Harvest of Shame: Child Labor and Free Trade in Guatemala

(http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/13/1335259)

President Bush traveled to Guatemala on Monday and said free trade can spread opportunity, provide jobs, and help lift people out of poverty. But according to a new report, there is a food processing plant less than 10 miles from where Bush spoke where children as young as 13 years old are working under deplorable conditions. We speak with veteran anti-sweatshop activist Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee about the report. [includes rush transcript]

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For the past week on his trip through Latin America President Bush has been praising U.S. efforts to end poverty in the hemisphere and promoting the benefits of so-called free trade agreements with Washington.

President Bush, speaking in Washington DC:

On Monday, President Bush traveled to Guatemala and said free trade can spread opportunity, provide jobs, and help lift people out of poverty.
But there is a darker side about U.S.-Guatemalan trade relations: less than 10 miles from where Bush spoke there is a food processing plant where children as young as 13 years old are working under deplorable conditions.

According to the New York-based National Labor Committee, the children, working at a factory owned by Legumex, harvest and process vegetables and fruits exported to the United States.

The National Labor Committee has just published a report on the conditions at the Legumex factory. It is titled "Harvest of Shame."

Charles Kernaghan joins me now. He is a veteran anti-sweatshop activist and the executive director of the National Labor Committee.

Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee:

The vast majority of the exports at the Legumex factory in Guatemala are sold to Superior Foods, based in Watsonville California. We invited a representative of Superior Foods to join us on the program but the company declined.

In an emailed statement, Marco Cruz of Superior Foods, wrote:

"We are committed to ensuring that all product purchased, sold or distributed by our company is produced with ethical labor practices and in strict compliance with local labor law. At every facility we work with in the U.S. and abroad, we conduct periodic audits and inspections to validate critical issues as food safety, food security, product quality and working conditions. We are surprised and concerned about the labor violations alleged in the NLC report and will immediately investigate these serious allegations in that particular facility.

"We outspokenly do not support producers who cannot clearly demonstrate that they abide by local labor laws, and we will discontinue working with this processor if abuses are evident and not entirely and satisfactorily resolved. Meanwhile, we will exert our influence to see that these allegations are addressed openly and soon, and that remedial action is taken if and wherever necessary.

"Our hope would be that fruit and vegetable production in Guatemala is ultimately sustainable and that it can and will help create the best possible opportunity for the workers and growers in that area. We'd much rather be an agent for constructive change and improvement than simply be one of a number of buyers who can even more easily simply discontinue business in this region. As a matter of policy, we continually pressure all of our suppliers to encourage progressive labor practices that advance productivity, better pay and better working conditions."

(to read the complete interview, go to http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/13/1335259)