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Last Updated: 9/7/2007

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City: Los Angeles
State: California
Country: US

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Monday, November 19, 2007 
Anti-sweatshop groups release 2008 "Sweatshop Hall of Shame,"
Urge consumers to "Shop with a Conscience" over the holidays

 
Just in time for the post-Thanksgiving, holiday shopping frenzy, labor rights and human rights organizations in the United States are releasing the 2007-2008 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide.  Created by SweatFree Communities, Sweatshop Watch, and the International Labor Rights Forum, the Shop with a Conscience Guide provides a list of "sweatfree" options for consumers who would like to purchase clothing made under ethical conditions.

"This year's Guide features 24 'sweatfree' companies, offering a diverse selection of apparel and confirming the growing consumer demand for clothing made under fair and humane conditions," said Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director of SweatFree Communities.

The Guide profiles companies that produce clothing in accordance with international fair labor standards, such as ensuring workers healthy and safe working conditions; wages and benefits sufficient to support the basic needs of their families; and treatment with respect and dignity.  In addition, the Guide promotes clothing produced in shops where workers are organized into democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives and have an effective, collective voice in determining their wages and working conditions.

As a counterpoint to the sweat-free consumer guide, anti-sweatshop organizations are also releasing the 2008 Sweatshop Hall of Shame – apparel companies that are allegedly flouting labor laws and basic worker protections.  This year's official inductees are: American Eagle, Carrefour, Cintas, Dickies, Disney, Guess, Hanes, New Era, Speedo, Tommy Hilfiger, Toys "R" Us, and Wal-Mart.

"The 2008 inductees of the Sweatshop Hall of Shame are not necessarily the worst of the worst," said Rini Chakraborty, Executive Director of Sweatshop Watch.  "Rather, these companies have distinguished themselves by turning a blind eye towards well-documented, serious labor violations.  In an industry where sweatshops are the norm rather than the exception, these companies 'merely' exemplify the types of violations rampant within the global garment industry: paying workers poverty wages for long, hard hours of work under appalling conditions."

Bama Athreya, Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Forum, added: "The recent discovery of forced child labor in a GapKids sweatshop in New Delhi, India serves as a wake-up call for an entire industry that thrives on cutting costs without considering the consequences.  Companies have a legal and ethical responsibility to use the same level of resources, creativity, and ingenuity for selling their products towards ending sweatshops.  This tragedy is also a reminder to consumers that their spending choices have real consequences. This holiday season, we hope that consumers will be part of the solution to the sweatshop problem."

The 2007-08 Shop with a Conscience Guide features Autonomie Project, DeMoulin Apparel, Donnelly/Colt, EthixSupply, Fair Trade Sports, Fair Trade Uniforms, Jack Victor, Justice Clothing, Just Shirts, Kenneth Gordon, Leather Coats, Maggie's Organics, Metro Sportswear, Nicaraguan Garment Workers Fund, North County Fair Trade, No Sweat Apparel, Protexall, Rage Baby, Resistol, Schott N.Y.C., SterlingWear, Traditions Fair Trade, Union Maid Screen Printing, and The Working World.  The Shop with a Conscience Guide, as well as the Sweatshop Hall of Shame, can be found at: www.sweatfree.org/shopping.




11:25 PM 
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Saturday, November 10, 2007 
The following is information on an action today organized by the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), protesting the recent discovery of child/ slave labor at GAP's supplier factory in India.
Child Slave Labor Uncove(RED)
Protest Today at the GAP!

Join us Saturday, November 10, 2007 as we protest child/slave labor and imperial globalization at the GAP.

We will meet at GAP Kids, 3229 Lakeshore Ave, Oakland, CA and head down to the main GAP store down the street, next to the Arizmendi Bakery.

Please wear red! This way we can stand out in the crowd and take on GAP's own Desi(red) T-shirts.

WHAT HAPPENED
• Kids ages 8-15 were working in a sweatshop smeared with excrement for a GAP subcontractor in India, producing GAP Kids clothes.
• Children were sewing girls' blouses that would have been sold for about $40 each, but some had not been paid, and had been sold by families in dire poverty.
• Crying kids were "hit with a rubber pipe" or had"oily cloths stuffed into their mouths."

