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El Salvador: Hazardous Child Labor on Sugar Plantations
What You Can Do 
Child labor is pervasive on sugar plantations
in El Salvador. Children as young as eight use machetes to cut cane, working
for up to nine hours each day in the hot sun. Gashes on the hands and legs
are common. Medical care is often not available, and when it is, the cost
is usually borne by the families of injured children. Children frequently
do not attend school during the harvest, which runs through the first few
months of the academic year.
El Salvador’s sugar mills and the businesses that purchase Salvadoran
sugar use the product of hazardous child labor, a fact they know or should
know. Even though many of these businesses, including The Coca-Cola Company,
do not condone or permit child labor in their own or their direct suppliers’ operations,
child labor is widespread on the plantations that supply the country’s
sugar mills.
The Salvadoran government and the businesses that use the product of hazardous
child labor must do more. The government should strengthen existing efforts
to move children out of hazardous work and into educational and vocational
training programs, and it should enforce laws that guarantee universal access
to basic education. Coca-Cola and other businesses must monitor labor conditions
on sugar plantations and provide assistance to plantations that fall short
of international standards. Coca-Cola and other businesses should also recognize
their responsibility to ensure respect for human rights, including the prohibition
on the worst forms of child labor, throughout their supply chains. In particular,
they should support programs and services that offer children and their families
alternatives to child labor; they should not simply fire children who are
found to be working in hazardous occupations.
You can help. Write to The Coca-Cola Company and the Salvadoran
Sugar Association.
Copy and paste the text of the following letters into the body of your message,
edit it as you see fit, and sign your
name and address.
Sample letter to the Coca-Cola Company:
Send
Sample Letter to the Salvadoran Sugar Association:
Send
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