WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $10,058,000 million in grant funding to address labor violations in illegal, unregulated and unregistered fishing in the Latin American and Caribbean regions.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of a $3 million cooperative agreement to the International Labor Organization to implement a project to improve compliance with international labor standards and acceptable conditions of work in the Republic of Kenya. 

The project will engage civil society organizations, including workers’ organizations, government, and employers to achieve these improvements in two key export sectors.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of a $5 million cooperative agreement to Partners of the Americas to implement a project to improve compliance with labor laws in the port sector of Colombia.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of a $2 million cooperative agreement to the International Labor Organization to implement a project to improve the government’s enforcement and promotion of labor laws and standards that are consistent with international labor standards, in one or more specific economic sectors in Armenia.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4 million in grant funding to the International Labor Organization (ILO) to improve worker rights in rural sectors of the Indo-Pacific with a focus on women’s rights.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced two new grants, totaling $20 million, that will assist Mexico in meeting its labor obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The grants announced today bring the total committed for this purpose by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to nearly $50 million in 2020.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today applauded the efforts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection for combatting forced labor in China with the issuance of a withhold release order on cotton harvested or processed by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, including any products made from that cotton, such as apparel, garments and textiles. The order prevents the importation of these goods into the U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a national online dialogue intended to enhance the Department’s efforts and determine how to engage workers, advocates and other stakeholder groups to combat labor trafficking and forced employment more effectively.

WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today ratified a Joint Declaration of Intent with their German counterparts concerning cooperation on apprenticeships, vocational education and training. The signing, during National Apprenticeship Week, represents the firm commitment of the U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today released a list of 17 goods produced in China under conditions of forced labor in violation of international standards. The list includes five new goods added in 2020 – including gloves, hair products, textiles, thread/yarn and tomato products – all of which are linked to state-sponsored forced labor by ethnic and Muslim minorities.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4 million in grant funding to strengthen worker rights in rural sectors of the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on women workers. The grant will fund the implementation of a project to improve compliance with labor standards, including occupational safety and health standards, and to address wage inequality and workplace discrimination for women employees in targeted rural sectors in the Philippines and one or two other Indo-Pacific countries.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award two $10 million grants focused on Mexico. Funding for these grants was appropriated as part of the legislation implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) today announced its intent to award up to $8 million in grant funding for up to two technical assistance projects to improve downstream tracing of goods made by child labor or forced labor. The grant will support the recipient’s development of tested supply-chain methodologies, piloted tools for supply-chain tracing, and disseminating supply-chain tracing tools and methodologies to stakeholders.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award two grants of up to $4 million each to increase the number of cocoa cooperatives demonstrating a reduction of child labor in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, with a focus on the informal sector, using a gender-focused approach.

Made available through the Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), the grant will focus on vulnerable women and adolescent girls, from age 5 to 17, working in agriculture.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4.5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in mica-producing communities in Madagascar.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) entered into force today as the U.S. Department of Labor affirmed its commitment to upholding the agreement’s labor provisions.

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States today named panelists for the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, a key tool for the enforcement of the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) labor protections. The U.S. national panelists are Janice Bellace, Lance Compa, Peter Hurtgen, Ira Jaffe, Kevin Kolben and Ed Potter.

MITCHELL, SD – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Custom Genetic Solutions LLC – a bull stud facility in Mitchell, South Dakota – for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals and toxic substances after an employee fatality. The company faces penalties of $122,602 for two willful and three serious violations.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Trump has taken an enormous step forward in the fight against human trafficking by issuing the Combatting Human Trafficking and Online Child Exploitation in the United States Executive Order. This order comes twenty years after the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which greatly strengthened federal criminal prohibitions against trafficking and related offenses.