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING
• Sweatshop labor is a symptom of inequality caused by economic globalization and free market policies allowing corporations to roam the world in search of lowest wages.
• Erosion of U.S. labor rights and enforcement leads to domestic sweatshops, e.g. Los Angeles area sweatshops making clothes sold at Nordstrom, Sears, Target, Forever 21. Child labor is also a problem in the U.S., including undocumented youth and children of migrant workers.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Tell The GAP to guarantee just labor practices.
• Call for labeling of labor conditions on garments (just like nutrition labels).
• Buy real sweatshop-free clothes:
     shopping guide at www.SweatshopWatch.org
     online stores at www.JusticeClothing.com and www.NoSweatApparel.com.
• Learn more at www.SweatshopWatch.org, www.LaborRights.org, and www.StudentsAgainstSweatshops.org
• For examples of labor movements resisting corporate and imperialist globalization in India see the New Trade Union Initiative at http://www.ntui.org.in.

Sources:
• "Indian 'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap," The Observer, October 28, 2007, http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2200590,00.html.
• "Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image," The Observer,
• "'Gap sweatshop children' saved in India raid," The Telegraph, October 30, 2007, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/30/wgap130.xml.
Desis Ti(RED) of Excuses and Coverups • South Asians Say No to Sweatshop Labor!



5:52 PM 
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 
Monday October 22, 2007 8:01 PM

By ANITA CHANG

Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) - A fire at an unlicensed shoe factory killed 37 people and injured more than a dozen, Chinese authorities said Monday, one of the deadliest industrial accidents this year in a country plagued with dangerous workplaces.

The fire started Sunday night in a workshop making shoe uppers, said a woman surnamed Zhou in the information office of the Communist Party committee in Putian, an export manufacturing town in southeastern Fujian province. It was likely caused by an electric wire that caught fire, according to a spokeswoman for the city police.

None of the 56 workers at the factory escaped unhurt.

Putian is a center of shoe manufacturing in China and the export business has helped turn Fujian into one of the country's most prosperous provinces.

With more than 3,000 shoe factories in the area, Putian exported more than $1.1 billion in shoes last year, according to state media.

While China's coal mines are known to be the world's most dangerous, safety violations are also rife in the country's many factories. Thousands die each year in fires, explosions and other accidents often blamed on insufficient safety equipment and workers ignoring safety rules.

Last year, 14,382 people died in 12,065 industrial accidents, not including fires, according to the State Administration of Work Safety. The agency recorded three major blazes in 2006, killing a total of 38 people.

Sunday's fire was one of the first pieces of bad news reported by the state-controlled media since high-level Communist Party meetings opened in Beijing nine days ago.

The factory fire was not the only workplace accident in China on Sunday - a fireworks plant exploded in Chongqing municipality, killing 16. The blast leveled several houses and left 15 injured and one missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The cause has not been determined.

The Feida Shoe Upper Manufacturing Workshop was located in a residential area of Putian, but the fire did not affect nearby homes, Zhou said.

She said police detained the owner and her husband, Huang Shubin and Chen Zongfei.

Zhou said the workshop was operating without a license. Huang registered the business with the local government in 2003, but the license was revoked in 2004 after officials found it illegally combined work, storage and living areas, Zhou said.

Xinhua, citing provincial information office director Zhu Qing, said the business was licensed, but had been warned in May and September to improve working conditions to meet safety standards. Telephones at Zhu's office were not answered on Monday.

A deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety went to Fujian to lead an investigation, agency spokeswoman An Yuanjie said. She had no further details.

The death toll in Sunday's fire was among the highest in an accident so far this year. The worst accident in China this year was in August, when 181 coal miners died when a dike on a swollen river broke, flooding two mines.

Shoe factories in Putian were accused in the mid-1990s of being toxic workplaces for their predominantly female work forces. Many of the factories were found to use glue containing benzene, a cancer-causing chemical.

