ILRF and SweatFree Communities are hosting the "Sweatshop Workers Speak Out" speaking tour from April 16-30 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and DC.  

• Tentative Tour Schedule
• Bios of Speakers
• Typical Event Itinerary

Would you be interested in hosting the speaking tour in your city?  If so, email trina.tocco@ilrf.org to express interest.

Featuring a Bangladeshi garment worker who sews uniforms and a representative of home based workers in Pakistan who stitch soccer balls for government entities in the United States, the tour aims to build solidarity between U.S. communities and workers that produce for our government. Each tour event will focus on action steps that are relevant for local sweatfree organizing, whether to help ignite a new campaign or bring an active campaign to the next level. 

Tentative speaking tour locations & dates:

April 16: Twin Cities, MN
April 17: Eau Claire, WI
April 19: Milwaukee, WI
April 24: Detroit, MI
April 25: Delaware, OH
April 26: Columbus, OH
April 27: Pittsburgh, PA
April 28: Philadelphia, PA
April 29: Baltimore, MD
April 30: Washington, DC

The featured speakers will include:

Kalpona Akter from Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity: Established in 2000 by garment workers and other workers struggling for their rights, the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) is a non-profit, non-political women’s organization that works for the empowerment of working women, the rights of children, and the security of working families and communities. BCWS promotes workers’ negotiating power, gender equity, and social justice for the working class.

Zehra Bano is the General Secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation of Pakistan and the Research and Education Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation. Zehra has been an outspoken leader in the fight for recognition of workers’ rights for women in Pakistan. She is in her mid-30s and has developed various training modules. Zehra has intimate knowledge of the plight of soccer ball workers especially related to home-based and stitching center workers.

A typical event agenda will include:

• Party arrives, local contact will meet with guests to go over the schedule for that city
• Classroom visit or small informal local event/activity or meeting with government officials generally in late morning and early afternoon (this is optional)
• Informal dinner often with those that have helped plan the event and/or local campaign volunteers so they are able to get to know the workers a bit more
• Evening speaking event open to the public, generally running about 1.5 hours including Q & A
  • Intro by local hosts – 5 minutes
  • Intro of ILRF & SFC and intro of the featured speakers, by tour organizers – 10 minutes
  • Kalpona Akter testimony  – 15 minutes
  • Zehra Bano, Pakistani Speaker – 15 minutes
  • What you can do in your community to end taxpayer support for sweatshops, by tour organizers – 5 minutes
  • More info about a campaign in the community, by local hosts – 5 minutes
  • Question and answer – 30 minutes
• Accommodations either in a hotel or local home