Sweatshops: a global catastrophe
Those who take on the issue of sweatshops are tackling a justice problem of immense proportions, according to Dolores Brooks of the 8th Day Center for Justice and David Schilling of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility. They told their focus session of the need for public education and action in the face of worldwide exploitation by companies whose products Americans gleefully purchase every day to the tune of billions of dollars.
Perhaps the most flagrant offender is Wal-Mart, the largest private-sector employer based in the U.S., with almost one million workers worldwide and sales of $138 billion a year. Yet, according to watchdog organizations, 50 percent of its employees qualify for food stamps. Wal-Mart workers earn 43 cents an hour in Bangladesh and 12.5 cents an hour in China (where Wal-Mart allegedly has more than 1,000 sweatshops). In the relatively developed economy of Saipan, a U.S. territory, the company pays workers $2.05 an hour, far below the minimum wage, and requires them to work 70 hours a week. Concerned organizations including the Interfaith Center have developed Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility, but exploiting firms generally refuse even minimal compliance. Wal-Mart, for example, declines to make any information available about its factories and their operations, claiming such revelations would endanger their competitive advantage in the market; in other words, the bottom line takes precedence over everything else.
Brooks and Schilling spoke about letter-writing campaigns, national petition drives, picketing and boycotting projects as tactics to get the attention of Wal-Mart and similar corporations. There is a great need, they said, for faith communities to use their influence and muscle against a relatively unrecognized global injustice generated right here in our own backyard.
CTA at the national level is getting more involved in the anti-sweatshop campaign this year. These websites offer entry points to the field:
www.globalexchange.org (rich in resources)
www.sweatshopwatch.org (especially for students)
The National Labor Committee is spearheading the letter-writing to the Wal-Mart CEO and to TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, whose name is on a prominent Wal-Mart line of designer clothing. Get details from NLC: 212 242-3002 and nlc@nclnet.org