Campaign hits firms exploiting workers

By Marvette Darien

NEW YORK: Before paying for that sleek dress, check the label and make sure it's not a product of sweatshops.

Christmas shopping has begun in the United States and elsewhere around the world and, in "the season to be jolly" trade unionists and other labor groups are looking for recognition of workers' rights.

The National Labor Committee, a New York City based group that focuses on worker rights, is urging consumers to hold vigils this season to call attention to garment companies that abuse workers, both at home and abroad.

In a national campaign dubbed the Holiday Season of Conscience, the Committee has brought together religious groups, labor unions, students, women and grassroots organizations to demand an end to child labor and exploitation of workers in the global economy.

The campaign is taking aim at the nation's sweatshops and companies that operate offshore garment assembly plants that allow unfair labor practices.

The Committee wants to "hold companies accountable for human rights and to pay a living wage", says Charles Kernaghan, the organization's executive director. "This three month campaign gives the U.S. people a chance to raise their voices and affirm that the dignity of life and human rights are every bit as important as the corporate bottom line."

The campaign has the support of the nation's largest coalition of unions, the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL CIO), which has called for the inclusion of labor rights standards in international trade agreements.

"The issue of sweatshops is one that crosses borders," says Karen Nussbaum, head of the Working Women's Department at AFL CIO. "As long as employers are allowed to violate the law and reasonable standards, then these actions will be necessary."

Campaigners hope to send a petition with one million signatures to President Clinton and Congress by the Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, which would call for an end to sweatshops. The petition would urge the U.S. government to take action to ensure that companies that operate assembly plants abroad abide by international labor rights and allow independent monitoring of their overseas facilities.

"This is becoming a social movement," says Ellen Braune, a spokeswoman for the Committee. "We've been working on this issue for three years and we find that it really resonates with the U.S. people."

The grassroots activism on the sweatshop issue has attracted national attention, particularly after shoppers forced the apparel company The Gap to establish a code of conduct for its factories abroad after a 1995 boycott of its products.

Last year, the White House brought together several major companies including Nike, Reebok, Liz Claiborne and Nicole Miller along with trades unions and human rights groups, to form the Apparel Industry Partnership.

The organization, in a preliminary accord this April, agreed to the establishment of monitors, the right to unionize and labor and implementation of workplace safety standards in overseas facilities. The group is also considering the creation of a "no sweatshop" label that would assure consumers they were buying products made under acceptable conditions. The group is expected to publish a report on its recommendations by the end of this year.

Some activist groups, like the Washington based International Labor Rights Fund, say that the apparel businesses cannot be trusted to police their own contractors and subcontractors to prevent labor abuses including the exploitation of children.

Likening it to "the fox guarding the chickens," the Fund's general counsel, Terry Collingsworth, argues that companies must instead abide by independent monitoring of their facilities in the South.

Not all companies, however, are bowing to increased scrutiny by subcontractors abroad. Following reports of worker abuse by Nike subcontractors in factories in Indonesia, the shoe and sportswear giant sent former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young on a fact finding mission to clear its name. Young's laudatory report showed that Nike is "paying good, decent wages" to overseas workers, Nike spokesman Vada Manager says.

Braune admits that there is a clear pattern of companies relying on their public relations bodies to shield their image, rather than committing to fundamental change in labor rights.

"These companies have two products: their clothes and their image," she says. "Our campaigns have really attacked their image, and they will do everything in their powers to correct that."

Kernaghan says that the Season of Conscience is not intended to push a boycott of companies that provide low wages and poor working conditions abroad. Yet the National Labor Committee plans to publish, as part of its campaign, a list of those U.S. firms with the worst record of labor and human rights violations.

The Season of Conscience campaign is expected to add momentum to the debate about which companies are observing labor rights abroad. "The general population wants to know the conditions of employment of those who make the goods they buy," says Collingsworth. "Consumers are frustrated that they don't have more information."

-- IPS