The "freedom" of the global economy means freedom for capital to go wherever wages are lowest and workers are least protected by labor laws and union contracts. As consumers, we are in a position to resist injustice by letting knowledge of labor conditions guide our purchases. We can be even more effective by letting manufacturers and chain stores know we will not cooperate with their exploitation of our brothers and sisters.

Many campaigns to force companies to act more justly are focused on apparel manufacturers and food producers. Below is a highly selective list of campaigns. For more extensive lists, consult the web sites of Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org/economy/corporations) and Campaign for Labor Rights (www.summersault.com/~agj/clr).

Wal-Mart and Kathie Lee clothing

Sweatshop conditions at Caribbean Apparel, a Salvadoran manufacturer for Wal-Mart, Leslie-Fay, Koret and K-Mart, was uncovered by a delegation from the National Labor Committee (NLC) and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) in August. In the last two weeks, four workers were fired for trying to organize a union in the plant and Jiovanni Fuentes, a FEASIES union leader supporting their efforts, has received anonymous death threats. Please write, fax or email your protest today.

The NLC and USAS found serious violations of international and Salvadoran law at Caribbean Apparel, a Korean-owned maquila in the American Free TradeZone:

• Piece-rate wages averaging $ 4.79 per day meet just a third of the cost of living. Workers earn just 15 cents on each pair of Kathie Lee pants that Wal-Mart sells for $16.96;
• Forced overtime beyond 40 hours per week. Workers regularly work 11-hour shifts, 6 days per week;
• Mandatory pregnancy tests. Caribbean routinely prevents--illegally--its workers from using the Social Security Health Clinics.
• Workers are fired and blacklisted if they try to defend their rights.

For more details, see the National Labor Committee web page at http://www.nlcnet.org.
Please write, fax, e-mail or call both.
WAL-MART:
DAVID GLASS, PRESIDENT AND CEO
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
ph: 501-273-4000 or 800-925-6278
fax: 501-273-4329
email: letters@wal-mart.com

KATHIE LEE GIFFORD:
c/o ABC StudiosRegis and Kathie Lee
7 Lincoln Square
New York, NY 10023
ph: 212-456-7777
fax: 800-330-1106

The GAP (including Old Navy and Banana Republic stores)

GAP Chairman Donald Fisher is worth $8 billion. In 1998, GAP CEO Millard Drexler made $47.1 million. Meanwhile, the workers who produce the clothing bearing the brands that have brought them such wealth work under miserable conditions for wages that cannot support them. In Honduras, young women make 50 cents an hour and are often forced to work 14 hours a day. In Russia, Chinese immigrants work 10 hours daily, 6 days a week for 11 cents an hour. In Saipan, a U.S. territory that has turned into a virtual slave labor camp, Asian immigrant women work up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for $3.05 an hour, well below U.S. minimum wage, yet the manufacturers get to put "Made in the U.S." on the label.

Workers at such plants have no effective legal protection, and attempts to unionize often bring immediate firing. Immigrant workers are lured by promises of good jobs and often find that they cannot leave because of unpayable debt to the job "brokers" who recruit them. Often they must live in company barracks and shop at company stores, another way they stay in debt.

Please phone or e-mail your deep objection to such corporate behavior.

The GAP
1800-333-7899
www.gap.com

There is also local campaigning by labor activists and others. Activities include leafleting and other consumer consciousness raising.

Contact Bob Buzzanco
ph. 713.743.3093
e-mail: buzz@uh.edu.