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Sweatshop workers speak out, creating awareness
The Goshen College Record
April 11, 2008
» Go to http://www.goshen.edu/record/Archive:CB4=sweatShop.html@CB4
By Laura Schlabach
Didier Leton, from Costa Rica, spent 18 years picking pineapples and bananas for Del Monte, earning minimum wage in inhumane conditions.
Savin Phal, from Cambodia, was recently fired from her sewing job for trying to form a union at her factory.
Goshen College students along with faculty and community members heard stories like these last Sunday night at the Sweat Free Communities Presentation held in Newcomer.
Leton and Phal are traveling with Sweat Free Communities, a network for local action against sweatshops, in a tour through Midwest cities to urge government implementation of policies that protect the rights of sweatshop workers.
“We are all part of the global economy because we eat food and we wear clothes,” said Victoria Kaplan, Midwest regional organizer for Sweat Free Communities.
Leton spoke first of his experiences in Costa Rica, stopping every few sentences for Spanish translation. His work on the banana and pineapple plantations involved low wages, poor health conditions and exposure to chemicals. In addition to working 12-hour days, they were not provided places to sit or use the restroom and were denied life insurance.
“My main mission is to inform institutions, local governments and colleges about these issues,” he said. Even though workers are convinced this is the way it is, he said unions help create awareness and we can develop better conditions and quality of life.
Phal of Cambodia continued the evening with a glimpse into her factory labor sewing clothes for Wal-Mart. Phal spoke alongside a Cambodian translator, introducing herself as a 39 year old mother of five children. “I earn $1.08 each day, and this means $35 to $57 each month,” she said.
After suffering intimidation from overseers because of her organization within the factory, Phal was fired from her sewing job due to her attempt at forming a union. Workers at her factory suffer forced over-time: a required four hours after a regular eight to nine hour day. “We receive warnings of suspension if we reject overtime,” she said. The government rejection of union demands is a continual struggle.
The emotions of the workers reached audience members, leaving groups of students talking after the session ended. “It just makes all this stuff feel so real,” said junior Morgan Kraybill. “To think that I earned fifty bucks last night babysitting, and that’s what she makes in one month.”
Although an initial response is to fight to close these factories down, Victoria Kaplan, and Trina Tocco of the International Labor Rights Forum stressed that we should work to improve the conditions of these factories to increase the livelihood of workers. They explained many ways we can take action. Corporate accountability was named as one of the primary ways to enforce fair wages and a safe and healthy workplace. “Encourage them [corporations] to develop certain standards and criteria,” said Kaplan.
Keith Graber Miller, professor of Bible, Religion and Philosophy, has led SST units in both Cambodia and Costa Rica and added, “Our family has not shopped at Wal-Mart for many years for some of the very reasons we were hearing.”
Two different types of postcards were handed out to audience members, one addressed to the CEO of Wal-Mart expressing consumer disapproval of their companies’ disregard for their worker rights, and the other postcard to the local governor asking for current tax dollars to stop the support of sweatshops.
For more information on these issues, check out www.laborrights.org, or www.sweatfree.org.
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