July 2009
In this issue: Our Honduran allies need your support.
Call or email your member of Congress to support the Congressional resolution
calling for the return of Manuel Zelaya as President of Honduras.
1) Honduran labor movement protests military
coup
2) Campaign Corner: The latest in sweatfree victories
3) Drumroll please... Sweatfree
Purchasing Consortium's first dues-paying members
4) Campaign Endorser Spotlight: Interfaith Worker Justice-Metro Detroit
5) Eagle/ATK workers continue the fight to save Massachusetts jobs
6) The Spirit of Seattle Lives!
7)
Thank you - and how you can get a free copy of
our latest report 
Honduran labor movement protests military
coup
Trade unionists in Honduras – a country that despite its small size
is the fourth largest exporter of garments to the United States – have been
vociferously rallying in support of democratically-elected President Manuel
Zelaya, who was violently ousted from power by a military coup June 28.
SweatFree Communities supports workers in Honduras, including Elizabeth
Gutierrez, a former garment worker and leader in FESITRADEH, the Honduran
garment workers' union, who toured the U.S. this spring with SweatFree
Communities to educate the public about conditions in the Honduran garment
industry.
News organizations report the suspension of civil
liberties including freedom of association, and violence against trade
unionists. And the major garment industry trade group is supporting
the unelected regime to boot. Read more in-depth analysis of the Honduran coup
and reports from the Honduran labor movement here.
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Campaign Corner: The latest in sweatfree
victories
Boy, have we proved
the nay-sayers wrong! How many times have we heard that an economic crisis is no
time to be pushing stronger workers rights' policies – that we should just wait
a little while? Well, in this month's campaign round-up, we throw a little meat
on the bones of what we've been saying all along: that an economic downturn is
exactly the right time to be promoting sensible anti-sweatshop policies that
raise wages and improve job security for low-wage workers. On June 24,
the City of Berkeley, California became the 39th city
in the U.S. to pass a sweatfree policy, with the Council voting
unanimously for one of the strongest ordinances yet. Congratulations to
Berkeley's Peace and Justice Commission, Commission on Labor, the Progressive
Jewish Alliance, and allied organizations for 3 years of powerful grassroots
organizing!
Read all
the latest campaign updates - including
victories in San Francisco, Milwaukee, Ashland (Oregon), and Maine -
all from the month of June alone!
Drumroll
please...
The SweatFree Purchasing Consortium has
welcomed its first membership dues! So far, the cities of Austin, Texas and
Milwaukee, Wisconsin have backed up their commitment to the policy enforcement
and development body with checks. Be sure to visit the Consortium's new website,
www.buysweatfree.org. SweatFree
Communities looks forward to participating in the Consortium's first governing
body meeting in Lake Tahoe this September.
Campaign Endorser Spotlight: Interfaith Worker Justice of
Detroit
Interfaith Worker Justice–Metro Detroit is a faith and labor
coalition that has led the way in keeping workers' rights front and center in
the Motor City since 1995, when religious groups began to publicly support
striking Detroit newspaper workers. Since fall 2008 the group also has served as
the home of the SweatFree Michigan Campaign. Through a fellowship with the
Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Jonathan Fung has played the role of lead organizer for
IWJ-Metroit Detroit over the last year, balancing a variety of community-based
campaigns ranging from SweatFree Michigan to supporting child care providers'
organizing.
Pastor Pitts of Interfaith Worker
Justice-Metro Detroit talks to a Michigan taxpayer about the SweatFree Michigan
Campaign outside Detroit´s main Post Office on Tax Day, April 15, 2009.
Many of IWJ-Metro Detroit's
(formerly the Detroit Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues) board members,
including Sister Cathey DeSantis, Father Norm Thomas, Dia Pearce, and Selma
Goode, have deep roots in the anti-sweatshop movement, providing the SweatFree
Michigan Campaign with institutional knowledge that has helped earn significant
media coverage and access to key decision makers. Learn more about IWJ-Metro
Detroit´s work with SweatFree Communities at the Michigan campaign´s
website: www.sweatfree.org/mi.
Add your organization, business, or
union to the list of more than 250 sweatfree campaign endorsers here. Eagle workers continue the fight to save
Massachusetts jobs
As you'll
know from our previous updates, for the past two months, workers at Eagle
Industries in New Bedford, MA have been struggling to prevent Eagle’s parent
company Alliant Techsystems (ATK) from closing their plant and relocating
production of the Army backpack contract that they work on to Puerto Rico.
Workers have held mass meetings and rallies, traveled to Washington, D.C. to
meet with the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and visited the Army
contracting office in Natick, MA in order to urge the Army to compel ATK to keep
production in New Bedford. On July 9, General Peter Fuller, the commanding
general at Natick, met with workers in New Bedford and informed them that the
Army had nearly satisfied its demand for backpacks and consequently would not
renew ATK’s contract.
Upon receiving this news,
workers changed tactics and are now cooperating with the Massachusetts
congressional delegation, local political and community leaders, and Workers
United to bring a new company and new contracts to New Bedford. Workers United
has already identified an interested company and is working with political
allies to ensure that this company has every opportunity to open a new facility
in New Bedford, win military contracts, and put displaced Eagle workers back to
work with a union contract. The Spirit of Seattle
Lives!
Our friends at SweatFree
Northwest and the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign invite you to join in a day
of action and celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the “Battle in
Seattle.” A decade ago, tens of thousands of people converged in
Seattle, Washington to protest the ministerial meeting of the World Trade
Organization. Now, the WTO has scheduled a new ministerial on the exact ten-year
anniversary of the Seattle protests. Labor, environmental, faith, human rights
and community activists throughout the globe are planning local actions to
celebrate our victory in Seattle and call for an end to expansion of "free
market" corporate rule. Learn
how to get involved locally.
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Maria, Juana, Elisa, and Guillermo (l to r), workers at the ATK/Eagle factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts, fight to keep their jobs. Your donation today will allow SweatFree Communities to continue to advocate for job security, fair wages, and dignified working conditions for garment workers around the world. Donate today. |
Thank you & keep it
coming!It's not too late to contribute to SweatFree Communities' 2009 summer appeal. Sign up as a SweatFree Sustainer, chip in $10, $20 or more a month by July 31 and receive a free full-color copy of our most recent report, Subsidizing Sweatshops II. With low-wage employees like garment workers taking the biggest hit in this economic crisis, the work of the anti-sweatshop movement is more important now than ever. Thank you for being part of our movement for economic justice and dignified work. Donate online now.
Thanks so much to all sweatfree donors and supporters during these difficult times. Our work would not be possible without contributions, large and small, from individuals, unions, faith-based organizations, and other groups. We´d also like to thank the foundations that are and have been supporting the sweatfree movement for many years. They include: Debley Foundation, General Service Foundation, Panta Rhea Foundation, the Presbyterian Hunger Program (Presbyterian Church, USA), and the Woodbury Fund. We are also grateful for support from Equal Exchange’s charitable contributions program.
