I am an intern for the Stakeholder Services and Capacity Building Team at Fair Labor Association (FLA) this summer. The office I am working in is located in Washington, D.C., but FLA has other offices all over the world. Through this internship, I am gaining a familiarity with the implementation of international labor standards in global supply chains and the critical role of multi-stakeholder organizations in improving workers’ rights. FLA works with business, civil society organizations, colleges and universities to ensure the protection of workers’ rights and uphold international labor standards. They do so by assessing factories compliance with the Principles of Fair Labor and Responsible Sourcing and Production.
I am currently assisting FLA’s Training and Capacity Building Manager in organizing training materials so they are more accessible. These trainings address issues ranging from fair wages to retrenchment and termination. The trainings I found specifically interesting, and that relate to NCI’s Mission, are on sexual harassment and forced labor. Once these trainings are more accessible to regional staff, then they can be widely used to educate individuals in factories on their rights. FLA also had me attend the 2018 World Day Against Child Labor event at the U.S. Department of Labor. There I learned more about the 152 million children who are deprived of an education and are forced to work in unsafe and violent environments. The FLA and other organizations that attended this event are all working to raise awareness about this issue and eradicatechild labor.
I found this internship through networking. I had briefly met with the CEO of the FLA and sent her my resume. She was impressed by the work I had done with victims of human trafficking and my passion for international development, so she offered me an intern position. I am very grateful for this opportunity and have already learned so much from her and the projects I have been working on. I am the only intern in the office, but the staff has all been very friendly and welcoming. Next week is the board meeting so we are currently preparing for those three days of meetings, trainings, and networking events. I am looking forward to meeting other staff members from our international offices and members of the board who make all of this work possible.
As the summer goes on I am expecting to learn more about Corporate Social Responsibility, a topic I knew little about before working here. I also hope to be able to connect what I am learning about fair labor practices to the work I have done previously and that I am planning to do in the future, in regards to forced labor and human trafficking.