Bangladeshi sweatshop workers will be speaking before City Council at 1 pm today and 7 pm tonight at the August Wilson Center. Slave labor is the dirty shameful secret behind a lot of multinational wealth. Its a secret that needs to be let out.
Here's the press release I received from Celeste Taylor and the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop movement:
Join us for the "Sweatshop Workers Speak Out" Speaking Tour
Featuring a Bangladeshi garment worker who sews uniforms and a representative of home based workers in Pakistan who stitch soccer balls, the tour aims to build solidarity between U.S. communities and workers that produce for our government. Each tour event will focus on action steps that are relevant for local sweatfree organizing, whether to help ignite a new campaign or bring an active campaign to the next level.
More info about the speakers and events is below and online at http://www.laborrights.org/events/sweatshop-workers-speak-out-speaking-tour.
April 27: Pittsburgh
Garment Workers Spotlight Sweatshop Working Conditions in Factories Sewing Pirates’ Apparel: 1:30pm Pittsburgh City Council Chambers, 5th Fl. City County Building
August Wilson Center at 7pm
980 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
Contact: Kenneth Miller, nosweatshopsbucco@yahoo.com, 412-867-9213 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 412-867-9213 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 412-867-9213
Sponsored by: Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance, Pittsburgh IWW, Black Political Empowerment Project, State Senator Jim Ferlo, William Robinson Consulting, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, National Labor Committee, Western PA Jobs with Justice, Freedom Unlimited, Steel Valley Printers/USW Local 3403
Kalpona Akter, former child factory worker, from Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity which was established in 2000 by garment workers and other workers struggling for their rights. The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) is a non-profit, non-political women’s organization that works for the empowerment of working women, the rights of children, and the security of working families and communities. BCWS promotes workers’ negotiating power, gender equity, and social justice for the working class.
Zehra Bano is the General Secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation of Pakistan. Zehra has been an outspoken leader in the fight for recognition of workers’ rights for women in Pakistan. She is in her mid-30s and has developed various training modules. Zehra has intimate knowledge of the plight of soccer ball workers especially related to home-based and stitching center workers.
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Check out the 2009 Sweatshop Hall of Shame!
Trina Tocco
Deputy Director
International Labor Rights Forum
Office: 202-347-4100 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-347-4100 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 202-347-4100 e x103 | Cell: 269-873-1000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 269-873-1000 end_of_the_skype_highlighting 269-873-1000
Skype: trinatocco
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