US labor groups sue over ‘ignorant' cuts of programs fighting child labor abroad

The Guardian

15-04-2025

Labor groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's abrupt termination of international labor rights programs aimed at ending child labor and other abuses.
The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), filed the lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop the cuts, enacted by Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), and arguing the programs were authorized by Congress and that the secretary of labor has no authority to cancel the funds.
Several groups supporting workers and corporations have criticized the Trump administration's decision to abruptly cancel all ongoing grants and contracts for programs with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) at the Department of Labor which works to improve labor conditions outside the US.
In March Doge announced it had canceled about $577m in grants for programs it labeled 'America last'. Doge cited programs including 'worker empowerment in South America', 'improving respect for Worker's rights in agricultural supply chains' in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador and 'assisting foreign migrant workers' in Malaysia.
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, and the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), whose members include corporations such as Adidas and Ralph Lauren, criticized the cuts and argued the decision 'puts American workers and American businesses last' by enabling the degradation of labor and business standards abroad.
'It's just so frustrating to read the shallow and useless justifications that are being put out on Twitter by the secretary of labor and the Doge crowd,' said Thea Lee, who served as deputy undersecretary for International Labor Affairs at the US Department of Labor from 2021 to 2025. 'The abrupt termination of all of ILAB grants is a destruction of decades of consensus that is bipartisan, that is business and labor agreeing together that these are important things. It's ignorant. It's self-defeating, and it's wasteful and inefficient.'
Lee explained the cuts demonstrate ignorance of how the global economy works, of the long-term sourcing and investment decisions made by corporations, and the negative impacts on American workers, businesses, and consumers in competing and relying on supply chains where forced labor, child labor, and other human rights abuses are ignored.
'This was a completely indiscriminate meat ax that was taken to these projects and workers will suffer, businesses will suffer, and American workers will suffer,' said Lee.
Lee cited programs and research required to enforce trade agreements between the US and other nations, such as the National Child Labor survey, and around enforcing the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was co-sponsored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as examples of programs where the work already completed is likely to be wasted due to the cuts.
Shawna Bader-Blau, the executive director of the Solidarity Center, a nonprofit working in over 90 countries to improve worker standards and conditions, said the cuts reduced the organization's budget by 20%, in addition to 30% cuts through USAID cuts.
'It's a devastating, huge impact. The Solidarity Center is very often in countries where they are the only external support for trade union organizing and the advancement of worker rights. If we have to leave, we're not replaced,' said Bader-Blau. 'It's critical to the American economy that American workers not be forced to compete with extremely exploited workers in other countries, up to and including forced and child labor in supply chains.'
She cited programs involved in enforcing labor aspects of the United States Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed under Trump's first term, to improve labor conditions in Mexico. The programs directly impact US workers whose jobs have often been outsourced to Mexico by corporations to exploit cheaper labor.
The cuts, noted Bader-Blau, make it more likely that workers will be affected by offshoring and consumers will be purchasing goods where labor abuses are rampant in the supply chain.
The cuts follow cancellations of previous grants, including a program that began in 2022 and was slated to continue until 2026 to provide support for Uzbekistan, the sixth largest producer of cotton in the world, after the country banned forced labor and child labor in its cotton production industry.
The program was created to affirm and support the ban on forced labor and child labor so American corporations that had boycotted cotton from the region could begin sourcing from the country.
The program's cancellation was touted by US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer last month.
'State-imposed forced labor was used in the cotton harvest for decades,' said Raluca Dumitrescu, coordinator for the Cotton Campaign.
Umida Niyazova, director of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, explained Uzbekistan has moved in recent years from producing cotton and exporting the entire crop, to developing a textile industry to process it. Though the nation has eliminated forced labor and child labor in harvesting, issues and abuses are still rampant throughout the industry.
'Since 2021, under enormous pressure, the state has changed the coercive practice of mass mobilization for cotton harvesting, however, the risks of forced labor remain high since structural reforms have not been implemented,' said Niyazova.
Niyazova said the country still needs programs to establish decent labor standards and enforce them, such as the cancelled ILAB program.
'As Uzbek textile products are aimed at the foreign market, this concerns other countries and people of goodwill who would not want to become potential participants in a production chain based on worker exploitation,' she added.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Labor did not provide information on how the funds will be reallocated, and did not comment on criticisms of the cuts.
'The American people resoundingly elected President Trump with a clear mandate to reduce federal government bloat and root out waste. Americans don't want their hard-earned tax dollars bankrolling foreign handouts that put America last,' said Courtney Parella, US Department of Labor spokesperson in an email. 'That's why we're focused on improving oversight and accountability within this program – and across the entire department – while prioritizing investments in the American workforce.'