Mission and Summary Statements

Mission: Eradicate sweatshop labor, as we know it today, in ten years.

Summary Statement of beliefs that drive our commitment to this issue:

We acknowledge the world is becoming more interdependent and many national economies are changing to become part of the global economy.

Each person is a reflection of God’s love and should have a voice in the world economy.
Our Marian Charism demands that we address situations that come to our attention that are contrary to our core values.
Participation in this global economy will have major implications to the social justice of distant people and markets.

The Community will address social justice issues in the context of our beliefs and core values. These beliefs and core values follow:

Freedom from oppression and economic slavery for all people especially children,
Protection of the health and safety of workers and the local community,
Support of full and fair participation of all community sectors, especially women,
Urgency to oppose subsistence levels of poverty.

Strategies for the Worker and Child Labor Exploitation Initiative:

Actively support efforts to eradicate the poverty, which results from sweatshop labor practices.
Encourage responsible investment by Marianist Institutions and Family of Mary members.
Organize initiatives to demand responsible purchasing of goods for use or resale in the USA.
Work with faculty and students at universities, colleges, secondary and primary schools to take a leadership role in the anti sweatshop and child labor movement.
Monitor labor conditions for sweatshop labor violations in critical locations worldwide.
Educate consumers in our local communities on the importance of this issue and what they can personally and collectively do to stop these exploitative labor practices.
Form coalitions with other Non Governmental Organizations working towards similar goals and network with them.
Encourage and advocate legislative initiatives that would advance this effort.
Collaborate with all Marianist communities to make the above mission happen by 2010.

Issue Team Chair - Al Prendergast (alprendergast@bellsouth.net)

To the Friends of the NLC from Charles Kernaghan

Regarding the HBO Documentary--Outsourcing and Destruction of the U.S. Garment Industry

The HBO Documentary--"Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rages," directed and produced by award-winning filmmakers Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, premiers on Monday, October 19, at 9:00 p.m.

Brian Lowry writes in Variety: "Opening to the lively strains of 'Rhapsody in Blue', 'Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rages' is a loving and sobering look at the demise of the New York garment industry, where the loss of manufacturing jobs to nations with cheaper labor represents 'a microcosm of everything that is going on in this country.'" (See linked reviews from Variety and Womens Wear Daily).

The documentary tracks how the garment industry, once the largest employer in the U.S. , helped build the middle class through organizing strong unions. Today, 95 percent of all garments sold in the U.S. are made offshore, mostly in sweatshops in China , Vietnam , and Bangladesh . Once the race to the bottom in the global sweatshop economy is unleashed, and corporations are free to pit workers against each other, there is no way to go but down. The documentary is a wakeup call, as manufacturing jobs all across the U.S. are under siege.

The race to the bottom will only end when we have enforceable laws that prohibit the import, sale, or export of sweatshop goods in the U.S. Goods made by children, by workers beaten and forced to work grueling hours while being cheated of their wages, and by workers denied their legal right to organize should be prohibited from entering the U.S. If corporations can have enforceable laws to protect their corporate products and trademarks, we sure as heck should have similar laws to protect the rights of the human being who made their product. Right now the corporate product is protected, but not the human being who made it. (See the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act and how you can help.)

Update - Wal-Mart and Internships

The Sweatshop Labor Issue Team is making progress. We continue the push to get Wal-Mart to sign the Pledge to assure that Bangladesh garment workers actually receive the maternity leave pay (currently 4 months pay) that the government requires be paid when pregnant workers leave to have their babies. We put this pledge in the hands of Senior Wal-Mart Management at the Wal-Mart/ICCR meeting this February. The ever vigilant UD Human Rights students met with Lee Scott, the CEO of Wal-Mart, on March 30^th and raised the pledge issue again. We know through repeated phone calls between our issue team and senior Wal-Mart management that they are for the first time seriously considering signing this pledge. We will keep you up to date on the progress of this effort on the MSJC web-site.

Additionally, we have two interns helping us this summer. One intern, Joe Jacobson, is a graduate student in international relations at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. He is working in Bangladesh to help Fr. Bill Christensen write the strategy for the Worker Owned Factory and will be visiting a few factories that make garments for Wal-Mart. The other intern, Johanna Marie Cook , graduated from UD in May and is interning with us at the Marianist NGO to the UN in New York. She is doing research for the Marianist General Administration in Rome on the current condition of child labor in the global economy. She is also researching with whom we can collaborate at the UN to enhance our influence on Sweatshop Labor globally. More information on our work with Wal-Mart and the internships will be in next month’s update. Keep praying for success with Wal-Mart and for the workers who toil every day to make the clothes we wear.

Click here to read the letter that U. of Dayton students gave to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott when he visited the UD campus.

Sweatshop Team members meet with Wal-Mart leadership

Bro. Steve O’Neil and Al Prendergast met with Lee Scott, the CEO of Wal-Mart, and part of his senior management team inNew York on February 11^th. The meeting was organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). The meeting was unexpectedly good. Wal-Mart’s management was sincere and fairly open. Wal-Mart has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the people who make the products that they sell. The approach they use in the US does great harm when used in developing countries. Mr. Scott was attentive and interested in our comments, but seemed not to know how to implement a solution. We need to keep up this dialogue with Wal-Mart and keep up the pressure on them to do the right things in developing countries and in the US . We need the support of all Marianists in continuing to deliver this message to Wal-Mart. Please use the "I Care" shopper cards (available from the National Labor Committee ) whenever you shop at Wal-Mart. Also, writing Lee Scott will keep the message alive. Click here for a sample letter.

At Sweatshop Issue Team Meeting in Dayton, Ohio September 2007: Bill Hirt, Alison Radelet, Jim Vogt, Al Prendergast, Steve O'Neil SM, Andrea Stiles, Bill Christensen SM, and Myles McCabe.