During 2022 Verité conducted actionable research and engaged stakeholders as part of the Cooperation On Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) project to create, refine, and launch a set of 17 tools comprising the Socially Sustainable Sourcing Toolkit (S3T) to meet the needs of key coffee sector stakeholders.
As part of Verité’s ongoing work to improve labor practices in the Latin American coffee sector under the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Cooperation on Fair, Free, Equitable Employment (COFFEE) Project, this year we are launching pilot projects in three key coffee producing countries — Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico.
We find ourselves in increasingly volatile and challenging times for human rights and labor rights globally, with hard-won protections facing new challenges every day. Now, we face a critical and systematic dismantling of worker protections: the elimination of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) programs through deliberate, far-reaching cuts. This devastating action destroys decades of progress by gutting 69 essential programs—representing more than $500 million—that fought child labor, forced labor, and other labor abuses across 40 countries.
Verité research has found that the use of labor brokers (including village-level agents, recruiters, labor contractors, and crew leaders) is widespread throughout the Latin American coffee sector, including in Brazil.
Few reports have as much significance in the world of labor rights as the bi-annual U.S. Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, the latest edition of which was released on September 30.
We train executives and buyers at companies committed to advancing respect for human rights in their operations and supply chains.