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Date of publication: May 4, 2005

For Immediate Release
May 4, 2005

Contact:
Liana Foxvog (cell)
Bjorn Claeson (cell)

Media Advisories

All events held in conjunction with the SweatFree Communities National Conference, May 6-8, Tivoli Student Union, Auraria Campus

To arrange interviews with conference organizers, Denver activists, or former sweatshop workers, please contact Liana Foxvog (cell) or Bjorn Claeson (cell)

What: The Global Movement to End Sweatshops and Curb Corporate Greed: Voices of Labor Organizers from Central America and the Pacific Islands

When: Saturday, May 7th, 7:00PM
Where: Tivoli Student Union, Room 320
Auraria Campus
900 Auraria Parkway, Denver

Who:

Chie Abad is a Philippina who was persuaded by recruiters to move to the U.S. territory of Saipan to work in the garment factories. She worked in a sweatshop, fought for her rights, and now tells

Gilberto Garcia is a garment worker organizer who has helped to create a 'sweatfree' clothing source in El Salvador.

Miguel Ruiz is a Nicaraguan union organizer and leader in the struggle against the Central America Free Trade Agreement.

What:

Opening Plenary:
Opportunities and Challenges for the Anti-Sweatshop Movement

When: Friday, May 6th, 7:00PM

Where:

Tivoli Student Union, Room 640
Auraria Campus
900 Auraria Parkway, Denver

Who:

Bjorn Claeson, SweatFree Communities; Gilberto Garcia, Labor Studies and Support Center (CEAL) & Just Garments union organizer, El Salvador; Hee Won Khym, Behind the Label; Brian Shaughnessy, New York Labor-Religion Coalition; Jessica Rutter, United Students Against Sweatshops

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 News Release

Anti-Sweatshop Activists from North and Central America Convene in Denver to Promote Sweatshop-free Purchasing

Sweatfree Denver Campaign to be Launched
Organizers Urge Defeat of Trade Deal with Central America

With the debate on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) taking center stage in Congress, anti-sweatshop activists across the country are pushing through a wave of historic reforms aimed at using tax dollars to promote fair trade and anti-sweatshop alternatives. Denver, Colorado, will host many of the sweatfree movement's leaders when community organizers, high school activists, former sweatshop workers, and union organizers arrive here this Friday for the second national "SweatFree Communities Conference" May 6-8. Former sweatshop worker Chie Abad who sewed “Made in the U.S.” garments for major labels on the island of Saipan will be featured speaker at 7pm on Saturday, Auraria Campus, Tivoli Student Union, Room 320.

Conference organizers point out that US tax dollars often subsidize abusive child and exploitative labor domestically and overseas and undermine the job security of U.S. workers who have fair pay and good working conditions when public agencies purchase uniforms and other apparel. "We are paying to lose our jobs and this has to stop now by reforming public policy from coast to coast," says Eric Dirnbach of UNITE HERE, a garment workers' union. "This conference will lead the way."

"The conference brings together organizers and workers from the U.S., Canada, and Central America"says Liana Foxvog, National Organizer of SweatFree Communities. "It is an important opportunity to globalize the struggle for worker rights."

"We want our government to use our tax money responsibly and ethically" says Josh Schachterle, a member of Denver's Ethical Trade Action Group (E-TAG), which serves as host for the SweatFree Communities conference. On Friday, May 6, E-TAG will announce the launch of a campaign to make Denver 'sweatfree' at a press conference to be held 11:00AM at the American Friends Service Committee Office, 901 W. 14th Avenue, Denver. Among other conference participants are members of United Students Against Sweatshops, high school activists from Maine, New York, and Colorado, and other activists from 15 states and provinces.

Sweatfree purchasing policies, including a milestone Los Angeles city ordinance that just went into effect, require government vendors and their subcontractors to abide by fair labor standards when doing business with the taxpayers' money and supplying goods such as law enforcement uniforms, college sportswear and footwear. The states of California, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania have passed anti-sweatshop legislation, as well as dozens of cities and schools of all sizes, from Boston to Milwaukee to Los Angeles to Toledo to Olympia, Washington.

SweatFree Communities supports and coordinates local sweatfree purchasing campaigns across the country, and links local activists to sweatshop struggles globally.