While shopping for the newest
styles, the characters never once stop to think about who made the trendy
products they love or the condition they work under. These four women spend
their days shopping and sitting in fashion shows and their night making the
streets of Manhattan their own runway but they have been chosen to only see the
shiny exterior of the fashion world, never opting to think about the women who
endure 11 hour days sewing their designer outfits.

ILRF did a report a few years ago focusing on the affect of World Bank policies on Cote d'Ivoire.  This country, which used to be the symbol of prosperity in West Africa, started dealing with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in 1989.  As part of accepting loans form the WB and IMF, Cote d'Ivoire had to liberalize the coffee and cocoa sectors, reduce government expenditures on services like schools and health and devaluate its currency. 

After Hurricane Katrina the U.S. company worked with U.S. and Indian
recruiters to traffic over 500 welders and pipe-fitters from India to
the Gulf Coast to use as cheap labor on Signal’s shipyards. Each of the
workers paid $20,000 based on the false promise that they would be
given permanent residency status in the U.S. for working with the
company. Instead the workers were given temporary H2B worker visas,
chaining them like slaves to Signal and facilitating their
exploitation. The workers were forced to pay $1,050 a month to live on
company property with 24 men to a room. Under the H2B program, the
company has readily threatened workers with deportation and cracked

Beth Myers:

Working in the movement
for social justice is hard. We all know this but we often don’t admit it. There
are days when you just feel tired and defeated both in you heart and in your
body. Sometimes it feels as though we aren’t making as much of a difference as
we want. With this in mind, it is vital that those of us who fighting for a more
just economy find the time to reconnect with our allies and refocus on the core
missions of our work. The Jobs With Justice Conference was definitely one of
those opportunities for me.  The conference brought together some of the best
and brightest who have chosen to devote their time and energy to building a
better country and world.