Report from the Road: Economic Stimulus Worker Tour

Building a new economy that puts workers first

March 22 - April 8, 2009

Tour goals

• Promote government sweatfree procurement policies and membership in the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium as tools to help ensure respect for workers’ rights in the global apparel industry.
• Educate community members and government officials about conditions at Dickies de Honduras and Propper in Puerto Rico.
• Develop a networks of activists and government officials ready to take supportive action when requested by workers in Honduras and Puerto Rico.

By the numbers

A few highlights

• The day we were in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Common Council voted to join the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium.
• Two Berkeley City Council members spoke at our press conference in Berkeley to promote the City’s proposed sweatfree policy. This was our best press event of the tour, wth five news media outlets attending.
• Several events were attended by people who themselves had worked in garment factories as children or young adults, and who engaged in extensive conversation with Maritza, Elizabeth and Rafael.
• We enjoyed connecting with local Latinos along the route both at our events and socially.
• In Chicago we attended a conference for government procurement officials. Many of them are people we work with on a regular basis, but who have never before had a chance to speak directly with garment workers.

Speaker Bios:

Erlinda Elizabeth Gutierrez Reyes worked 15 years in the Honduran garment industry before becoming an organizer and educator for garment workers through a Honduran labor federation. Elizabeth is also a nurse. She has extensive knowledge of Dickies de Honduras, a factory in Choloma, Honduras that makes uniforms for the popular Dickies brand. Dickies supplies many U.S. cities and states with work pants, but behind the label is a history of repression of human rights and labor rights. Dickies garment workers from Pakistan to Mexico to Honduras report poverty wages, forced and uncompensated overtime, and blacklisting.

Maritza Vazquez (Midwest, March 23-29), has worked for five years as a machine operator at Propper International's Lajas Plant in Puerto Rico. Propper is a major producer of military and law enforcement apparel. Maritza and her fellow employees are organizing to improve conditions in their factory, and Maritza is a leader of the union.

Rafael Irizarry (West Coast, March 30-April 8), has worked for five years as a machine operator at Propper International's Las Marias plant in Puerto Rico. Propper is a major producer of military and law enforcement apparel that supplies San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington State, among others. He is a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Propper for damages related to unpaid work, alleging that the company did not grant legally required paid sick days and vacation days. Workers in the lawsuit also claim that Propper reduces employees' agreed-upon hourly wages when workers' production falls short of quota.

Bob Chesebro (Milwaukee and Madison events only) is the president of Wigwam Mills, a reputable family-owned sock manufacturer in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, founded there in 1905 by his grandfather. Workers at the Wigwam plant are represented by UFCW Local 147T. Bob remains committed to U.S. manufacturing even as he has seen competitors move their production overseas.