[1155] The Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium Launches!
[1156] Last month the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium was legally incorporated and yesterday the Board of Directors held its first meeting, adopting Bylaws. This is a major milestone for SweatFree Communities and sweatfree activists across the country. The Consortium has been several years in the making. Its creation has involved development of relationships with procurement officials, research and education, the writing and rewriting of both visionary and legal documents, hours upon hours of meetings, and most importantly the hope, dedication, and involvement of dozens and dozens of people.
[1157] Read more here...
[1159] Economic Ground Zero in Bangladesh and Wal-Mart's Responsibility
[1160] This is an account of a particularly abusive factory in Bangladesh which produces children’s wear, primarily for Wal-Mart. It reveals how one of the world’s most powerful companies is influencing lives and working conditions in one of the poorest countries in the world.
[1161] Read more here...
[1163] Tax Dollars Fund Sweatshops, New Study Says
[1164] U.S. states, cities, and counties are inadvertently using millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase goods from companies engaged in serious human rights and labor violations, according to a first-of-its-kind report released today by SweatFree Communities. The study, /Subsidizing Sweatshops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do/, includes in-depth case studies of 12 factories in nine countries that produce public employee uniforms for nine major uniform brands.
[1165] Read more here...
[1167] China Drafts Law to Boost Unions and End Abuse
[1168] By DAVID BARBOZA (NYT)
[1169] SHANGHAI, Oct. 12 — China is planning to adopt a new law that seeks to crack down on sweatshops and protect workers’ rights by giving labor unions real power for the first time since it introduced market forces in the 1980’s.
[1170] Read more here...
[1172] JUSTICE CLOTHING GOES COOP!
[1173] There's lots to tell and we're working on getting all the details up on the web. The important thing to know is that our commitment to democracy and justice in the workplace has now manifest itself in an exciting new way.
[1174] Read our new Mission Statement here...
[1176] New Reports Blast Wal-Mart Sweatshops in China
[1177] The National Labor Committee and China Labor Watch issued three new China factory reports yesterday exposing Wal-Mart's continued sweatshop labor abuses. The report on the Lungcheong factory is unprecidented in that the research was carried out over a four-year period. Without pressure, Wal-Mart did nothing to improve conditions.
[1178] Violations included--
[1179] * child labor
[1180] * paying below China's legal minimum wage
[1181] * forced overtime--workers forced to work off the clock after 10 pm and cheated on overtime pay
[1182] * women denied their legal paid maternity leave
[1183] * termination of workers injured on the job
[1184] * production quota of painting 2000 toy trucks a day, 250 an hour, one every 14.4 seconds
[1185] * workers paid just 18 cents for each $64.97 truck they assemble for Wal-Mart
[1186] * Workers housed 12 to each primitive, dark and gloomy dorm room, and fed food they describe as awful
[1187] Workers are kept in a state of terror, knowing that if they were to say a single truthful word about abusive factory conditions, they would be immediately fired. Wal-Mart's monitoring is a sham. Wal-Mart's bargains are based on misery.
[1188] Read More Here...
[1190] WalMart Caught Using 10-13 Year Old Workers
[1191] An undercover investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "Zone Libre" program found children 10 to 13 years of age sewing blue "I love my Wal-Mart" shirts in several Bangladesh factories. The children were paid less than ten cents an hour and forced to work long hours in dimly lit and dirty conditions. The children also sewed t-shirts carrying Wal-Mart's "Simply Basic" private label.
[1192] When caught, feigning shock and outrage that its code of conduct had been violated, Wal-Mart pulled its work out of the factories that CBC exposed. This was the worst thing Wal-Mart could have done. It just further punishes the very kids Wal-Mart was exploiting. The right thing to do, the moral thing, would be for Wal-Mart to keep its production in these factories while seriously working with its contractors to clean up these plants and to guarantee that the fundamental legal rights of the workers are finally respected. Wal-Mart should be held accountable to provide monthly stipends to these children so that they can now attend school. Children belong in school, not in sweatshops. Surely Wal-Mart, as the largest corporation in the world with $10.5 billion in profit last year, could easily afford to do this.
[1193] Read More Here...
[1195] San Fransisco Passes Best "Sweat-Free" Purchasing Law Yet
[1196] On September 13, 2005, the San Francisco City Council unanimously passed the San Francisco SweatFree Ordinance that requires city contractors to guarantee in writing that the uniforms, computers, and other goods they supply were not made by workers exploited in sweatshops. As part of the certification process, contractors who sign the sweatshop-free pledge would have to disclose the names of their subcontractors, where their factories are located, and what workers are paid.
[1197] Read More Here...
