Working Conditions of Cigar Workers

[baldheadracing]

It does pose an interesting question.

Would you buy a cigar from a company that used child labor or sweatshop conditions?

Due to the nature of cigars and the skill needed to roll a consistent product it is doubtful that such labor conditions exist anywhere in the industry.

Child labour is quite a different topic from the question posed at the beginning of this thread. Child labour is likely to have happened anywhere in the third world where tobacco is grown or processed IMHO.

A search at www.refworld.org shows the United States Department of State's 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices cited Nicaragua: "Cigar factories reportedly continued to employ illegally a large number of children." http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100647.htm

However, the State Dept. did not make specific allegations, which is a key point in reading these kinds of country-specific reports. The State Dept's 2007 Finding on the Worst Forms of Child Labor cited Nicaragua http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/48caa48337.html for previous allegations regarding child labour in the tobacco fields, and the Nicaraguan government's response (get help from Canada :whistling: )

Note that the absence of similar items in other country reports does not mean child labour doesn't exist in other third world tobacco-growing countries. That's politics.