Says Scott Nova, WRC director: “It is a pilot project, not a comprehensive solution, to the challenges we face, but it is an exciting step forward.”

The project puts into practice key elements of the WRC’s innovative Designated Suppliers Program (DSP). Its aim is to enhance the enforcement of university codes of conduct, which as stand-alone documents have proven pretty much useless without the institutional and incentive framework to make them effective.

There will also be a broader focus on public procurement which is the purchasing of goods by a government to be used in the public sector. This can include everything from fire fighter uniforms to school lunches. Governments in the US, whether it is a local, state or federal branch, can be some of the largest purchasers of manufactured goods. They need to buy uniforms and equipment for their offices, employees and schools. These purchases are usually very large and therefore the purchases are an opportunity to encourage the use of strong labor standards as a prerequisite for any business that wants to sell products to the government.

Over the last few years I have been able to help workers receive a little justice for their injuries. The sad part of this is that not only do they get hurt, but some workers are fired not long after sustaining an injury. There was a time or two I attempted get workers their jobs back, but had no success.

I began to understand that the workers in this industry were merely seen as production tools by these companies. It’s not taken into account that they are humans who are working at high speed, doing the same repetitious work over and over again for eight to ten hours a day. The workers describe this as, “humans competing against machines.”

It’s not uncommon to get riled up when you realize that what you’re talking about isn’t some piece of meat but rather an actual person; someone’s daughter, mother or neighbor. This was all too obvious inside the Rayburn Home Office Building room that I found myself in. One extra hot topic: Vietnam. Tempers flared as the pressure was directed towards the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to move Vietnam’s 2009 tier ranking from Tier 2 to Tier 3 in the soon to be released 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report (Can’t wait? See the 2009 report here). U.S.