2:26 AM 
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 

Council President Eric Garcetti, author of Los Angeles' landmark sweat-free ordinance, has introduced a resolution in support of S. 367 (Dorgan).  The Dorgan bill, titled the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act, would prohibit the import, export, and/or sale of goods made in factories or workshops that violate core labor standards and prohibit the procurement of sweatshop goods by the U.S. government.

The resolution will be heard tomorrow, October 24, 2007 in the Rules and Government Committee.  Please join Sweatshop Watch and come testify in support of this important resolution!  The committee hearing starts at 3 p.m. in City Hall Room 1070.

For a complete analysis of the Dorgan bill, including recommendations for strengthening its enforcement, please read the Position Paper developed by SweatFree Communities.


2:13 AM 
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Tuesday, October 23, 2007 

Sweatshop Watch is a proud co-sponsor of the statewide immigrant rights conference -


MOVING FORWARD:
BUILDING A SHARED VISION FOR CALIFORNIA'S IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN 2008


Date:          Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Place:       Marriot-Manhattan Beach
                (near LAX airport)
                1400 Park View Ave
                Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Time:          9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
                (Registration begins at 8:00 a.m.)
Cost:          $50/person for non-profit agencies.
                Registration fee includes materials and lunch.


In the absence of federal immigration reform, California has witnessed a reinvigoration of efforts to pass laws and policies that threaten immigrants in our state.  While the challenges are great, California has at the same time shown leadership in developing programs and policies that help immigrants integrate into the state.  We can build upon this foundation by developing and implementing a coordinated statewide plan to ensure that negative laws and proposals fail and that immigrant voices and concerns are reflected at all levels of the political debate.

The goal of the conference is to provide a unique opportunity for immigrant rights, grassroots, and community-based organizations from all regions of the state to discuss, learn, and strategize about current issues facing California's immigrants.

Sweatshop Watch's Executive Director (Rini Chakraborty) and Worker Organizer (Lupe Hernandez) will be speaking at the conference.  Please join us for this important event!  For more information or to register please visit the California Immigrant Policy Center or call Frankie Nelson at: (916) 448-6762.


The Statewide Immigrant Rights Conference is co-sponsored by:
American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, California Immigrant Policy Center, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, Central Valley Partnership, Justice Overcoming Boundaries, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote, National Immigration Law Center, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network, Strengthening Our Lives, Sweatshop Watch and the United Farm Workers Foundation.



6:41 PM 
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Friday, October 19, 2007 
The following urgent request comes from the Maquila Solidarity Network, a sister organization of Sweatshop Watch based in Canada.

Background

Workers at the Vaqueros Navarra blue jean factory in Tehuacan, Puebla, Mexico who are fighting for the right to be represented by an independent, democratic union are being harassed, illegally dismissed, pressured to sign resignation letters, and threatened with a factory closure.  A number of the illegally fired workers have filed complaints for unjust dismissal, but the local labour authorities are delaying acting on their cases while the company intimidates and dismisses more workers – over 50 in the last week.

The workers are currently represented by a corrupt "official union" that is affiliated with the PRI state government and was imposed on them by their employer.  In July, they filed a legal request to be represented by the independent September 19 union, which is affiliated with Mexico's Authentic Labour Front (FAT), but the state labour authorities have used bureaucratic manoeuvres to delay holding a union representation vote.

Meanwhile, management has brought in another official union, which is being given free reign of the factory to recruit members and intimidate workers.  Now there are rumours that two additional official unions are getting involved in the dispute in order to confuse the workers and further delay the process.

Since the PRI controls the state government and the local conciliation and arbitration boards, and all the official unions involved are affiliated with the PRI, considerable pressure will be needed to convince state authorities to respect the workers' rights.

Take Action!
Please join MSN in calling on the Puebla State Governor, Mario Marín Torres, to intervene in the case to ensure that all workers fired for exercising their right to freedom of association are immediately reinstated and that a free and fair union representation vote (recuento) is held without further delay.

E-mail a letter to the Governor today, with copies to the state Secretary of Labour and the President of the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board in Puebla. A sample letter appears below.

