Garment workers call for Yalies' support
Published Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Garment workers call for Yalies' support
BY EASHA ANAND
Contributing Reporter
While the case against sweatshop labor is often couched in terms of
numbers -- 84 hours of work weekly, seven cents daily pay, zero days
paid maternity leave and 110 years of work to afford a year's tuition
at Yale, according to National Labor Committee Executive Director
Charles Kernaghan -- it took on a human face when two teenage garment
workers spoke on campus Tuesday as part of the Bangladeshi Workers's
Tour.
More than 90 students attended the second talk in an annual series of
Pierson Master's Teas on the condition of garment factory workers
around the world. The speakers -- Kernaghan, Bangladesh Center for
Workers' Solidarity President Sk Nazma, translator and labor rights
activist Rafiq Alam and two sweatshop workers from Bangladesh, Robina
Akther and Maksuda -- called on students to campaign aggressively for
Yale to join the Worker's Rights Consortium. The consortium is a group
of colleges committed to enforcing humane treatment for workers
manufacturing campus clothing.
"Yale students have a lot of power; it would be fantastic if you used it for something good," Kernaghan said.
The talk focused on Maksuda and Akther's personal experiences. In an
hour, Maksuda sews pockets onto 120 Wal-Mart pants, each of which
retails for close to $11, she said through her translator Alam. She
said she is paid less than $15.18 per month, subsists on $0.18 of food
per day and has worked under a manager who once kicked her stomach when
she was seven months pregnant.
"When I said I needed a short break, he said that he didn't want to hear it," Maksuda said.
The NLC's high-profile campaign strategies, focusing public attention
on companies who use sweatshop labor, have resulted in a number of
successes, including agreements from J.C. Penney and Sean Combs' Sean
John clothing line to pay their workers a living wage, Kernaghan said.
By contrast, Nazma said, protests organized within Bangladesh have been
largely unsuccessful. An effort to demand overtime compensation
culminated in a protest last November that ended in eight deaths and
150 injuries when factory owners called in the police, she said.
"We are doing our job in Bangladesh," she said. "We need the support of Americans to have a voice."
In April 2000, Students Against Sweatshops sponsored overnight vigils
and administered a student referendum to convince Yale's administration
to add the University to the list of WRC affiliates, which currently
include Harvard University and 128 other colleges. In September 2000,
University President Richard Levin said he was not convinced of WRC's
effectiveness but was continuing to investigate the issue. Yale is
currently not a member of WRC.
Sarah Stillman '06, who was at the talk, said SAS has largely disbanded since 2000, but she hopes to resurrect the movement.
"What's needed is a roundtable on the WRC," Stillman said.
Akther and Maksuda said they hope their talk will mobilize support for
their demands, which include three months of paid maternity leave and
accurate assessment of overtime wages. If implemented globally, the
demands would cost each American consumer an average of $14 per year,
Karnaghan said.
The Bangladeshi Workers' Tour has visited 35 colleges and 12 high schools since September.
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