[1199] "Sweatshop Raiders" Return
[1200] ... "Did you say slaves?" I asked my informant in disbelief, as I hurriedly dressed to go to the site. The Smithsonian Institution in 1998 made this case a part of its exhibit on U.S. sweatshops, calling it a low point in the sad history of U.S. exploitation of undocumented laborers....
[1201] Read More Here...
[1203] U.S. TRADE UNIONIST ASSASSINATED IN El SALVADOR
[1204] Mr. Gilberto Soto was assassinated Friday evening, November 5, at 6:00 p.m., while visiting his mother in the city of Usulutan, El Salvador.
[1205] Mr. Soto received a call on his cell phone and had just stepped outside the doorway of his mother's home, searching for better reception, when he was approached by two men who shot and killed him at close range. He was shot in the upper back and on the lower side, near the kidney. It was this shot which severed his aorta, the major artery to the heart. He died immediately.
[1206] The killers fled, running to a car waiting about 100 yards away. There may also have been a third assailant on a bike.
[1207] There was absolutely no attempt to rob Mr. Soto. It was clear that the sole intent was to kill him. There were several eye witnesses.
[1208] Mr. Gilberto Soto was a long time organizer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Based in New Jersey, he was in charge of organizing port container drivers in the northeast of the U.S. He was currently involved in organizing drivers in Elizabeth, N.J.
[1209] Read More and *PLEASE* Take Action: NLC
[1211] AMERICAN APPAREL TO SETTLE SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL LABOR LAW
[1212] Los Angeles, CA - American Apparel, located in downtown Los Angeles, has entered into a settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to settle charges that it violated Federal labor law.
[1213] American Apparel is a leading t-shirt and apparel manufacturer whose brands include Classic Girl, Standard American, and Classic Baby. American Apparel promotes itself as a socially responsible company that provides a "sweatshop free" work environment. Prior to American Apparel employee's efforts in September to gain union representation and the company's subsequent anti-union activity, American Apparel senior partner Dov Charney publicly stated on several occasions that he would not oppose the efforts of American Apparel workers to organize a union.
[1214] The charges were filed in September 2003 by UNITE, the leading North American garment workers union, after American Apparel management engaged in anti-union activities that violated Federal labor law to prevent its employees from exercising their rights to organize a union. Employees at American Apparel sought union representation with UNITE to gain an independent voice on the job, job security, increased benefits, and paid time off.
[1215] The charges filed against American Apparel included:
[1216] - Threatening to shut down the plant if employees unionized
[1217] - Interrogating employees about their union support and sympathies
[1218] - Conducting surveillance of employees union activities
[1219] - Soliciting employees to withdraw signed union authorization cards
[1220] Under the agreement with the NLRB to settle these charges, American Apparel must comply with Federal labor law that gives its employees the right to form, join or assist a union; choose representatives to bargain with the company on their behalf; and act together with other employees for their benefit and protection. Additionally, American Apparel must post and comply with a notice to its employees informing them that the company will cease to engage in the activities charged against it.
[1221] These remedies are extraordinary, utilized by the NLRB to remediate the gravest violations of law and reserved for only the harshest of corporate offenders.
[1222] Source: UNITE!
[1224] NBA CAUGHT (AGAIN) SELLING SLAVE LABOR GOODS
[1225] A month after the NBA admitted in the New York Times that it had seriously erred in selling NBA "I Love This Game" sweatshirts made under slave labor conditions in Burma, the NBA is at it againl, selling more sweatshirts made in Burma.
[1226] In January, the NBA said it would immediately pull all Burma sweatshop goods from their store and give them away to an inner city children's aid project, while launching a thorough investigation to prevent this from ever happening again.
[1227] It is clear the NBA is out of control- not even aware of which countries its goods are produced in, let alone effectively monitoring factory conditions for compliance with even the most basic human rights standards.
[1228] Source: NLC
[1230] MAJOR LEAGUE SWEATSHOP IN CHINA
[1231] Licensed goods for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, and the NCAA, along with toys for Wal-Mart, Disney, and Hasbro are made in China by workers forced to toil 18 to 20 1/2 hours a day, 7 days a week, with just 15 days off a year- for a wage of just 16 1/2 cents an hour. Workers have zero rights and are fired for even asking that their wages be paid on time. Twenty workers share a dorm room.
[1232] What is unique here is that the workers have smuggled out of the factory not only photographs but also actual time cards showing shifts stretching from 7:45 a.m. straight through to 4:30 a.m. the following day, pay records documenting below-minimum wages, and even a "cheat sheet" they were given to memorize in order to lie to so-called "investigators" or "monitors" hired by these corporations.
[1233] The National Labor Committee and China Labor Watch have released a new joint report on the situation in this factory, including copies of these documents, wage and shipping data, and photographs.
[1234] Source and more info: NLC
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