Federal grants to fight child labor worldwide are axed in DOGE cuts
[April 08, 2025] By
CATHY BUSSEWITZ
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.
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A sign stands outside the U.S. Department of Labor's headquarters,
May 6, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
 “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.
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