Child Labor Coalition

• Promoting health, safety, education, and well-being for working minors.
• Pursuing an end to child labor exploitation.

MISSION:

The Child Labor Coalition (CLC) exists to serve as a national network for the exchange of information about child labor; provide a forum and a unified voice on protecting working minors and ending child labor exploitation; and develop informational and educational outreach to the public and private sectors to combat child labor abuses and promote progressive initiatives and legislation.

OBJECTIVES:

• To influence public policy on child labor issues through an increased understanding of the impact of work on children's health, the quality of their lives, and their ability to produce effectively in jobs as adults, as well as increase recognition of how child labor exploitation reinforces and promotes poverty, adult unemployment, poor living standards, low literacy rates, and lax enforcement of labor regulations;
  
• To work for strengthened protections, guarding youth from excessive, inappropriate, and hazardous labor;
  
• To advocate for better enforcement of child labor laws and regulations, including devising and encouraging innovative ways to ensure employer compliance;
  
• To educate the public, business, and governments to broaden awareness and understanding about the nature of child labor exploitation in the United States and other countries, and how it differs from legitimate and positive youth employment; and
  
• To urge the Congress of the United States to act quickly to ratify and enforce all the International Labor Organization and United Nations Conventions that affect child labor.

ACTIVITIES:

• testifying before state and federal legislatures and agencies on child labor
  
• presenting comments in response to regulatory initiatives
  
• hosting conferences, forums, and briefings
  
• creating and distributing educational and public awareness materials
  
• initiating research
  
• conducting campaigns and media events

BACKGROUND:

The Child Labor Coalition formed in November 1989, as concerned groups mobilized following the Capitol Hill Forum, "Exploitation of Children in the Workplace."

The coalition believes that no child, regardless of race, sex, nationality, religion, economic status, place of residence, or occupation, should be exploited. Exploitative child labor is defined as employment (whether in the formal or informal sector; whether paid or unpaid) that is coerced, forced, bonded, slave, or otherwise known to be unfair in wages, injurious to the health and safety of children, and/or obstructs a child's access to education or impairs educational attainment.

BECOME AN ONLINE MEMBER OF THE CHILD LABOR COALITION

Membership is not restricted, but is open to those individuals, organizations, or groups which ascribe to and publicly endorse the coalition's mission and objectives. Currently, the coalition offers two levels of membership: organization members and individual members.

Organizational Members

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Ethical Union

American Federation of School Administrators

American Federation of Teachers

American Public Health Association

American Youth Work Center

Americans for Democratic Action

Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs

Calvert Group

Children's Defense Fund

Church of the Brethren

Coalition of Labor Union Women

Consumer Federation of America

Defense for Children International/USA

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

Essential Information

Food and Allied Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO

General Federation of Women's Clubs

Highland Presbyterian Church

International Affairs Department, AFL-CIO

International Brotherhood of Teamsters

International Labor Rights Fund

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Jewish Labor Committee

Jewish Women International

Labor Council for Latin American Advancement

Labor Heritage Foundation

Laborer's International Union of North America

Missouri Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

National Association of Social Workers

National Child Labor Committee

National Consumers League

National Council of Senior Citizens

National Education Association

National Parent-Teacher Association

New Ways Workers National

Public Policy Department, AFL-CIO

Religious Committee for Workplace Fairness

Service Employees International Union

Social Democrats, USA

Solidarity Committee of the Capital District/Jobs with Justice

The Crafts Center

The Women's Research and Education Institute

Transportation Communications International Union

Union Label Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO

Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

United Methodist Board of Church and Society

United Methodist Church, Women's Division

U.S. Committee For UNICEF

Walden Capital Management

Youth Advocate Program International

Child Labor Coalition Co-Chairs:
Sandra Feldman, president, American Federation of Teachers
Linda F. Golodner, president, National Consumers League
Pharis Harvey, executive director, International Labor Rights Fund

Children in the Fields Campaign Chairs:
Linda F. Golodner, president, National Consumers League
Diane Mull, executive director, Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs

Coordinator: Darlene Adkins.

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America's pioneer consumer organization. NCL's three-pronged approach of research, education and advocacy has made it an effective representative and source of information for consumers and workers. NCL is a private, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to representing consumers on issues of concern.