December is almost here!

Incredible how time has flown by these last months.  We have been busy with new retailers and a few festivals, including the Decatur Book Festival and the NMP Holiday Gift Show; where our products received great support.

At The Collective in Atlanta and Green Mosaics in Decatur have expanded their offering of Inca Kids so make sure you stop by to do some shopping for this holiday season.  Our line of alpaca hats, holiday ornaments and artisan toys is available Monday-Saturday from 11-6pm on those locations.

Some pictures from the shows for you to enjoy.

Thanks for all the support!

                                            Cute kids in Bunny Hat & Critter Hat and mittens

Die hard fans @ Decatur Book Festival with Pamela Panda & Glenda Guacamaya

New Retailers carrying Inca Kids

Good Morning!
It seems to me that the busiest season of the year has already started!
We want to welcome four new retailers carrying Inca Kids Fair Trade products;

-Green Mosaics, located in Decatur, GA is a new retailers of fair trade, sustainable and recyclable products for the whole family. From baby toys made from socks to eco-friendly cleaners and even dog products, Green Mosaics is a wonderful addition to the already progressive City of Decatur. You can find Inca Kids arpillera ponchos, flower headbands and hand knitted sweaters in 100% cotton there.

-Hinton Rural Life Center, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, the Hinton Center provides a unique setting for retreats, conferences, workshops, mission opportunities and vacations. At the store, you can find Inca Kids hand knitted toys and puppets.

-Peek-a-Boo Natural Toys, located at 992 Wellington St. West, Ottawa, Ontario. Peek-a-Boo offers toys made only of natural materials that do not require batteries and are colorful, educational and well designed. Stop by and find our handknitted cupcakes.

-World Village Fair Trade Market, located in Hampton Bays, NY, this initiative supports Sobornost for the World Foundation, carrying only Fair Trade products. Find our Inca Kids Dolly Llamas and Monkeys there.

Thank you to all our new retailers, we will be updating our website this week to reflect your commitment to Fair Trade and support of our artisans.



Colorful, educational, modern, fun and well-designed

Starbucks Baristas in Hunger Strike for Higher Wages in Chile

Our friends from Global Fair  and Global Voice are running an article about the differences between how much we pay for coffee (a high consumption export product in many Latin American countries) and how little is paid to baristas @ giant Starbucks.   Usually the notes refer to the poor farmers that have the weakest end of the string and here we see how another piece of the puzzle is greatly unfair in the chain of consumption.

A small coffee costs more than an hour of work from a highly trained  barista in Chile and I bet is the same in the majority of other developing countries (Peru and China, for sure, to mention two).  Starbucks charges the same for a cup of coffee pretty much anywhere in the world but pay misery salaries to their workers.

Below, a video from the sites mentioned above as well as other developments on the case.

Hunger strike

The hunger strike demanding better working conditions started by three Starbucks workers in Chile is up to its 11th day, with Starbucks refusing to negotiate due to “company policies”.

@lafundacionsol: 11 days into the #hungerstrike and Starbucks tells its “partners” @sindicatosbux that due to corporate policies they can't grant benefits through a collective negotiation.

The three workers on hunger strike are members of the Starbucks employee union in Chile, which through its Twitter account @Sindicatosbux [es] has been reporting on their 30 day strike and latter hunger strike. As Andrés Giordano, the union's president, explains in this next video interview [es], their hunger strike is their last resort after all other efforts to reach an agreement with Starbucks were met with denials:

Through their blog [es], started in 2009, they have actively posted information on their union and their efforts to work with Starbucks to arrive at mutually beneficial solutions. For example, part of the Starbucks policy was to provide transportation to employees who close stores after 10 or 11pm at night in far off locations or in areas considered dangerous, as reported in this December 2009 post [es]. However, many locations and “partners” were not receiving the benefit, or due to routing issues arrived at their homes as late as 2am.

Back in November 2010, Starbucks' partners in Chile wrote a letter [es] to their international visitors exposing some of the company's most offensive behaviors towards their partners. Although Starbucks excused themselves due to the economic recession, to the baristas it did not make sense that their prior benefits were being cut off, their salaries were staying the same and the yearly employee company party was cancelled while the top management went for a planning retreat to the Chilean South, complete with horseback riding and hot springs.

It isn't possible that a tall coffee prepared in 3 minutes is worth more than a barista's hourly wage.

In this next video,  The Timber Beast plays on the guitar and sings Joe Feinberg's ‘What Shall We Do With the Starbucks Bosses?' in front of a Starbucks in Ontario, Canada, in support of the Chilean Starbucks workers:

The Wall Street Journal reports that United States baristas are also supporting their Chilean partners' strike. In the article, Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson expressed that baristas in Chile make 30% more than the industry average and made reference to some of the 24 original demands which were dropped by the union, without mentioning the four that still stand.

Industrial Workers of the World explains a couple of these demands:

Their most crucial demand is earning a higher wage. Currently baristas at Starbucks in Chile make $2.50/hr. while the drinks are still sold for US prices, and they haven’t received raises in 8 years. The baristas are also asking for a lunch stipend in order to eat during their shifts, this is something managers in Chile are provided.

