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For Immediate Release Contact: Jordan Wells, Labor-Religion Coalition of NYS; 845/ 891-7046 Liana Foxvog, Sweatfree Communities; 413/ 586-0974 or 413/ 320-7276 Interviews and Photographs available upon request NYS Tax Dollars Fund Sweatshops, New Study Says Labor and religious advocates press for ‘sweatfree’ purchasing New York and other U.S. states, cities, and counties are inadvertently using millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase goods from companies engaged in serious human rights and labor violations, according to a first-of-its-kind report released today by SweatFree Communities. The study, Subsidizing Sweatshops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do, includes in-depth case studies of 12 factories in nine countries that produce public employee apparel for nine major brands. New York 's existing sweatshop-free purchasing laws expire September 1, and have failed to achieve their intended effect—as evidenced by the report. In advance of the Centennial Meeting of the National Governors Association (in Philadelphia July 11-14), NYSUT and UNITE HERE have joined the Labor-Religion Coalition in a joint letter asking Governor Paterson to take deliberate and effective action to end taxpayer support for sweatshops by proclaiming New York’s support for the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium. The Sweatfree Consortium will help New York and other states and cities to accomplish the goal of ending public purchasing from sweatshops by investigating factory working conditions and creating a market for “sweatfree” suppliers. Absent requirements that New York apparel be produced sweatshop-free and without a system for monitoring compliance with sweatfree specifications, vendors and their suppliers have operated below the radar, resulting in abuse and exploitation. While no individual state has adequate resources to monitor working conditions, nor enough leverage to hold its suppliers accountable, according to Labor-Religion Executive Director Brian O’Shaughnessy, “We must not tacitly subsidize sweatshops. Basic morality dictates that taxpayer dollars should support sweatfree alternatives.” O’Shaughnessy continued, “ New York can lead other states and cities on the path to sweatfree public purchasing—by enacting a Sweatfree Code of Conduct that enumerates worker rights principles for inclusion in state apparel contracts and by formally affiliating with the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium.” Subsidizing Sweatshops reveals widespread human rights and labor violations throughout the uniform industry, including: child labor; illegally low poverty wages; forced and unpaid overtime; verbal, physical, and sexual abuse; pregnancy testing, excessively long work hours causing physical ailments; disregard for freedom of speech or association; and elaborate schemes to deceive factory auditors. The report documents sweatshop abuses in factories producing for several New York vendors: Rocky Brands, Lion Apparel, and Eagle Industries. Rocky Brands -- Subsidizing Sweatshops is available at: www.sweatfree.org/subsidizing The Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State , with a statewide staff and seven local coalition affiliates, educates and advocates for economic justice. In addition to the Sweatshop Free Campaign, its programs include an Annual 40-hour Fast for Worker Justice, Border Witness delegations to the Texas/ Mexico border and a Fair Trade Project. The LRC was one of the founding organizations of SweatFree Communities. SweatFree Communities coordinates a national network of grassroots campaigns that promote humane working conditions in apparel and other labor-intensive global industries by working with both public and religious institutions to adopt sweatshop-free purchasing policies. Using institutional purchasing as a lever for worker justice, the sweatfree movement empowers ordinary people to create a just global economy through local action. Learn more at www.sweatfree.org The State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium will facilitate sweatfree purchasing policy enforcement by pooling resources, sharing knowledge and expertise, and coordinating standards and code compliance activities. Learn more at www.sweatfree.org/sweatfreeconsortium ###
Last Updated:07/03/2008 |