In Uzbekistan, up to two million children under 15 are put to work harvesting cotton each year — just as the mills of St. Petersburg, Manchester and Alsace once heavily depended on child labor from poorhouses and orphanages.
Protecting children and vulnerable workers abroad is a part of our overall efforts here at the Department of Labor.
We made a demand for the the same wage rates to be paid in the Canadian plants as in the U.S. plants.
Workers in different countries can easily be played off against each other.
We have to create that bridge for the future. And that means making sure we're paying attention to the wages of workers in countries, making sure that we're investing in their education and their skills.
American workers won't be able to compete fairly for jobs until companies have to pay higher wages in countries like China and India.
It's tough to figure out how do we compete in Europe and North America, when obviously a living wage for us is very different than a living wage in Indonesia.
Today I send this message to every emerging global corporation: "justice; family, community, and union" are the same in every language and, wherever you go and whatever you do, a new global labor movement is coming to find you.
If you look at our records, I stood up to corporate America time and time again. I went to Mexico. I saw the lives of people who were working in American factories and making $0.25 an hour.