For more information on the workers' struggle, including a letter from the workers to the brands buying from Grupo Navarra and a joint letter from the brands to the Puebla state authorities, expressing their support for a prompt and democratic union representation vote, go to: www.maquilasolidarity.org.

SAMPLE LETTER

[Date]

Mario Marín Torres
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Puebla
Casa Aguayo, 14 Ote. 1204, Barrio El Alto
Puebla, Pue. C. P. 72000 -- Mexico
E-mail: gobernador@puebla.gob.mx

Estimado Gobernador Marín Torres:

I am writing to urge your government to take immediate steps to ensure that the workers at the Vaqueros Navarra factory in Tehuacan, Puebla have the right to be represented by the union of their choice without employer or government interference.

We have received disturbing reports indicating that management at Vaqueros Navarra has unjustly dismissed more than 100 workers – 50 of whom have been dismissed in the last few days – for the crime of exercising their fundamental human right to organize for the purposes of bargaining collectively with their employer.

Reports also indicate that the company is harassing and intimidating workers affiliated with the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Costura, Confección, Similares y Conexos Diecinueve de Septiembre while allowing organizers affiliated with the Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM) to actively campaign within the factory, despite the fact that it does not hold title to the collective agreement, something which is illegal under Mexican labour law.

Meanwhile, the Junta Local de Conciliación y Arbitraje has accepted other petitions for title to the collective agreement thereby clearly demonstrating its intention to prolong the conflict for an indefinite period, to the benefit of the employer and to the detriment of the workers.

We would therefore strongly urge you to personally intervene in this case directly with Grupo Navarra, in order to ensure that the company does the following:
     * Immediately ceases the ongoing dismissals and harassment of workers associated with the September 19 union;
     * Immediately ceases its active promotion of the CROM within the factory;
     * Immediately ceases all management interference with the right of the workers to freely select the union and union representatives of their choice; and
     * Immediately reinstates all workers who have been unjustly dismissed.

Moreover we strongly request that you use your authority as constitutional governor to ensure that state labour authorities under your charge respond immediately to the workers' petition to be represented by the September 19 union by holding, without further delay, a free and fair recuento by secret ballot and in the facilities of the Junta Local de Conciliación y Arbitraje de Tehuacan.

Our organization and others around the world will be monitoring the situation closely to ensure that the recuento is held without further delay and in a free and fair and transparent manner in which the internationally recognized right of workers to be represented by the union of their free choice without employer or government interference is fully respected.

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this important matter.  We look forward to receiving a report on the actions the Puebla labour authorities are taking to ensure that the Vaqueros Navarra workers' associational rights are respected.

Yours truly,

[Your Name]

Cc:
José Antonio López Malo Capellini, Secretario del Trabajo y Competitividad del Estado de Puebla
E-mail: antonio.lopezmalo@puebla.gob.mx

Jorge Ramos Lobato, Presidente de la Junta Local de Conciliación y Arbitraje del Estado de Puebla
E-mail: jorge.ramos@puebla.gob.mx

Jorge Nakid, Admistrative Director, Grupo Navarra
E-mail: j.nakid@gruponavarra.com.mx

5:39 PM 
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Thursday, September 20, 2007 
This week, U.S. Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will offer the DREAM Act as an amendment to H.R. 1585, the Department of Defense Authorization bill.  The DREAM Act amendment would provide a path to legalization for students who attend college for two years or serve in the military for two years.

This may be the best chance for the DREAM Act to become law.  If the amendment passes, the DREAM Act would stand an excellent chance of becoming law this year.  The amendment will need 60 votes to pass. Please call both your Senators today!

What is the DREAM Act?
Over 65,000 undocumented immigrant students graduate from high school each year.  These students have been raised in the United States and their families pay taxes, yet these students have no legal mechanism to remain in the U.S.  The DREAM Act would enable them to adjust their immigration status and contribute their education to the nation's benefit.

