March Madness Against Sweatshops

Russell Athletics and U PITT Collegiate Licensing

Who are the workers that sew PITT apparel and what do they want from Chancellor Nordenberg?

Peterson Events Center 4.9.10

Dennis Brutus and Howard Zinn Tribute – April 18, 2010

Pittsburgh City Council Post Agenda April 27, 2010

Sweatshop Media Problems

• Start adding examples… what is the media looking for/what are we giving them

• How are we going to break this media cycle?

THANK YOUPITT Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

Program•Joe Hill/Paul Robeson meditation. - Dennis Brutus Tribute Announcement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Kxq9uFDes

•Talk: Russell Athletics and Pitt Collegiate Licensing•Empowered by the people in this room•7th Inning Stretch starts at 8:45 – 9 PM•Announcements•Discussion ends at 10 PM, but please feel welcome to stick around chat

Starting points

•We believe that everyone has Human Rights and we are empowered to protect the human rights of people everywhere. •A fair wage can be objectively measured•Contracts can be enforced

Kenneth’s promise – I will get you the information you are looking for:nosweatshopsbucco@yahoo.com412 867 9213

What is a sweatshop?

ContractorContractor ContractorEach one takes a cutEXAMPLES:• Construction• Sodexo at PITT• Cleaning Contractor at

Camden Yards

Electricity Transportation

WORKFORCEAdolescent women/NOT children

Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and Free Trade Zones (FTZs) are aimed at changing agrarian societies into industrial societies.

Industrialization It is Structural Adjustment. •Taking public resources and privatizing them. •Making public investments to benefit private industry.•Undermining local governments and civil society.

www.FIELDOFSCHEMES.org

What are the Pittsburgh Pirates selling? Roberto Clemente – this is what Solidarity looks like

MAZ – this is the shot heard around the world

What do the Pittsburgh Pirates and U PITT’s logos have in common?Why are we targeting the Pittsburgh Pirates rather than Walmart or Nike?

Public Works Administration VS Today’s Economic Stimulus Package

An exhibit of WPA artwork is at the Frick Art museum now. Members of PASCA like to have meetings and see art exhibits at the

SAME TIME.

DOMESTIC VS EXPORTSupporting the domestic apparel industry in places like Iraq and

Afghanistan is a PEACE PLAN

In 1964 Dennis Brutus’s campaign to expel Apartheid South Africa from the Olympic Games was successful.

What did this have to do with the Cold War and segregation in the United States?

It’s all about the cotton and who spins it. It’s about MLK’s triple evils of racism, imperialism and poverty.

Multi Fiber Arrangement 1973 - 2003 - a US govt. policyto stop peasant demands for land reform

Encouraged 110 small counties to build Export Processing Zones

Urged US garment manufactures to relocate – created stability for US textiles “Assembled in Honduras of US components”

What do we know about university logos?What does it represent to you?

Should the Administration care about working conditions where the logo is sown?

United Students Against Sweatshops and the Workers Rights Consoritum

• A chain of accountability from our university community to the shop floor for factories sewing our collegiate logos

• Reliable monitoring• Nearly ZERO ability to

coordinate university responses to worker complaints

The Full Public Disclosure story… Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin… lay it on the line.

Student Activism and the “academic standard” of the WRC – the Academy sets a good example for private industry.

Russell Athletic is where we are TEN YEARS after this policy victory

MLK Day Bangladesh 2010Thank you Senators Specter and Casey

Amin/War on Want - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlO9u-wPNEY

WRC investigator yells FIRE FIRE

RUSSELLGILDANWe have been here

before.

There has to be a REGIONAL organizing drive in Central America.

The $3 Fruit of the Loom PITT logo t-shirts are worth NOTHING!

• The university is eating the ENTIRE cost of this t-shirt to support it’s marketing program.

• There is NO COORELATION between the cost of logo athletic apparel the cost of labor

FIRE! FIRE! Use you “sweatfree” policy now, please.

• UPITT/CMU/Indiana University of PA/Minor League Baseball

• Collegiate Licensing Corporation

• Russell Athletics• Fruit of the Loom• Warren Buffet

Russell is somewhat unique in that it is a brand that owns its own factories… they have 8 in Honduras.

Fruit of the Loom is the manufacturer of the $3 shirts advertised in the PITT bookstore… factories in El Salvador and Nicaragua.

October 2007 – Jan 1020Negotiations are not a dance!

Russell and Universities ignore the worker testimony – cutting contracts is a LAST option

80 Universities (not PITT) out of 200 + WRC affiliates dump Russell Athletic.

Students take protests to Target and the NBA.

---What calculations do the WRC

staff make when the launch an investigation?

Why didn’t Chancellor Nordenberg hear?

150 Pitt Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Sports Fans and Students asked to respond and support the Russell workers.

These decisions are being made in the sports merchandizing department.

How do we move from a business decision to and decision process that represents the universities mission and obligation to Human Rights?

