ILRF Board Member Kailash Satyarthi Wins Nobel Peace Prize

October 10, 2014

JUDY GEARHART, INTERNATIONAL LABOR RIGHTS FORUM

The International Labor Rights Forum congratulates Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for winning the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their struggle against the oppression of young people and exploitation of children for their labor, and for the right of all children to education.

Seventeen-year-old Malala is an incredibly inspiring role model for young women everywhere with her fearless advocacy against the Taliban’s efforts to deny women an education.

Kailash Satyarthi, a long-time member of ILRF’s Board of Directors, is a global leader in the movement to end child labor and child slavery. He calls child labor a crime against humanity, a development disaster, and a black spot on the face of the entire human kind and laments that the pace in ending child labor is too slow. He emphasizes the importance of social dialogue and the need for all actors to work together to end child labor.

“The corporations are most responsible. We all know that children are the cheapest source of labor. Children are most vulnerable physically and mentally for exploitation. They cannot form their unions, they cannot go to the court of law. And that’s why they are exploited. The corporate sector must be honest in admitting the very fact that large numbers of children are enslaved, sold and bought like animals, and working in their supply chains,” Kailash said on the World Day Against Child Labor last year.

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October 1, 2014

Job Opening at International Labor Rights Forum

Position Summary

Position will be a key member of the ILRF Administrative team and play an integral role in supporting back-office functions.  Position is responsible for database administration; donor communication; Board liaison/scheduling; event logistics and planning support; intern program coordination; as well as providing administrative support to the Executive Director.
 
Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Executive Support:

• Completes a broad variety of administrative tasks for the Executive Director, including managing an extremely active calendar of appointments, drafting acknowledgment letters and personal correspondence, arranging meeting agendas, and note-taking during a variety of meetings.
• Communicates directly, on behalf of the Executive Director, with Board members, donors, and others.
• Assist with Board meeting logistics and liaise with Board members on various planning, follow-up, and communications needs.

Fundraising Assistance:

• Work closely with Executive Director or Development Director to plan and carry out all aspects of logistics for ILRF’s annual fundraiser event and other donor events.
• Maintain the donor database including performing research, running reports, and producing acknowledgements and other correspondence including preparing donor outreach.
• Enter new contacts into constituent database and perform regular database maintenance.
• Work with designers, printers and mail house on the production of large mailings.
• Manage funder data, ensuring timely data entry, clean-up, sorting and preparation for annual fundraising appeal.

Operations/Office Support:

• Provide “reception” function for the organization by assisting visitors to the office.
• Perform general office duties – primary phone coverage; order/stock office supplies; reserve conference rooms; order/coordinate in-house meeting refreshments; manage primary email inbox; process and distribute incoming/outgoing mail.
• Prepare bank deposits of checks/cash; input data in Salsa database and QuickBooks.
• Process Accounts Payable including preparation of check/wire requests; entry into QuickBooks; print checks for signature; mail checks; file documentation.
• Assist with the monthly review of timesheets, coordination of 3rd party IT vendor, and ad hoc website updates as needed by program staff.
• Publicize the organization’s intern program to area universities; conduct initial review of internship applications.

Qualifications

• Degree:  Bachelor’s Degree
• Years of Experience:  2+ years’ experience in nonprofit administration, membership, event planning, or fundraising role.
• Computer Equipment and Software:  Proficiency with Microsoft Office, Windows, QuickBooks, Salsa and/or other nonprofit databases, and social media sites.  Familiarity with updating web site content.
• Skills and Abilities:  Ability to work independently, meet deadlines, and prioritize tasks.  Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.  Excellent communication skills including oral, written, and interpersonal. 
• Professional and Collaborative:  Ability to represent ILRF professionally at meetings and coordinate effectively with other ILRF staff and allies.
• Commitment:  Candidates will be supportive of ILRF’s mission.

ILRF has a generous benefits package.  The salary for this position will depend on experience. Please submit your resume, cover letter and fundraising writing sample to employment@ilrf.org.

ILRF IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER AND ACTIVELY RECRUITS WOMEN, PEOPLE OF COLOR, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, AND PERSONS WITH DIVERSE GENDER AND SEXUAL IDENTITIES.

This description does not constitute an employment contract, implied or otherwise.

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I am delighted to share our bi-annual report with you, which includes a graphic of ILRF’s new strategic approach and highlights from our campaign wins. ILRF’ strategic approach builds on our long-held belief that solutions to poverty need to address systemic injustices in the global economy, by connecting local worker struggles to international policy levers. ILRF staff and board today continue building on that ethos and the opportunities abound.