Specifically, the DREAM ACT would provide a 6-year path to legal status starting after high school graduation for undocumented individuals brought to the U.S. as children more than 5 years ago.  To qualify for legal status, they would have to demonstrate good moral character and, within the 6-year period, either graduate from community college, complete two years towards a four-year degree, or serve at least two years in the U.S. military.

The FACTS about the DREAM Act

The DREAM Act is narrowly tailored
It would apply only to individuals brought to the U.S. at least 5 years ago as children, who have grown up here, and who have remained in school and out of trouble.  They could get a green card 6 years after graduating from high school if during that time they continue on to college or serve in the military. 

The DREAM Act is not a "mini-amnesty"
At its core, amnesty is forgiveness for wrongdoing.  That does not apply to DREAM Act students who were all brought here years ago as children.  The DREAM Act rewards them for staying in school or serving our country.

The DREAM Act would benefit taxpayers
The DREAM Act would provide hope to immigrant students and lead many more of them to remain in school.  As an example of the fiscal benefits of this, a RAND study showed that a 30-year-old Mexican immigrant woman who graduates from college will pay $5,300 more in taxes and cost $3,900 less in government expenses each year than if she had dropped out of high school.  This amounts to an annual fiscal benefit of over $9,000 per person every year, money that can be used to pay for the education of other children.  State and local taxpayers have already invested in the education of these children in elementary and secondary school and deserve to get a return on their investment

What You Can Do
Your phone calls and letters make a BIG difference! Send an e-mail message to both your Senators today, urging them to support the DREAM Act amendment.  Contact both your U.S. Senators by calling the US Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 with the following message:

            "Please vote for the DREAM Act Amendment to H.R. 1585 so that immigrant
            students brought here as children can realize their potential and their dreams."



3:27 AM 
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 
By Pablo Bachelet, McClatchy Newspapers
Mon Sep 17, 5:20 PM ET

WASHINGTON — Chiquita Brands International , the Cincinnati-based company famous for its banana brand, on Monday made the first $5 million installment on a $25 million fine that it's agreed to pay as part of a guilty plea to charges that it supported a right-wing terrorist group in Colombia.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth approved the plea deal during a court hearing at which a prosecutor said that Chiquita had made payments to both left-wing and right-wing terrorist groups to buy protection for its employees and facilities in Colombia.

In addition to the fine, the plea agreement places the corporation on five years probation and requires that it set up an internal ethics training program. Last week, the Justice Department decided that no Chiquita executives would be charged.

"This was a difficult situation for the company,'' James Thompson, Chiquita's general counsel, said after the hearing. "We were being extorted and we had to protect the well-being of our employees and their families.''

But Jonathan Malis, the Department of Justice prosecutor, called the payments "morally repugnant'' and said the company may have protected the lives of its workers but "fueled violence everywhere else.''

The charges that Chiquita provided material support to a terrorist organization uncovered a grim underworld of corporate protection money given to Colombian armed groups accused of massive kidnappings, killings and displacement of innocent civilians.

Malis said Chiquita's payments first went to left-wing guerrilla groups and then after 1997 to right-wing paramilitary organizations known by their Spanish acronym as AUC.

The company made more than 100 payments to the AUC, totaling $1.7 million, until they were stopped in February 2004 . The payments were illegal after September 2001, when the State Department declared the AUC a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors argued that the company continued to pay the AUC even after some company officers expressed fears that they were breaking U.S. laws.

The company still faces civil lawsuits by Colombian victims, which the company says it will fight "vigorously.''

"Chiquita has already been the victim of extortion in Colombia,'' company spokesman Michael Mitchell said in an e-mail. "We will not allow ourselves to become extortion victims in the United States .''



The AUC has been accused of the massacre of many Colombian civilians [GALLO/GETTY].

1:14 AM 
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007 
The following is an open letter from Eva Padilla Carrera and the Workers of the Maquila.  Many thanks to our friends at Enlace for sharing this appeal.

Compañeras & compañeros,

In 2001 the company SWIFT GALEY began operations in the city of Torreon, Coahuila, to produce denim and gabardine. The work shifts were 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. with inhumane conditions, as in all maquiladoras.

