1.6 billion people earn less than $1.25 a day. This combined with unsafe working conditions and very few worker rights creates a global issue, prominent in the Amazon rainforest. There are many organizations dedicated to these workers, helping them to receive fair wages and safe working conditions.
Fair trade is a social movement whose stated goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability. Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards.
People are promised work and fair pay, but often end up exploited. They are forced to work in the rainforest, living on only rice, beans, and dirty water. They receive little or no pay, and are supervised by armed men at all times to ensure workers don’t attempt to escape. If workers resisted doing their jobs, they would be threatened with violence or abuse. This kind of treatment is especially prominent in Brazil, and little action is being taken to stop these “slaveholders”. Working conditions have improved slightly in the past 10 years, but the standards still aren’t where they
should be.
The Brazilian government is working to stop this slave labor, but it is not an easy task. They have helicopters circling the rainforest seeking out illegal work plantations, but the dense canopy makes it very difficult to observe the activities taking place below the trees.
Fair trade is a social movement whose stated goal is to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability. Members of the movement advocate the payment of higher prices to exporters, as well as improved social and environmental standards.
People are promised work and fair pay, but often end up exploited. They are forced to work in the rainforest, living on only rice, beans, and dirty water. They receive little or no pay, and are supervised by armed men at all times to ensure workers don’t attempt to escape. If workers resisted doing their jobs, they would be threatened with violence or abuse. This kind of treatment is especially prominent in Brazil, and little action is being taken to stop these “slaveholders”. Working conditions have improved slightly in the past 10 years, but the standards still aren’t where they
should be.
The Brazilian government is working to stop this slave labor, but it is not an easy task. They have helicopters circling the rainforest seeking out illegal work plantations, but the dense canopy makes it very difficult to observe the activities taking place below the trees.