[Antiracism] [Workers' Rights] Tax Dollars Fund Sweatshops

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

From: Liana Foxvog [mailto:liana at sweatfree.org] 



For Immediate Release
Contact: Bjorn Claeson, 207-262-7277, or Liana Foxvog, 413-586-0974

Tax Dollars Fund Sweatshops, New Study Says
State and local governments pledge to end practice 
as momentum builds for 'sweatfree' purchasing


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. 

Elected officials, religious leaders, human rights groups, students and
labor unions today participated in at least eight rallies, press conferences
or other events around the country. "We are calling on public entities to
join the Sweatfree Consortium, a collaborative effort of states, local
governments, labor rights experts, and human rights advocates to end tax
dollar support for sweatshops," said Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director of
SweatFree Communities and an author of the report. "We can use our
collective purchasing power to improve working conditions instead of
furthering the race to the bottom."

"Governments have an obligation to conduct business in an open and ethical
way," Governor John E. Baldacci of Maine said today. "By working
cooperatively with other states and localities, we can more effectively
monitor supplier behavior and enforce standards for the way workers are
treated in other countries."  Governor Baldacci is a leader in the campaign
to end public purchasing from sweatshops.

The Sweatfree Consortium will help states, cities, counties, local
government agencies, and school districts to enforce their commitments to
end public purchasing from sweatshops by investigating factories and
creating a market for change.  

Subsidizing Sweatshops reveals widespread human rights and labor violations
throughout the uniform industry, including: child labor; illegally low
poverty wages; forced and unpaid overtime; verbal, physical, and sexual
abuse; pregnancy testing, excessively long work hours causing physical
ailments; disregard for freedom of speech or association; and elaborate
schemes to deceive corporate auditors. 

Workers at a Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co. (Dickies) supplier factory
in Karachi, Pakistan, described to researchers the excessive working hours
to which they are subjected: "12 to 13 hours a day, 30 days per month,"
according to Fazad. 

"If we refuse shifts, are absent, or make a mistake then our supervisors and
other mid-level management beat and slap us," said Bithi, a 22-year-old
sewing operator who has worked four years at a Bangladesh factory producing
undergarments for Bob Barker Co., a major supplier for U.S. state and county
correctional institutions. 

"In a globalized apparel industry where these violations are widespread,...
gathering information about problems is an important first step in our
effort to ensure full respect for the rights of the workers that our
policies are designed to help," wrote Betty Lamoreau, Director of Division
of Purchases for the State of Maine, in letters to Cintas Corp., Blauer
Manufacturing Co., and Bob Barker Co., three of the companies named in the
report.

"We also expect you will take all appropriate steps to work with your
suppliers to ensure that any labor rights and human rights violations are
corrected and conditions for workers are improved," wrote Wisconsin
Secretary of Administration Michael L. Morgan in letters to
Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Co., Fechheimer Brothers Co., Blauer, and
Bob Barker. The other companies named in the report are Lion Apparel,
Propper International, Rocky Brands, and Eagle Industries.

Subsidizing Sweatshops recognizes the cities, states, counties, and school
districts that have pursued sweatfree purchasing policies and are working
proactively to establish the Sweatfree Consortium. 

"If more people were informed about what conditions are like for the workers
who make their clothes, I think that our situation would be different and
there wouldn't be as many violations in the factories," said Elisa, a
31-year-old seamstress making uniforms at the Calypso Apparel factory in
Nicaragua. "We hope that people in other countries will continue to support
us and that we can all progress together."

Subsidizing Sweatshops is available at: http://www.sweatfree.org/subsidizing

###


SweatFree Communities coordinates a national network of grassroots campaigns
that promote humane working conditions in apparel and other labor-intensive
global industries by working with both public and religious institutions to
adopt sweatshop-free purchasing policies. Using institutional purchasing as
a lever for worker justice, the sweatfree movement empowers ordinary people
to create a just global economy through local action. Learn more at
http://www.sweatfree.org <http://www.sweatfree.org/> 

The State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium will facilitate
sweatfree purchasing policy enforcement by pooling resources, sharing
knowledge and expertise, and coordinating standards and code compliance
activities. Learn more at http://www.sweatfree.org/sweatfreeconsortium.

 

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