The Consequences of ilab Cuts
The scale of global labor exploitation is staggering.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 138 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are trapped in child labor worldwide, with over one-third working in hazardous conditions that threaten their lives.
Meanwhile, an estimated 27.6 million people globally are victims of forced labor, with women and girls disproportionately affected.
ILAB ensures labor rights compliance in 131 U.S. trade partner countries through monitoring and enforcement.
Without ILAB's oversight and intervention programs, these numbers will only grow as companies face no consequences for exploiting vulnerable workers in their global supply chains.
Until now, ILAB has addressed these problems head-on with remarkable results.
But on March 27, 2025, the Trump Administration canceled over $500 million in grants from the Department of Labor’s International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB).
ILAB Cuts
Since 2019, ILAB has invested in eliminating approximately 1.56 million instances of child labor violations in cocoa production in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire—countries that produce cocoa for chocolate consumed by American consumers and account for nearly 60% of the world's cocoa supply.
In Honduras, one ILAB program disbursed over $13 million to fight child labor, resulting in more than 6,000 children enrolling in educational programs and helping train around 500 inspectors on labor exploitation laws. They've also pushed Uzbekistan to address forced labor in cotton production, which was unfairly competing with American cotton growers, and helped Argentina develop programs to ensure that children in the blueberry sector have access to childcare and enrichment programs instead of hazardous work.
In Mexico, ILAB supports capacity building for independent unions to effectively win strong Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) and fully utilize the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The legal protections afforded by the RRLM have led to the establishment of independent, democratic labor unions that effectively combat entrenched company unions.
But without grant money, these programs will cease to exist. Millions of vulnerable workers will be left without protections. And American companies and workers will have to compete with products made through exploitation and unfair labor practices, leading to further job loss and economic hardship.