[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Pages 136-137]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Action To Eliminate Sweatshops and Abusive Child
Labor Practices

January 16, 2001

    Today I am pleased to announce new initiatives that build on our 
efforts to put a more human face on the global economy by protecting 
workers, children, and families from abusive and unfair labor practices. 
Around the world, tens of millions of children are deprived of their 
childhood and subjected to the worst forms of child labor, slavery, 
forced or compulsory labor, prostitution, pornography, and other kinds 
of harmful and unsafe work. At the same time, many millions of workers 
toil under conditions that are deplorable and unacceptable. These 
antisweatshop grants and the customs advisory on forced and indentured 
child labor represent additional tools to help eliminate sweatshops and 
abusive child labor across the globe.
    Over the last 8 years, we have made the U.S. a leader in the global 
fight to stamp out abusive labor practices and open the door to 
education and opportunity. I am proud that the U.S. was among the first 
nations to ratify the International Labor Organization's (ILO) 
Convention 182 for Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor. With 
the support of Senator Tom Harkin, we have increased our contributions 
to the ILO's International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor 
fifteenfold from $3 million in 1993 to $45 million today. We have 
doubled to $10 million Customs Service resources to enforce the ban on 
the importation of goods made with forced or indentured child labor. And 
last year, we passed a new $37 million Department of Labor School Works 
program to strengthen educational systems in developing countries, 
targeted to areas where abusive child labor is prevalent.
    I would like to make a special note that one of the antisweatshop 
grants being announced today is being awarded to the Fair Labor 
Association (FLA), a diverse coalition of manufacturers, consumer 
groups, labor and human rights organizations, and universities dedicated 
to ensuring that products purchased by American consumers were not made 
in sweatshops overseas. The FLA grew out of the Apparel Industry 
Partnership, a coalition we first brought together at the White House in 
1996 to combat sweatshop labor. This pathbreaking partnership was given 
new energy and vitality when Chuck Ruff agreed to be its first Chairman. 
Chuck used his unique leadership and coalition-building skills to give 
the FLA a successful start. While Chuck recently passed away, the

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significant accomplishments of the FLA under his leadership will live on 
as one of his many contributions to a better, fairer world.