VOLUME 30, NUMBER 19
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THURSDAY, February 4, 1999
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![Reporter](http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/images/tops/Left.gif)
Conference to address growth of sweatshops in American industry
By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor
The ongoing battle against human-rights abuses and labor exploitation at home and abroad has provoked 17 UB entities, including the Law School, United University Professions, the Baldy Center, the Student Association and several graduate student associations, to co-sponsor a conference to explore the meaning of work and address the growth of the "new American sweatshop."
The first annual Anti-Sweatshop Conference, sponsored by the Labor and Employment Law Association of the Student Bar Association, will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Jane Keeler Room, Fillmore Academic Core, in the Ellicott Complex on the North Campus.
Organizers point out that since the 1980s, Americans¹ working hours have increased steadily without any increase in actual benefits or pay. They say they will demonstrate to conference participants how current global economic trends foster the creation of sweatshops, and how declining working conditions, even in higher-paying jobs, have lead to led to our loss of control over the time and quality of all of our lives.
Working more hours
The event was precipitated by increased intensity and visibility of labor abuse, particularly that of immigrants working in the U.S. and of laborers in developing countries who are working for U.S. corporations, organizers say.
Speakers will include Nils Olsen, dean of the UB Law School; Law School Professors Frank Munger and James Atleson, and Betty Yu, coordinator of the New York City-based National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS). Panel discussions will feature UB students, garment workers and representatives of local, state and national human-rights organizations.
Film to depict struggles
A brief film, "American Tien" by NMASS Theatre Troop, which depicts the real life struggles of garment workers in Chinatown, will be shown in the Katharine Cornell Theatre (across from the Jane Keeler Room) during the conference.
To register, see the conference program. Further information about the conference is available by e-mailing antisweatshops_conference@yahoo.com.
Joane Wong is chair of the Asian American Law Student Association, and one of the principal movers behind the conference. She points out that human rights and community organizations have been successful in several campaigns on behalf of low-wage sweatshop workers, whom she says live dehumanized lives, particularly those working under treacherous conditions in developing countries.
"We overlook the fact, however, that there are many thousands of low-wage sweatshops in the United States," she says, "and that sweatshop conditions are now developing in job areas outside of the low-pay sector."
As a result, she says, as disturbing as it may sound, you or someone you know already may be working in a sweatshop.
Historically, the term "sweatshop" stems from low-wage work in a horrendously unsafe, miserable and dehumanizing environment like those that prevailed in the U.S. garment industry at the turn of the century.
This industry in the U.S. and overseas again has been indicted by labor unions and human-rights activists for the conditions in which many thousands of workers labor. The American garment industry has been linked to specific sweatshops here, and that often brutally exploit cheap foreign labor and child labor.
Wong points out that it is through the exploitation of these workers that the industry is able to provide low-cost clothing to ready-to-wear houses, which, in turn, sell them at a very high profit to American consumers.
She said that conference organizers want to explore solutions offered through the diverse experiences of the conference attendees and to create a chapter of NMASS, a group founded by students and young professionals in 1996 to fight for better working conditions for all workers.
Schedule |
9:30 am | Registration and coffee |
10:00 am | Opening Remarks:
Nils Olsen, dean, UB Law School |
10:15 am | Keynote Address:
Why Should We Fight Against Sweatshop Working Conditions?
Betty Yu, senior at New York University, coordinator, National
Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS) |
10:30 am | 10-Minute Video: Interviews With Working People |
10:45 am | Panel Discussion I:
What is Our Connection to Sweatshops? What Allows Sweatshop Conditions to Exist and Persist? How are Sweatshops Affecting Our Lives?
Peter Kwong, chair, Asian American Studies Program, Hunter College
JoAnn Lum, coordinator, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
(NMASS)
Stanley Mark, program director, Asian American Legal Defense &
Education Fund
Luis Aguiar, research associate, Centre for Research on Work and Society,
York University, Toronto
Moderator: Jim Atleson, professor, UB Law School
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12:30 p.m. | LUNCH-$5 for all conference attendees at the Jane Keeler Room |
1:30 p.m. | Workshops:
How Have Different Groups and Communities Begun to Fight Against
Sweatshops?
(I) Defining Grassroots Organizing Living Wage Campaign
Joanne Cole, executive director, Citizen Action, Buffalo
Michele Sterlace-Accorsi, student, UB Law School
Street Beat Sportswear Campaign
Camilla Chen and Virginia Yu, NMASS
Street Beat Factory Worker (TBA)
Moderator: Rebekah Williams, UB junior
(II) Affect the System and Change the Tide
National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
Nancy Eng and Jeff Mar, coordinators, NMASS
New York State Sweatshop-free School Initiative
Brian O'Shaugnessy, executive director, New York State Labor and Religion Coalition, Albany
Joan Malone, executive director, Coalition for Economic Justice, Buffalo
Moderator: Frank Munger, professor, UB Law School
(III) Fighting Economic Racism in Our Community
Campaign for Economic Justice at NYU
Jon Lepofsky, NYU student
Gil Banks, organizer, Harlem Fight Back
Construction worker (TBA)
Oscar Pareles, worker & organizer, Make the Road by Walking
Ruth and Eva Herrera, workers with a story
Safety and Health as An Organizing Tool
Roger Cook, executive director, WNYCOSH, Buffalo
Ricky Baldwin, mobilizer, WNYCOSH, Buffalo
Moderator: Kevin Hsi, student, UB Law School
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3:30 p.m. | Panel Discussion II:
What Role Can Students Play in Improving Working Conditions?
Moderator: Karah Newton, UB Junior |
5:30 p.m. | "American Tien" by NMASS Theatre Troop (a 10-minute clip) at the Katharine Cornell Theatre (across from the Jane Keeler Room).
This play depicts the real life struggles of garment workers in Chinatown sweatshops. |
SUNDAY: All individuals interested in forming an NMASS chapter are
invited to a formation meeting at 1 PM. (the place will be announced at
the conference)
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