 

In addition, workers are also requiring transportation for those baristas working in remote locations and for those in dangerous neighborhoods who after 10 pm have to figure out how to return to their homes. They are also asking Starbucks to provide them with their mandatory uniforms.

Is it illegal?

None of this makes for happy employees, but is it illegal? In this podcast interview by El Quinto Poder with Marco Kremerman [es], a researcher at the Fundacion Sol, he explains how companies like Starbucks take advantage of legal loopholes in Chile, such as the possibility of hiring replacements for workers on strike, turning their strike ineffective.

According to nacion.cl, Starbucks Union workers will report the company to the ILO for their anti-union policies. As Giordano was quoted:

Starbucks Coffee está vulnerando nuestra legislación laboral por sus reiterativas prácticas que buscan desarticular nuestra organización sindical y el proceso de negociación colectiva.

 

Starbucks Coffee is violating our labor legislation through their repeated practices seeking to dismantle our labor union organization and the process of collective negotiation.

Coffee is one of the top world commodities and is mostly produced in developing countries. By far the greatest consumption is in developed countries, where people pay an average of 3 USD for a cup of coffee at chains like Starbucks. But when Starbucks opens in developing coffee-producing countries and maintains their prices, well, the contrast is noticeable.

Back in 2003, when Starbucks opened in Lima, Peru, BBC reporter Hannah Hennessy wrote about it:

There are some locals who can afford to pay two-thirds of Peru's minimum daily wage for a cup of coffee, but even they know it is a luxury for the privileged few.

 

And seven years later, the situation is not much different: although Starbucks sells fairtrade coffee, some critics at the GreenLiving blog of the UK's Guardiannewspaper believe it isn't enough and that anti labor union policies affect its ethical rating.

This is by no means a Starbucks problem, though: the coffee industry in general has been criticized for its exploitative behaviors. Movies like Black Gold, which focuses on the gap between winners and losers in the coffee industry, specifically in Ethiopia, have been met with silence from the major coffee companies, as theyexplain on their FAQ:

We wanted to include interviews with all the major coffee multinationals: Kraft, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Nestle and Starbucks. But they all declined our invitations, which you could say, speaks volumes about the transparency in the industry.

In the case of Starbucks, we spent over six months trying to get an interview through their PR agencies and their HQ in Seattle. They declined all requests and went on to publicly discredit the film when it was released.

So far, Starbucks has not addressed the strike in Chile, and its local website[es] makes no mention of it. Now that the strike is echoing around the world maybe it will force Starbucks to answer questions like the one @micronauta[es] asked on Twitter:

Si los precios q cobra Starbucks en Chile por sus productos son similares a los de EEUU ¿por qué los sueldos son más bajos?

 

If the prices Starbucks charges in Chile for their products are similar to those in the USA, why are their salaries lower?

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra

Inca Kids launches new collection for fall in collaboration with Peruvian designer Gilda M. Otero

Press Note

Atlanta, August 8th, 2011.- Inca Kids, an Atlanta based fair trade venture announced today the launch of their fall/winter collection featuring unique hand knitted accessories in collaboration with Peruvian designer Gilda M. Otero.

The collection includes hats in alpaca yarn blends as well as hand knitted toys in organic cotton but the highlight of the collection is a limited selection of hand knitted jewelry carefully crafted by the designer herself in high quality cotton string. The collection is available online at http://www.IncaKids.org and at the following locations in Atlanta:

Buckhead.-At 5 Continents Gallery (326 Pharr Rd, 30305)
Inman Park.-At the Collective (280 Elizabeth Street, B103, 30307)
Decatur.-At Green Mosaic (228 E.Ponce de Leon Ave, 30030)

Inca Kids works exclusively with skilled yet unprivileged Peruvian artisans to craft unique accessories, toys and holiday decor using traditional techniques and natural materials. All products are 100% fair trade and support collaborative and equalitarian workplaces.

Inca Kids in the 2012 Fair Trade Calendar!

We have wonderful news! Inca Kids made it into the 2012 Fair Trade calendar for North America!
Thousands of people voted for 78 photos featuring the impact fair trade has in the world. From producers and craftsmen to consumers; every photo conveyed happiness, hope and hard work. The contest was organized by the Fair Trade Resource Network.

One of our pictures, is one of the 12 finalists and will be included in the 2012 Fair Trade Calendar, available for sale at a special price until the first week in August. Click here to buy it!

We want to thank all of our clients and supporters for voting for us.

Thank you!!

Artisans Celebrating World Fair Trade Day 2011

Women from Camancani - Puno

So you think you knit fast?   Check the video below, the artisans from CIAP the cooperative we work with celebrated World Fair Trade Day 2011 in Puno, home to the highest lake in the world (Lake Titicaca) by sharing an andean meal as well as a contest for the fastest knitter in the cooperative.

The winner was Yeni Mendoza from the Camacani Group.   Items for sale from that group will be available for fall/winter in our store http://www.IncaKids.org