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PITTSBURGH IWW TO HOLD FIRST UNION SOLIDARITY NIGHT AT PNC PARK
by Union Observer
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007 at 4:41 PM
pghiwwsweatshop@yahoo.com
Sweatshop abuses in factories sewing Pirates apparel in Bangladesh include forced overtime, numerous women's rights violations, firings and physical violence against workers for cooperating with investigations and organizing labor unions.
PITTSBURGH, PA —The Pittsburgh Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is pleased to be the first organization in Pittsburgh to announce Solidarity Night @ PNC Park for the 2007 baseball season. The Pittsburgh IWW and friends of labor will be celebrating baseball and workers’ rights on April 14, 2007 when the Pirates play the San Francisco Giants.
Members of the IWW will be at Pirates Fest at noon on Sunday, January 28 to discuss the terms of group organized visits to PNC Park . Also at Pirates Fest, the IWW will be offering fans the opportunity to connect with the workers who sew their favorite Pirates’ caps, sweatshirts, jackets, and other popular apparel.
BACKGROUND
Members of the Pittsburgh IWW and Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance have been talking about sweatshops at PNC Park for years. "Fans tell us that they expect their team to be accountable for the factories sewing our home town apparel, but they want to know more,” said Kenneth Miller, IWW member and co-founder of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance. “It’s about time that labor unions combined a night out at PNC Park with some education about Major League Baseball’s relationship with apparel sweatshops. We are confident that local manufacturing workers will understand the need to create solidarity relationships with workers in other parts of the world. We cannot be competitive with people whose Human Rights are systematically violated at work."
Sweatshop abuses in factories sewing Pirates apparel in Bangladesh include forced overtime, numerous women's rights violations, firings and physical violence against workers for cooperating with investigations and organizing labor unions.
The timing for Union Solidarity Night is important. Celeste Taylor, board member of SweatFree Communities, points out that San Francisco is the first city in the United States to contract with an independent monitor to investigate factory conditions where apparel is purchased with tax dollars. But too few people know that the City of Pittsburgh has had similar anti-sweatshop legislation since 1997. Currently, councilperson Doug Shields is requesting that the City Controller look into this ground breaking legislation and why it is being ignored.
Pirates’ attorney Larry Silverman recently asserted that the information about sweatshops provided by activist groups does not adequately demonstrate that Pirates’ apparel is made in sweatshops. IWW organizer and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) activist, Clark Clagett, is astounded by the remark. “We can cross reference Pirates apparel with known factory disclosure lists,” said Clagett. “The data used to demonstrate the Pirates’ complicity in sweatshop labor is the same data accepted by over 160 colleges and universities belonging to the Workers Rights Consortium—one of the few legitimate watchdog organizations that identifies sweatshop workplaces in the global apparel industry.” Clagett goes on to say that for the Pirates to claim that that these are not sweatshops is an embarrassment to Pittsburgh fans, organized labor, and many others concerned about the city’s reputation.
Clagett, Miller, and Taylor would rather not condemn the Pirates, but to work with them to uphold workers’ rights and humane working conditions in the factories that produce Pirates gear. In particular, the Pittsburgh IWW and the National Garments Workers Federation of Bangladesh (NGWF) are prepared to work with the Pirates to investigate factories sewing Pirates/Haddad apparel in Bangladesh.
Contact:
Brett Grote, IWW
Phone: 412-401-2069
Email: PghIWWsweatshop@yahoo.com
Web: http://www.IWW.org or http://www.Sweatfree.org/Baseball
No Sweatshops Bucco
by Union Observer
Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007 at 4:41 PM
pghiwwsweatshop@yahoo.com
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