News Release

October 4, 2004

Renowned Anti-Sweatshop Activists and Bangladeshi Workers to Speak at UI Oct. 6th;

UI Students Against Sweatshops Organizes “The Human Face Behind the Global Economy”

Iowa City, IA—On Wednesday evening October 6^th, at 7pm in room 1505 Seamans Center on the University of Iowa campus, an 18-year-old Bangladeshi garment worker will stand before Iowa students her age and speak about what life is like on the other end of the label—sewing clothes in a factory for 14 hours a day for consumers in far away, wealthy countries. She and a courageous colleague symbolize the hidden human face behind the global economy as participants in an ongoing nationwide tour led by Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee (NLC). UI Students Against Sweatshops (SAS), in the middle of an active campaign against human rights abuses by the UI’s exclusive beverage provider Coca-Cola, has organized the event to remind people of the persistence of sweatshop labor abuse and to rally the community to take action.

Girija Mahajan, SAS member and an undergraduate at the UI, argues, “International trade laws protect corporations’ trademarks, but not the basic rights of workers who make their products. This is simply and obviously wrong. If the label is protected, shouldn’t the 16-year-old girl who made it be, too?”

The National Labor Committee is widely considered to be at the forefront of the modern-day international anti-sweatshop movement. Mr. Kernaghan is often credited with sparking it in the U.S. through his investigation of Kathie Lee Gifford’s clothing line which revealed extensive labor exploitation. The Chicago Tribune has written: “If you’ve ever checked the tag on a polo shirt, wondering where it was made, and whether the workers there are treated fairly, Charles Kernaghan has touched your life.” Mr. Kernaghan, recently featured in the acclaimed documentary The Corporation, will bring the Bangladeshi Workers’ tour to Iowa City together with the NLC’s Senior Associate Barbara Briggs, who is making her second visit to Iowa City. In 2000, she gave a presentation and met with members of SAS on the day before their historic sit-in began at then-President Mary Sue Coleman’s office.

Alexis Bushnell, a UI student and SAS member, supports the NLC’s positive new campaign—“25 Cents More.” She says, “If giant corporations would only agree to pay 25 cents more per garment, we could lift 1.8 million Bangladeshi garment workers and their families out of misery and at least into poverty. The same could be true for the nearly 40 million garment workers all across the developing world. If we join together, we can remake our economy with a human face.”

The Bangladeshi workers and activists who will address the audience on Wednesday include:

“Miss R*,” 18 years old, has been working in the garment factories for the past two years sewing clothing for Wal-Mart and other U.S. companies. She was fired from the last factory she worked at after being spotted attending a meeting with people from the U.S.
“Ms. M*” is 19 years old and has worked in the garment factories since she was 11. In the wake of the recent devastating floods in Bangladesh, Ms. M’s one-room house is still under two feet of filthy water and sewage. She has lost most of her possessions.

[*The tour is not releasing the workers’ full names to protect them from retaliation at home.]

Ms. Sk. Nazma, President of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), started out as a child worker in the garment factories when she was 10 years old. Eventually she attempted to organize one of the first unions in the garment sector—an effort that was met with mass firings, a lock-out and violent repression by factory management. The BCWS’s offices today are a beehive of activity, overflowing with workers who come seeking help and training.
Mr. Rafiq Alam, a former Communications Director for the Institute for Integrated Rural Development, helped to empower people to escape poverty through community projects. He now works with the NLC. Mr. Alam, a skilled researcher and expert on labor rights conditions in Bangladesh, is bilingual and will act as the delegation’s translator.

The event is free and open to the public and is partially funded by UI Student Government. It is being co-sponsored by the Iowa City Federation of Labor, COGS-UE Local 896, AFT 716, UI Amnesty International, UI Campus Greens, the UI Crossing Borders Program, and the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign. PATV will be filming the event.

On Wednesday evening, in addition to international activism, UI SAS will remind the university community of the great amount of work yet to be done here at home. SAS is advocating to the UI that its impressive Code of Conduct be extended to all purchasing and other business relationships. This would include the multi-million dollar contract with the Coca-Cola Corporation, implicated in human rights abuses on several continents. Recently, SAS, UI President David Skorton, and a Senior Vice President at Coke have published contrasting editorials in the Daily Iowan arguing over the best path forward. Further, the visit of the NLC tour on Wednesday evening will remind the University—which does purchase some apparel made in Bangladeshi factories—that constant vigilance is required to achieve full disclosure of all factory locations which produce UI garments, and to ensure that the Code of Conduct is not violated in today’s fast-changing economy. For example, the recent lapse of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement textiles quota is feared to lead to a mass shift of production to China, which does not have strong labor laws in compliance with the UI Code.

UI Students Against Sweatshops meets every Thursday evening at 7pm in the Hoover Room, 255 Iowa Memorial Union.

UI Students Against Sweatshops (UI SAS)

46 Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242

Email: iowasas@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.uiowa.edu/~uisas

Contacts: Ned Bertz, 339-0214, ned-bertz@uiowa.edu

Alexis Bushnell, 936-6621, alexis-bushnell@uiowa.edu

Maria Hope, day 353-2825, evening 354-3277, maria-hope@uiowa.edu

Girija Mahajan, 515-556-4965, girija-mahajan@uiowa.edu

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