This past August 23, the company separated us by teams and informed us that they were going to close the factory, that we should go home. They left 1500 workers without employment.

Up to today, the company has not given us severance pay as required by law. Indignant for this violation and without a way to defend ourselves, we have decided to conduct a protest in front of the company to demand that it give us a satisfactory response and that it follow the law.

We are pressuring the company in the only way that we can, a protest outside of the factory to impede the company from taking out the machinery and leaving the country without resolving the problem with us the workers.

Right now, the company is pressuring us workers that are outside of the plant (they've turned off the electricity and the water and they've removed the chairs that we were using there). The majority of us are women and mothers, and we do not have the necessary resources to continue this fight.

We need the most indispensable support to continue with this protest, in addition to research on this company in order to pressure it in other countries.

We hope that we can count on your solidarity.

Make a donation to the el Centro de Apoyo a trabajadoras De la maquila de la Laguna A.C. (the Maquiladora Workers Support Center of La Laguna), by making a deposit to the bank BBVA BANCOMER. The account number is 0157310765, Route 5987, Branch TORREON SORIANA REVOLUCION. Or you can send a check made out to "Centro de Apoyo a trabajadoras De la maquila de la Laguna A.C." y enviarlo a Calle Azteca No. 30, Colonia Nueva Provincia, Código Postal 27277, Torreón, Coahuila, México.

If you have any questions or information about the company, please communicate them to Eva Padilla by email eva242@latinmail.com or by telephone: country code 52, number 871-209-6743.

SINCERELY,
Eva Padilla Carrera and the Workers of the Maquila

6:43 PM 
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Monday, September 10, 2007 
Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based nonprofit organization founded in June 2005, aims to monitor corporate behavior and to advocate for workers' rights in China. SACOM recently launched the following on-line petition urging Disney to end alleged sweatshop violations in China.

Background
Before the opening of Disney's 5th theme park, Hong Kong Disneyland, SACOM joined a group of university student activists who identified themselves as "Disney Hunters" to launch the "Looking for Mickey Mouse's Conscience" Campaign in September of 2005.

According to SACOM, Disney's products such as children's books and toys are made with the blood, sweat, and tears of young Chinese workers.  "Disney has a wide audience and should show its leadership in promoting global sustainability. But tragically it has failed to do so," commented SACOM.

SACOM is calling on Disney to:
     (1) ensure its supplier factories comply with Chinese labor laws;
     (2) give every Chinese worker at every Disney supplier a written labor contract and a copy of Disney's Code of Conduct in Chinese;
     (3) collaborate with independent NGOs to provide workers at all Disney suppliers with labor rights training; and
     (4) respect workers' right to bargain collectively by facilitating mechanisms for worker representation at all Disney suppliers.

For more details, read the full research reports in English or Chinese on  SACOM's website.

Take Action!
Please sign the on-line petition today! It takes less than a minute to do so!

5:31 PM 
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007 
Greetings!

On behalf of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF), SweatFree Communities, and Sweatshop Watch, we would like to invite your company to be listed in this year's Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide.

Created by various labor rights and human rights organizations in the United States, the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide provides a list of "sweatfree" options to the growing number of consumers who would like to purchase clothing made under ethical conditions. The Guide features clothing made in accordance with international fair labor standards, including:
     · Healthy and safe working conditions;
     · Wages and benefits sufficient to support the basic needs of workers' families; and
     · Treatment of workers with respect, dignity, and justice.

We believe that the only way to ensure that clothing is made under sweatfree conditions is by guaranteeing workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. For this reason, we promote clothing produced by democratic and independent worker associations where workers have an effective, collective voice in determining their wages and working conditions. To view the current edition of the Guide, please visit Sweatshop Watch's or SweatFree Communities' Shop with a Conscience page.

If you would like your apparel product to be listed in the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide and believe your factories comply with the sweatfree criteria, please review the application instructions, and submit your completed application web-form, no later than Friday, September 21, 2007. Please note that we will not accept any incomplete applications, so be sure to answer all questions thoroughly.

If you have questions or require assistance in completing the application form, please contact us at: consumerguide@sweatfree.org. Thank you for your commitment to workers' rights and sweatfree apparel.

