NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administrated has canceled millions of dollars in international grants that a Department of Labor division administered to combat child labor and slave labor around the world.
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs helped reduce the number of child laborers worldwide by 78 million over the last two decades, including by issuing grants to international organizations, according to the Department of Labor.
But billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency terminated all of ILAB’s grants, according to the DOGE website, and the grant-funded programs are being closed down, according to an email to Department of Labor employees obtained by The Associated Press.
The grants went to non-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations working in other countries to promote better working conditions for the most vulnerable people and to ensure companies complied with international labor standards.
The discontinued projects reached across continents and industries, according to the Labor Department website. One grant went toward helping end a practice in Uzbekistan that put farmers and children to work picking cotton against their will.
Another grantee trained agriculture workers in Mexico on labor rights, aiming to end child labor in the tobacco industry. A project in West Africa helped curb the practice of 10-year-old children being sent to harvest cacao beans with machetes, according to Reid Maki, coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, a group of organizations fighting child labor domestically and internationally.
“We were on a path to eliminating the scourge (of child labor), and now, if ILAB is defunded, if the programs are closed, we’re looking at the reverse,” Maki said. “We’re looking at an explosion of child labor.”
The cancellation of the grants mirrors actions the Trump administration and DOGE took in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which had funding for foreign humanitarian and development work the agency administered frozen or cut.
Referring to the grants as “paused,” Department of Labor spokesperson Courtney Parella said the American people elected 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,” Parella said in an emailed statement. "We’re focused on improving oversight and accountability within this program – and across the entire department – while prioritizing investments in the American workforce and bolstering protections for children here at home.”
The Bureau of International Labor Affairs researched and worked to combat modern slavery among children and adults with about $500 million in grants, according to Catherine Feingold, international director of the AFL-CIO. The labor federation worked with ILAB on strengthening global working conditions.
The bureau produced annual reports tracking labor conditions and listing products that were made with child labor. American companies relied on the research to determine if there was improper labor in their supply chains, Feingold said.
“You don’t want American workers competing with countries that use forced and child labor,” Feingold said. “I worry that we’re going to see more products made with child and forced labor, both in the U.S. and around the world. We’re going so far back in time here, allowing forced labor and child labor to go rampant in the global economy.”
An estimated 160 million children are doing child labor, which is defined as work that can harm them or interfere with learning, and an estimated 79 million are doing child labor that is hazardous, Maki, of the Child Labor Coalition, said.
The children who harvest cacao beans in West Africa, for example, haul heavy loads and are exposed to dangerous chemicals, as well as the risk of severe injuries while using machetes to break open seed pods they hold in their hands, he said.
“What we see there is kids, often very young, working for often no wages at all, sometimes with families, but often not,” Maki said.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association, a trade group which represents hundreds of American brands and retailers, and the Fair Labor Association, a nonprofit organization working to improve conditions in the apparel and footwear industries, called ILAB a crucial ally in fighting unfair trade and leveling the playing field for American businesses and workers.
“We rely on the essential work of ILAB, whose purpose is to put America First by furthering the interests of American workers and American businesses," the groups said in a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Employees at ILAB and other divisions of the Labor Department are bracing for staff reductions. On Friday night, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer notified employees in several Labor Department offices that they were being offered the options of deferred resignation or voluntary early retirement, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.
In addition to International Labor Affairs, the notice went to employees in the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Women's Bureau and the Office of Public Affairs. They were told to expect additional announcements, including plans to implement a reduction in force, in the coming weeks.
“You can’t do this work if you eliminate all the expertise that’s been built over the years in that team,” Reingold said.
The Department of Labor spokesperson did not comment on plans to reduce the workforce.
Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press
