Child Labor - Child Miners

This is another post regarding child labor. Today I want to focus on child miners. In many areas around the world, particularly where poverty is prevalent, children are exploited to work in mines because of their size. These children are exposed to injuries, health hazards, and dangerous conditions in these mines. This, among other worst forms of child labor, must be eliminated. Children work in mines all over the world, from the Cote D'Ivoire to Niger to Peru to the Philippines, from gold mines to other gem and mineral mines. In mines, risks to children include collapsing tunnels, falling ore, exposure to poor or dangerous air quality, physical strain, and asphyxiation in gold mines.

Follow this link to papers presented by the ILO (International Labour Organization) regarding child labor in small-scale mining - an example from three countries.



Ever heard of the gem tanzanite? It's pictured above. Isn't it pretty? It can only be found in one place - one place in all the world. You might have already guessed....that place is Tanzania, specifically in the town of Mererani. While the stone is beautiful, only recently have I discovered the sad story that lies behind this beautiful gem. Mererani is home to a 300 million dollar Tanzanite industry and yet, according to IRIN (the humanitarian news and analysis published by the UN), 30% of the 200,000 people who live there survive on less than a dollar a day; and even so, people from all over Tanzania move here in hopes of improving their lives by finding that rare gem. And of course, those who suffer the most are the children and their mothers who have to watch their children suffer. Even if the government is working to eliminate this form of child labor in the Tanzanite mining industry, they face obstacles - not enough schools for children to go to and the poverty that still remains, so the children inevitably turn to the mines.

Read the IRIN article on this story. The article was published last September, but is still relevant today. I don't know if any of you own Tanzanite jewelry, but I hope that no one will until the mining conditions have improved for this gem which includes the elimination of all children from the mines.

Wal-Mart Abusing Weak Labor Laws?

As college students, my roommates and I thrived on going to Wal-Mart. 24-hour Wal-Marts were even better as we could go late at night when there would be no crowds; so we'd find ourselves shopping there at midnight or something close to that. Since then I've not gone as there are very few Wal-Marts in the Los Angeles area. Most Wal-Marts are about 45 minutes away from where I live, so I've found other places to shop. But in recent years I've heard some questionnable things about how Wal-Mart goes about doing business and it has not been positive. And...it continues.

Human Rights Watch published an article on 5/1/07 regarding the labor practices of Wal-Mart and their abuses of weak US labor laws. For more specifics and to watch the media presentations, click here. The primary concern was the anti-union stance this retail giant continues to present. Workers are discouraged to organize into unions and many fear loss of jobs and/or benefits if any attempts are made to organize. The company prohibits any distribution of union flyers or talks about unions while other non-union related materials are allowed to circulate.

For those of you who shop regularly at Wal-Mart, this may come as a shock; it did for me years ago. But I think we must be informed consumers and shoppers. I for one refuse to spend my money shopping somewhere that continually violates workers' rights. What do you think? Read the article from Human Rights Watch, or at least see the videos the article has a link to, and decide for yourself.