Sincerely,
Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide Review Committee
International Labor Rights Forum
SweatFree Communities
Sweatshop Watch

8:45 PM 
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007 
On the eve of Wal-Mart's publication of its 2006 Ethical Sourcing report, Wal-Mart Watch (US-based coalition) and SACOM (Hong Kong-based NGO) issued the following joint statement (see below).

In light of the recent flurry of toy recalls, you may also be interested to read SACOM's new report on toys produced for Wal-Mart.

SACOM conducted interviews between June, 2005 and December, 2006 with eighty-two workers at five Wal-Mart toy supplier factories in the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong province. According to SACOM, researchers uncovered widespread illegal and unethical labor practices that previously eluded Wal-Mart auditors. During off-site interviews, workers at the five Wal-Mart toy factories gave SACOM researchers detailed allegations of wage and hour violations, unsafe working conditions, unsanitary worker housing, harsh punishments and heavy fines, deprivation of labor contract protection, non-provision of social security, illegal firings, and suppression by factory management.

According to SACOM, widespread accounts of labor violations in Wal-Mart's supplier factories indicate that Wal-Mart's attempt to improve working conditions in China and other countries is not a serious one. SACOM asserts that Wal-Mart's low-cost sourcing strategy coupled with its porous monitoring system encourages suppliers to violate even the most basic laws and ethical standards.

The full report, The Story of Toys Made in China for Wal-Mart (June 2007), is available in English and in Chinese.  For more information, you can also read Wal-Mart Watch's recent report, Wal-Mart's Global Labor Violations (2007).

*******************************************************************************
SACOM AND WAL-MART WATCH JOINT STATEMENT ON
THE RELEASE OF WAL-MART'S 2006 ETHICAL SOURCING REPORT


15 Aug 2007

Wal-Mart Watch executive director David Nassar today released the following statement in response to Wal-Mart's 2006 Ethical Sourcing Report:

"Wal-Mart's Report on Ethical Sourcing is an attempt to avoid responsibility for the problems the company itself has created."

"In recent years, in factory after factory that supplies goods for Wal-Mart, widespread cases of blatant illegal and unethical labor abuses have been uncovered. Today, we are releasing another report produced by Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) that shows serious labor violations in toy factories in China ranging from wage and hour violations to unsafe working conditions to unsanitary housing to coerced audit responses from workers."

"In light of recent toy recalls, it is not a stretch to draw a connection between the pressure Wal-Mart puts on its suppliers for low cost merchandise, the problems at these factories and the safety issues of the products. If Wal-Mart and the Walton family were truly committed to improving product safety and worker conditions, the company would spend money to do it, not distract with a report that glosses over the serious problems within its supply chain."

8:18 PM 
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Wednesday, September 05, 2007 
Background
This year, Congress and the Bush Administration squandered the opportunity to fix this country's flawed immigration system. Instead of trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform, however, certain Republicans in Congress are pushing for more punitive, anti-immigrant measures -- laws that would spell disaster for immigrants and citizens alike. What's worse is that the hostile, divisive debate in the nation's capital has spurred countless anti-immigrant initiatives at the state and local levels by opportunistic politicians who believe they can win close races for city council or the state Legislature by falsely claiming that immigrants are ruining schools or bankrupting local hospitals.

Immigration Enforcement and Border Security Act of 2007
On August 2, 2007, Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) introduced the "Immigration Enforcement and Border Security Act of 2007" (S. 1984). This bill would punish immigrant families, add border fences and agents, and increase detention centers and deportations. For more information on the bill, you may view the text of the bill.

Take Action!
Join the American Friends Service Committee for national call-in days on September 6-7, 2007 to stop anti-immigrant policies. It's time we tell our Congressional representatives and the President to stop the witch-hunt against hard-working, tax-paying immigrants and to pass fair, humane immigration reform!

