War on Sweatshops
Campaign targets Disney, Wal-Mart factories
She's 18 and weighs 79 pounds, but Mahamuda Akter is taking on the world's wealthiest corporation.
A senior sewing operator at a garment factory in Bangladesh, Akter is among 4,000 workers — mostly women ages 16 to 25 — who make clothes for Wal-Mart. They work mandatory 15-hour shifts, are paid as little as 12 cents an hour and often work three months without a day off.
Akter attaches collars to shirts. Her quota is 40 pieces an hour, but she can finish only 30.
"The supervisors tell us we have to meet Wal-Mart's target. There is constant pressure on us to work faster. They beat us. They slap our faces. They use vulgar words. They make me cry," she said through translator Dipti Barua while in Detroit.
In an ongoing campaign to pass legislation ending child labor and sweatshop abuses, Akter and two other Bangladeshi workers — along with National Labor Committee (NLC) representatives Charlie Kernaghan and Barbara Briggs — launched the Coalition for the Abolition of Sweatshops and Child Labor in a national tour that began Sept. 24 in Washington, D.C.
In their cross-country tour, the women talked about how they dared to speak up for their rights at a Disney garment factory and were fired. Then, Disney took away the work and relocated.
"The guts these women have — it boggles the mind," said Kernaghan, the NLC's executive director. "The workers need these jobs, but they want to be treated like human beings."
Lisa Rahman, a 19-year-old worker who sews clothes for Disney, said: "I never imagined that the people in the United States who buy the clothing we sew would ever care about us."
The coalition plans to petition Congress to pass legislation that would hold corporations accountable and guarantee international responsibility.
"They talk about going to war with Iraq. What about a war on sweatshops and child labor?" Kernaghan said, adding: "We can win this."
For information on what you can do, check out the National Labor Committee Web site at www.nlcnet.org or call 212-242-3002.
Worker Leads in Brazil
As you read this, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva is probably the president of Brazil. The runoff election between Workers Party candidate Lula and the ruling party's Jose Serra was Oct. 27. A mid-October poll showed Lula ahead 58 percent to 32 percent.
Lula is skeptical of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and Brazil, the largest economy in South America, will be a strong force in negotiations. The trade unionist became a metalworker at age 14 and has been a militant union organizer and democratic political activist. His political popularity is strengthened by strong anti-globalization sentiment among Brazilians. The UAW has had a very close and supportive relationship with Lula and his union network.
