Hershey, Mars & Nestle: Stop Child Labor!

Since 2001, chocolate consumers around the world have voiced their concern about child labor and trafficking on cocoa farms in West Africa. Despite millions of dollars and tons of public relations campaigns over the years, the worst forms of child labor and trafficking continue to occur in the cocoa supply chains of major US chocolate companies like Hershey, M&M/Mars and Nestle. We've heard the same talking points from these companies for years about how they are working together as an industry to stop child labor, but their lack of progress to date is unacceptable. For more information about industry initiatives to date, please see ILRF's most recent cocoa report.



Please join us today in getting beyond the talking points and asking Hershey, M&M/Mars and Nestle what each company is doing specifically to ensure they are respecting internationally recognized labor rights in their cocoa sourcing.


http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/chocolate

TAKE ACTION: Ensure human needs are met in the final recovery plan!

The Senate and House have passed different versions of President Obama’s economic recovery package. While the total cost is similar, there are significant differences in how the House and Senate would allocate the funds. Now Congress must resolve these differences in a conference committee made up of key members of both houses.

Your help is needed to ensure that the final bill retains the highest funding for programs that provides the great benefit to people most in need.

Call your U.S. senators and representative toll-free* today at 1-800-473-6711.
Tell them to make sure the conference negotiators:

*Retain the highest funding for programs that have the greatest benefit for the lowest- income people, including aid to states and housing programs.
*Remove the flawed “E-Verify” requirement.
*Remove $1 billion in funding for nuclear weapons.

American Friends Service Committee
http://www.afsc.org/EconomicJustice/US/ht/d/sp/i/70722/pid/70722

Tell Florida Governor Crist to Take a Stand Against Slavery!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling on Florida Governor Charlie Crist to commit the full power of his office to address the plague of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields. Add your voice to this call and send an email or fax to the governor today!
Background: Just this past December, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida, a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called one of Southwest Florida's biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever. This became the seventh such slavery case in ten years, involving a total of well over 1,000 workers.

Yet, when a reporter called Governor Crist's office about this most recent case, the governor declined to comment and instead passed the call off to the spokesperson for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Terrence McElroy, who -- not once, but twice -- gave the impression that one slavery case per year is somehow no cause for alarm.

For decades, the silence of Florida's governors in the face of the brutal exploitation of the state's farmworkers has allowed that exploitation -- up to and including modern-day slavery -- to persist.

Join farmworkers and consumers from across Florida and the US in telling Governor Crist that now is the time to break the silence and ensure that this latest slavery case is the last slavery case ever in Florida's fields.

The letter not only calls on Governor Crist to publicly condemn the continuing existence of modern-day slavery, but also to demand that the Florida Tomato Growers' Exchange end its efforts to nullify the agreements reached between the CIW and leading fast-food and supermarket purchasers of Florida tomatoes to improve farmworker wages and working conditions, the conditions that provide the fertile soil in which modern-day slavery takes root.

We will be collecting signatures, both here in Immokalee and across the country, during the month of February. If there is no response, we plan to deliver the signatures with a creative action in Tallahassee in the month of March. Stay tuned for more details on the petition in the weeks ahead, and in the meantime you can help us gather more signatures among your friends and co-workers, at your school or place of worship!



http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/Governor_Crist_stand_against_slavery/

Roses Are Red, Lipstick (Still!) Has Lead

This Valentine’s Day, you may want to pass on the ruby red lips: The FDA still hasn’t done anything about lead in lipstick.

It has been more than a year since the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics reported that the urban legend was true: popular brands of lipstick do contain lead. The FDA said it would conduct an independent investigation. Despite repeated calls from the Campaign, our allies and our supporters (that's you), as well as pressure from U.S. Senators, the FDA still has not released any data on its own lipstick tests or taken any action to protect people from dangerous ingredients in cosmetic products.

After the Campaign released "A Poison Kiss: The Problem of Lead in Lipstick," dozens of news outlets across the country covered the story, and inquiries from individuals came flooding in. It is clear that Americans do not want potent neurotoxins like lead in their lipstick, or any other consumer product.

Unlike the United States, the European Union and Canada actually regulate cosmetics. Large cosmetics companies are now selling safer products in other countries – but because they are not mandated to remove lead and other harmful substances from U.S. products, we doubt they will. This is not only bad for public health; it also leaves the U.S. behind while our peers drive innovation of safer products.

The FDA should require cosmetics to be safe for long-term use. Tell the agency that we deserve lipstick without lead by filling out the form on this page. Your letter will be sent to Dr. Linda Katz, Director of the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors, and Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Frank Torti.

With your help, we can kiss lead and other harmful chemicals in cosmetics goodbye!

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5500/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1052