Labor Rights

As consumers in the United States, we are connected to workers in Latin America (and around the world) through the clothes we wear, the coffee we drink, the cut flowers we give our loved ones, and much, much more.  Therefore we have a responsibility to understand the realities facing these workers and to act in solidarity with them when their right to fair wages and working conditions as well as the right to a organize and bargain collectively are violated. 

In Mexico and Central America, workers in maquilas, export assembly factories, often toil long hours for miserable wages and lack even the most basic labor rights.  The neoliberal free trade model has created a "race to the bottom" in terms of wages and working conditions, and therefore the fundamental right to join a independent union and bargain collectively is often denied to these workers.  Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist - since 1991 more than 2200 trade unionists have been murdered. 

WFP helps to "globalize solidarity" in this globalized economy, by bringing the voices of workers to consumers and mobilizing in solidarity with workers when our pressure on retailers in the U.S. can make a difference in their struggles.