I just returned from a tour with Amanda Camacho, a cut-flower worker and president of her union at Papagayo Farms in Colombia, who was touring the country to expose the abusive working conditions prevalent in the cut-flower industry. She participated on a panel organized by the ILRF and UFCW Local 1500 in New  York called "Farm to Grocery Store: Workers in Global Supply Chains Unite!" Workers from around the world, shared common stories of labor abuses and violations of the right to organize unions. A worker told the story of being fired for trying to organize his expensive gourmet grocery store in Manhattan where he consistently worked day and night without overtime at nearly the minimum wage. Amanda, the flower worker, told a similar story about here co-workers in Colombia. 

Corporations often try to distance themselves from taking responsibility for workers in their supply chains by outsourcing their labor through subcontractors. Take for example Dole and Del Monte pineapples. Del Monte gets to take credit for its patented "sweet" variety of pineapple, but outsources all of its workers producing this pineapple in the Philippines. Dole is similar. Any labor rights violations are then blamed on the small producers who are paid an unfair price for the pineapple that Del Monte ultimately controls. These corporations give incentives to subcontractors to violate the law by forcing them to reduce costs and fulfill production quotas. Unions are the only way to assure that workers are empowered and bargaining for a share of the goods they produce and this system is designed to undermine them.

While their are a number of certification "labelling" programs, for example, the "Florverde" program, designed to sell flowers that are "Good for the Workers," it's very difficult to determine what is actually happening at the worksites where these flowers are produced. Many of the farms with these labels violate workers' rights to join unions so consumers must rely on the word of the company and certification programs that, in the case of Florverde, are paid for and run by the industry association itself. The same goes for food and factory made products. Read here for ILRF's Roadmap to Ethical Product Certification and Standard Setting Iniatives. These initatives are a step in the right direction but many need to improve significantly.

One answer to this problem is through fair trade agreements, versus free market model trade agreements designed by the business community, that would force corporations to be more transaparent and accountable. Certification programs that reward companies that encourage worker empowerment by allowing workers to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions is another solution. Unfortunately, current trade agreements and many certification/labelling programs have failed to make corporations more accountable by encouraging workers to unionize.