Firestone’s Liberian rubber plantation has been involved in a child labor debate since 2005. According to a class action suit filed by ILRF, rubber tappers are given high quotas for collecting raw latex and have wages withheld when quotas are missed. Essentially, workers work without pay. This has led to entire families, including children, working together in order to meet the high quotas. Furthermore, rubber workers are kept in isolation and denied access to schools, proper housing, and knowledge about labor rights outside the plantation.
ILRF's Stop Firestone Campaign
A collective bargaining agreement was signed between the
2. Your child’s soccer ball may have been made by children.
Sports equipment producers are known to use overseas factories that employ children. These children lack access to education, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
ILRF’s Foul Ball Campaign
In 1996, negotiations with large sporting goods producers began. The industry is shifting to adult labor and there are plans to establish education programs for former child workers.
3. How comfortable are you in cotton grown by children?
Cotton is a high impact crop that requires a great deal of water and pesticide to grow conventionally. Child workers in Uzbekistan were the ILRF target.
ILRF has led a U.S. coalition against forced labor and child labor in the cotton industry. Using trade pressure, ILRF has promoted organic, fair trade cotton and encouraged major companies to seek more just and sustainable sources of cotton. ILRF claims, “In mid-2008, as a direct result of pressure from ILRF and its allies, the Government of Uzbekistan ratified the two key ILO conventions against child labor: Conventions 182 and 138.”