Department of Labor terminates grants that fight international human trafficking, promote labor rights
On March 26, the new head of the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB), John Clark, issued a message to the agency announcing the immediate termination of all of the agency’s existing grant programs.
The International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) is a sub-agency of the Department of Labor responsible for strengthening and promoting good labor standards around the world. While the rest of the Department of Labor is primarily focused on the rights and wellbeing of workers working within U.S. borders, in a world with an interconnected global economy, ILAB’s work recognizes that international cooperation on labor standards is also key to protecting workers and job quality here in the U.S. Without strong labor standards abroad, countries will find themselves in a race to the bottom to provide cheap or exploited labor for multinational corporations. The agency participates in trade negotiations on behalf of the U.S. government and provides research and evaluation on the state of fair labor conditions around the world to inform policymaking. ILAB played a central role in monitoring and enforcing labor standards in Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
The ILAB grants now being terminated provide funding to support nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations to combat child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking on the ground around the world. The agency also monitors labor rights abuses in global supply chains, which protects American jobs and workers back home by deterring unfair competition from imports produced by companies using exploited workers and forced labor. Production of goods and services abroad by using workers who can be trapped in warehouses, kidnapped across borders, forced to work without pay under threat of violence, or disappeared for exercising fundamental rights to free association and collective bargaining in unions also drives down wages and working conditions for U.S. employees that face unfair competition from exports and employer threats to offshore work.
Cuts to ILAB grants also come on the heels of cuts to offices at the U.S. Department of State that focus on international human rights, including labor rights, and the Trump administration’s attempt to withhold appropriated federal funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, which funds the work of the Solidarity Center to promote worker rights internationally.
https://www.epi.org/policywatch/department-of-labor-terminates-grants-that-fight-international-human-trafficking-promote-labor-rights/
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