The report profiles some significant wins in ILRF’s campaigns to end child and forced labor and promote workers’ rights to organize and secure a decent living. Yet each campaign win brings a new set of opportunities, challenges and the need to maintain our support for our grassroots partners, especially as funding moves on to new frontiers. Here are just three examples of ILRF campaigns at a critical juncture, where foundation funding is not sufficiently focused:

• ILRF secured significant accountability commitments from the major chocolate companies. Now the cocoa industry is developing a new certification standard and we urgently need to enable nascent farmer organizations to have a voice in that process.
• Despite dwindling funder interest in Latin America, repression of workers’ rights has not abated. Please help us to expose violence against trade unionists, advocate for stronger respect for labor rights in trade policy, and support worker organizing on banana plantations.
• Even after two decades of global apparel brands setting up confidential factory monitoring programs, women across the globe continue to report that sexual harassment and corporal punishment are common practices in the industry. Help us build our women’s rights campaign!

Judy Gearhart  
Executive Director

For more information on the International Labor Rights Forum, click here to be redirected to their website.

Click here to join ILRF’s community of donors.

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Date of publication: January 9, 2014

Source: Press Release

Author: CCC, ILRF, WRC, MSN, USAS, International Union League for Brand Responsibility, Workers United (SEIU), Framtiden i våre hender, and CNV Internationaal

Groups call on global clothing brands to use their influence to achieve an end to repression against workers involved in wage protests and the resumption of good-faith wage negotiations.

Labour rights groups and trade unions across the world are expressing outrage at the brutal violence and repression in Cambodia following demonstrations by garment and footwear workers calling for a raise in the minimum wage.

The groups, including Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Worker Rights Consortium, Maquila Solidarity Network, United Students Against Sweatshops, International Union League for Brand Responsibility, Workers United, SEIU, Framtiden i våre hender, and CNV Internationaal, The Netherlands, are calling on global clothing brands to take immediate action and contact the Cambodian government demanding:

• Immediate end to all violence and intimidation against workers and their representatives;
• Release of all those who have been detained for participation in the struggles ;
• Respect for freedom of association and the workers’ right to strike;
• Refraining from charging the workers and trade union leaders who have participated in the strike;
• Resumption of good-faith minimum wage negotiations; and
• Ensuring all those responsible for the violence against the strikers are held to account.

Violence against garment workers began after Cambodian unions called a national strike on December 24, 2013. Workers were demanding an increase in the minimum wage to USD 160 per month. As protests continued, the police and military responded with violence on January 2 and 3, killing at least 4 people and injuring almost 40.

Seven brands sent an open letter to the Government of Cambodia on January 7 expressing their concerns over the recent violence. It is commendable that these brands are willing to speak up and appalling that so many others have remained silent in the face of such blatant human rights violations in their sector. The letter did not go far enough however, in denouncing the reprehensible conduct of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, which has condoned the government’s use of deadly force against striking workers. As poverty wages are at the root of the demonstrations, global clothing brands must also recognise the role they play and take immediate action including:

• Publicly stating that any future apparel and footwear orders in Cambodia depend on: an immediate end to the violence against workers;  the release of all those detained in the wage protests and the dropping of all charges; and government re-establishing the right to strike and assemble;
• Paying fair prices to factories, sufficient to enable employers to pay a decent wage;
• Supporting the workers’ call for a substantial increase in the minimum wage (to USD 160); and
• Committing to maintaining buying volumes from Cambodia if wages were to rise.

“Whilst our primary concern is the safety and well-being of those workers who have been detained, we are also calling on brands to look at the long-term implications of their purchasing practices.” said Jeroen Merk of the Clean Clothes Campaign. “Until brands recognise that these practices contribute to the poverty wages received by workers in Cambodia, and in turn the demonstrations we are witnessing, then no brand sourcing from Cambodia can claim to be acting fairly or decently.”

Cambodia’s garment industry employs over 500,000 people, is responsible for around 95% of Cambodia’s export industry and is worth €3.38 billion a year. The minimum wage falls a long way short of a living wage, and the poverty wages workers receive contribute to shocking levels of malnutrition amongst the mainly young female workforce.

“These latest horrific developments demonstrate why authorities can no longer afford to ignore the social problems and poor living conditions facing workers in Cambodia today,” said Tola Meoun, Head of Labor Programmes for the Cambodian NGO Community Legal Education Centre.

On Friday, January 10th, actions will take place at embassies and other locations around the world in a day of solidarity with Cambodian workers. As part of this day of action campaigners will call on the government of Cambodia to release those detained in the protests and resume minimum wage negotiations.

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Resources:

Regular updates on the developing situation in Cambodia can be found from the following:

LICADHO – Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights

CLEC – Community Legal Education Center

Information on the January 10 Day of Action events.

Visit the ILRF website:  http://www.laborrights.org/

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