Video News Releases

May 2005

1. 

   US TOMATO PICKERS REACH HISTORIC AGREEMENT

   25 May 2005

   A group of tomato pickers from Florida were put under the spotlight when they reached an historic agreement with Yum Brands, parent company of Taco Bell and the largest restaurant company in the world. A n International Labour Organization report explains how workers like these can sometimes become victims of forced labour exploitation.

2. 

   FORCED LABOUR IN PERUVIAN AMAZON

   18 May 2005

   Illegal logging in the Peruvian rainforest generates millions of profits. But an ILO report found that more than 30 thousand workers, many of them indigenous people, are victims of forced labour, living in appalling conditions and often tricked into debt with their employers.

3. 

   UGANDA CHILD SOLDIERS

   17 May 2005

   A report on forced labour from the International Labour Organization (May 11) highlights the situation of child soldiers, forced to kill or to serve as sex slaves. In Northern Uganda, some reports suggest that 20’000 children have been abducted and used during a long-running conflict with the Lords Resistance Army in the north of the country. ILO TV reports.

4. 

   MIGRANT WORKERS IN RUSSIA

   07 May 2005

   In the former Soviet Union, movement of workers was strictly controlled. But today’s Russia is seeing a growing phenomenon of labour migration, especially from some of the poorest former Soviet republics. But as ILO TV finds out, the life of a migrant worker is not an easy one.

5. 

   SEX TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS IN JAPAN

   05 May 2005

   The Japanese government has brought in new rules to crack down on entertainment visas which have been widely used to bring women into the country to work in the sex industry. Tens of thousands of foreign women work in bars and clubs in Japan, some of them against their will, according to a report by the International Labour Organization.

6. 

   GERMANY: MIGRANT WORKERS FIGHT FOR RIGHTS

   05 May 2005

   An ILO study detailed 42 cases of forced labour in Germany, where migrant workers in particular find themselves tricked into situations where they are forced to work for low pay – or no pay. ILO TV reports from Germany on a new union set up especially for workers away from home.

January 2005

1. 

   PENSION REFORM IN THE U.K

   31 January 2005

   As people live longer and birth-rates fall, many countries are facing up to the problem of how to finance pensions for an ageing population. In the United Kingdom, a Pensions Commission reported on what the problems are and how the government could tackle the situation. This report from ILO TV.

2. 

   SRI LANKA REBUILDS AFTER THE TSUNAMI

   20 January 2005

   As well as claiming countless lives, the Asian tsunami left behind devastated economies in its wake. The International Labour Organization’s JobsNet project assesses the impact on employment, identifying pressing needs for repair of workplaces and reconstruction. ILO TV sent this report from Sri Lanka.

December 2004

1. 

   WOMEN MECHANICS IN NEW DELHI

   08 December 2004

   A new report from the International Labour Office says that despite the fact that more people are employed today than ever before, half the world’s workers live below US$2.00 a day, unable to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. The reason is not for lack of jobs but the lack of productive jobs. ILO TV explains:

2. 

   UGANDA AGOA GIRLS

   03 December 2004

   In Uganda, a parliamentary commission has been investigating events surrounding a strike of more than 200 young women at a foreign-owned textiles factory. The “Agoa girls”, as they have become known, protested outside Parliament about working conditions and their right to join a union. As ILO TV now reports, the women have raised awareness of the role of trade unions and rights in the workplace, in a country where labour disputes are rare.