Call toll-free 1-888-732-9404, and ask to be connected to your Senator's office. Call both your Senators with the following message:

"I urge you to oppose S. 1984, the Immigration Enforcement and Border Security Act of 2007 (S. 1984). More fences, walls, detention centers, agents, raids, and round-ups of immigrants are not the answer. Instead, we need workable solutions that keep immigrant families together and provide a path to citizenship for all who have built a life here."


 The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization which works for social justice and peace. AFSC welcomes groups to circulate and use the toll-free number in support of non-partisan goals and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may be used to support partisan lobbying or work. (This nonpartisan disclaimer must be included in publications of the toll-free number).



2:39 AM 
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007 
Join Sweatshop Watch for the San Francisco Premiere Screening of Made in LA - a remarkable documentary about immigration, sweatshops and the courage of three extraordinary women.


Thursday, September 6, 2007
Starting at 7:00 p.m.
Roxie Theatre
3117 16th Street (near Valencia Street)
San Francisco
This event is FREE!


"A rousing true story of solidarity, perseverance and triumph." -- Variety

Made in LA follows the remarkable story of three Latina immigrants working in garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from trendy clothing retailer Forever 21. Compelling, humorous, and deeply human, Made in LA is a story about immigration, the power of unity and the courage it takes to raise your voice. In English and Spanish with bilingual subtitles. Sweatshop Watch is proud to have supported this important documentary film since its inception.

Post-film discussion with filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar; Guadalupe Hernandez, one of the workers featured in the film; and Katie Quan, Associate Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center and Co-Founder of Sweatshop Watch.

For more information, watch the trailer at PBS' POV.

Please RSVP for this free screening through eVITE.


Unable to attend? Please consider making a donation to Sweatshop Watch.

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Presented by the UC Berkeley Labor Center and Active Voice. Co-sponsored by KQED with Amnesty International Western Regional Office, Asian Immigrant Women Advocates, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, Global Exchange, ITVS, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and Sweatshop Watch.




3:47 AM 
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Monday, August 20, 2007 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 20, 2007

Co-authored by Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Ammiano, the San Francisco Sweatfree Procurement Ordinance was unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors on September 6, 2005. The ordinance prohibits the city government from purchasing goods made in sweatshops. Now, two years later, there has yet to be one city contract that complies with the ordinance.

The city has already or is about to grant waivers for the first five contracts that should be covered by the law – Sheriff (two contracts), Fire, Muni, and Parking and Traffic. These contracts make up the majority of garments that the city purchases. With these blanket waivers, the companies supplying the City of San Francisco, paid for by our taxes, will not be held accountable for their likely sweatshop abuses for the next three and, most likely, five years (the contract terms are 3 years with 2 one-year extensions). Additionally, the waivers will set an unfortunate precedent for contracts to come.

Not only is San Francisco undermining its own ordinance, it will be dragging down standards for the rest of the country. There are over 170 cities, states and school districts around the U.S. that have passed or are working to pass similar sweatfree ordinances. Many are watching to see how the most progressive city can handle an ordinance charged to improve working conditions internationally.

"After all the work we put into writing and passing a strong ordinance in order to fight sweatshops I think it is unfortunate that the City cannot yet meet this important commitment," expressed Supervisor Tom Ammiano. "There is unfortunately a gap between our goals and our actions as a city on the sweatfree front, but I look forward to working to bridge that gap during the remainder of my tenure here at the Board."

Mayor Newsom promised an ordinance "with teeth" two years ago when he allocated funding for an independent, non-profit monitor to investigate the supply chain of the city purchases. The city could have prevented much of the current crisis of the ordinance by officially signing the contract already awarded in December of 2006 to the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC). The WRC is the same monitor that the City of Los Angeles has hired to investigate the chain of suppliers. The fact that it has taken over nine months to become official has merely been blamed by the city on "bureaucracy."

"San Francisco never should have negotiated these exemptions without first having a monitor empowered to request disclosure and investigate factory sites," says Tom Hayden, former CA state senator and San Francisco Sweatfree Advisory Group member. "With this decision to avoid compliance of the historic sweatfree ordinance, San Francisco risks losing its standing as a global leader and instead sets a negative example for other cities."

10:02 PM 
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