a hard-hitting video, and launched a social media campaign. Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it has been incredible to watch this timely campaign take off.”

The petition campaign has been covered by major news outlets across the country, including CNN, New York Daily News, and PC World. Raise the Bar, Hershey! says they are hoping to get a response from the company before Halloween.

Photo credit: Jelene

Fall is approaching, which means Florida will soon start supplying the rest of the U.S. with fresh tomatoes. And across the country, food chains including McDonald's, Burger King, and Sodexo will be buying tomatoes picked by free workers paid a fair wage and treated with respect. But not Trader Joe's. They have refused to sign an agreement that would guarantee their tomatoes came from suppliers who didn't use forced or exploited labor. That's why today, Trader Joe's customers have called a National Call-In Day asking Trader Joe's to sell fair food.

Modern day slavery is a reality for many farm workers right here in the United States.  In Florida alone, over 1,000 people have been identified as trafficked, and Florida tomato pickers are among the most exploited. They earn sub- poverty wages, lack most standard rights and benefits, and have not received a raise in over 30 years.  Trader Joe's represents itself as a socially conscious and progressive company yet it has refused to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food.

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.