British cocoa companies continue exploiting trafficked children

 

British cocoa companies continue exploiting trafficked children

Having represented until recently Unite on the Young Workers’ Committee of the International Union Federation (IUF) then Istvan Imre, who arrived in the UK from Romania in 2015 at aged 24, wants action to eliminate child labour everywhere but especially in the agriculture sector where it increased between 2016-2020.

There are now 160 million children working worldwide of which 112 million are working on small farms on plantations, often in hazardous conditions.

Istvan was behind the successful resolution from the IUF-Agricultural Workers Trade Group, which unites agricultural and plantation workers worldwide, to the IUF conference in June 2023 that noted: ‘that progress on eliminating child labour has slowed and at the heart of which is the poverty wages being earned by parent’s such that they cannot afford to cover the basic needs of their children, including food and education.

‘That avoiding poverty requires strong and effective trade unions in order to organise agricultural workers. This will pull them out of poverty through bargaining for better conditions and wages and access for education for their children.’

Affiliates to the IUF, which has ten million members globally in food, farming and hotels, were called upon to commit to promoting the use of the IUF leaflet that places a number of demands on agriculture companies, businesses sourcing agricultural products and governments. 

In moving the resolution Monique Mosley noted that nearly one in ten children are child labourers: “The numbers of child workers in agriculture is staggering……….in every continent, and in businesses of every size… trafficked children working in cocoa plantations have gone to court to hold big companies to account – Cargill, Mondelez, Barry Callebaut, Mars, and Nestle – Nestle’s cocoa supply chain leads from West Africa to their headquarters at the other end of Lake Geneva.”

Istvan is personally very aware of how key trade union organisation is to improve working conditions for children and young workers. Seeking a better life in the UK he began working on arrival at the Two Sisters poultry factory in Sandycroft, North Wales. “I had no idea what a trade union was.” That changed dramatically when Unite organisers from Liverpool arrived at the factory and began talking direct to the many migrant workers there in the months leading up to the pandemic.

The daily site visits paid off and when Istvan and his friends, now aware of their rights, agreed to take multi-lingual leaflets to other workers the 20 completed application forms one day rose regularly to peak at 200 over five hours on one occasion. “Management was forced to adopt a more conciliatory approach. We feel more human and less like a slave. No one is pretending wages and conditions are perfect but overall things have improved a lot.” Istvan became a Unite rep in 2020 and is today the deputy convenor at the factory.

“Workers need help getting organised. June 12^th is International Child Labour Day. It might seem a long time away but I’d urge Unite members to seek to mark it in some way and if they work in companies that rely on agricultural products from abroad, please try to ensure it is not produced by child labour.”