Workable VS Bogus Anti Sweatshop PoliciesWORKABLE – for the purpose of protecting workers rights

• Independent Monitoring• Focus on Freedom of

Association• Fire alarm approach to

researching complaints

EXAMPLES• Worker testimony• Workers Rights Consortium

NOTE: Credible approaches emphasis HUMAN RIGHTS, and standards set forth by the International Labor Organization (ILO)

BOGUS – for the purpose of protecting brand reputations

• Monitoring that is paid for by brands and labels and retailers

• “SweatFree” Certifications

EXAMPLES, oh there are so many • Fair Labor Association• Nike’s auditors• World Wide Responsible Apparel Project

NOTE: The “Made in the USA” label is not a designation that tells us anything about working conditions

WORKABLE Anti Sweatshop Policies in Western PA

Procurement• City of Pittsburgh• Allegheny County• Commonwealth of PA

- Potential PASCA likes - • Pittsburgh Public Schools• Pennsylvania Interscholastic

Athletics• Allegheny County Airport

Authority

Licensing• Carnegie Mellon U• Duquesne U• Carlow U

- Potential PASCA likes - • Pittsburgh Pirates• U PITT• Woodland School District Hills

does licensing• PA State System of Higher Ed

Invitations to Anti Sweatshop Policy Meeting on April 27 – 2 PMWe are no longer implementing policies proactively – we are responding to worker testimony.

We are remediating sweatshop factory conditions now.

What is so hard about implementing these policies?

Politicians/Organizational leadership•Have to acknowledge that they are currently sourcing from sweatshops•This is not a “Made in the USA” policy•“I don’t know”

Administrators•Are not supposed to be in the news. •Avoid judgment calls•This requires a new kinds of inter governmental cooperation•Want to avoid comparisons with other institutions

Intergovernmental Cooperation: ROCKSALT

Intercollegiate Cooperation: MARCH MADDNESS

Government and Universities Working

Together?

What is the cost to Pittsburgh interest groups of demanding

that the Pirates protect the rights of workers sewing our

team apparel?

What is it is worth? What is the value – to people in

Western PA – of a global apparel union organizing drive?

How do we make this demand and DELIVER SOLIDARITY?

BOARD MEMBERSAppointed by the Mayor and Chief Executive

Democratic Party “HEAVY LIFTERS”

John ChalovichChairman

Electrial Workers Union

William H. CurtisLocal Minister

Darlene M. Harris President of City council

Edie ShapiraPsychologist

Anthony J. RossWayne Fontana

State Senator

Sean LoganState Senator

These people have NEVER disagreed on ANY agenda item in public. How fast can you count to one billion?

How to WIN a WRC affiliation campaign…• Do not accept limitations on who

can participate in bargaining.• Build a REGIONAL student

organization.• File complaint against the U Pitt

Administration with the PA Human Relations Commission.

• Do not accept Free Speech limitations in the Cathedral of Learning.

• Use the testimony of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity.

• Return to the discussion about Russell Athletics.

• YOU CHOOSE the day that PITT joins the WRC and make it happen… this is NOT a multi semester campaign.

• Remember that WRC affiliation is not an end, it is the beginning.

• Stay focused on HUMAN RIGHTS

There is a CONSTELATION of anti sweatshop organizations that each need to be scrutinized and judged:

There is no “Anti Sweatshop Movement” with resources or political will.

THERE IS a global apparel union organizing drive, a powerful community of interest amongst workers sewing apparel for import into the United States, they have shown persistence and demonstrated courage. They want and need our solidarity.

Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community AllianceSweatFree CommunitiesInternational Labor Rights ForumUnited Students Against Sweatshops/SLAP/USSAEducating for JusticeNational Labor CommitteeUnions•USW•SEUI Workers United•IWW

Local groups like those co-sponsoring the April 27/Bangladesh testimony at the August Wilson Center

-Which groups are you going to put your energy into and why?

What is the connection between sweatshop working conditions in Bangladesh and police brutality in Pittsburgh?

HUMAN RIGHTS

The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance is a Human Rights organization. The need for Independent Monitoring of garment factories is similar to the need for

Citizen Police Oversight.You cannot have the fox guarding the hen house.

Black and White RunionSummit Against Racism2010 Jonny Gammage Scholarship Questions * To what degree is police brutality racially motivated? * To what degree does police brutality disproportionatly effect the African American community?

PASCA is launching a campaign aimed at

convincing the Board of the August Wilson

Center to acknowledge Dennis

Brutus with a permanent exhibition.

PASCA is one of several organizations preparing for a tribute to Dennis Brutus and Howard Zinn on Sunday, April 18 from 1 -3 PM in the PITT Graduate School for Public Health’s Auditorium.

How are Dennis Brutus, Roberto Clemente and Mohammad Ali connected?

Did you know B-PEP is a Human Rights organization?

Buy your tickets for B-PEP JAZZ here/TONIGHT!

Workers from Bangladesh will testify at the August Wilson Center on Tuesday April 27 at 7 PM .

We need your help to make this event a success!Help us find co-sponsors.

Meet with anti sweatshop policy implementation people to prepare for this event.Empower the people you know with this testimony. Own it.

THANK YOU EARLY BIRD Co-sponsors! Pittsburgh IWW, Black Political Empowerment Project, State Senator Jim Ferlo, William Robinson Consulting, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, National Labor Committee, Western PA Jobs with Justice, Freedom Unlimited, Steel Valley Printers/USW Local 3403

Celebrate AND Proteston the International

Workers HolidayEXAMPLE: Baltimore’s United Workers Our

Harbor DayPittsburgh IWW May Day Committee – Meet Alex

and Evan!NOTE: May Day this year is on a Saturday and

coincides with PITT graduation! Ummm

Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance

talk talk talk to baseball fans about sweatshops at PNC Park.

We petition,leaflet,

perform,commandeer,

protest the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club, not the fans.

PNC Park is our CIVIL RIGHTS BRIDGE to the floor of the global

sweatshop.

We try to represent PITTSBURGH history and values and labor.

Sweatshop All Star Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9FRtxI81FY