Date of publication: July 11, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kenneth Miller (phone)
Tom Kertes (phone)
Pittsburgh Fans Demand Pirates Go to Bat for Sweatfree Baseball
PITTSBURGH - Twanda Carlisle, City of Pittsburgh City Council Member, has told the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance (PASCA) that she plans to present a proclamation at today’s 10:00 AM council meeting that will urge the Pittsburgh Pirates to do the right thing by going to bat for sweatfree baseball and human rights. The proclamation will be presented 10 hours before the first pitch of the July 11, 2006 All Star Game at PNC Park and will start a countdown for the Pirates to meet the demands of the team’s fans. Fans are demanding that the Pirates adopt a sweatfree baseball proclamation of their own – before the opening pitch of tonight’s All Star Game.
The City Council proclamation will call on the Pittsburgh Pirates to stand with fans and workers by ensuring that all the factories sewing Pirates and All Star apparel at the 2006 All Star Game be sweatshop-free. PASCA and the Black Political Empowerment Project (B-PEP) requested the proclamation as a way for the city to demonstrate its commitment to sweatfree baseball and human rights. The proclamation will be co-sponsored by Doug Shields. Council President Luke Ravenstahl, who represents the city on the Sports and Exhibition Authority, is expected to co-sponsor as well.
On Saturday July 8, 2006 members of PASCA and B-PEP held an historic meeting with the Pirates for consideration of the “We Are A Global Fam-il-ee” All Star Proclamation, the proclamation that PASCA is asking the team to adopt. PASCA and B-PEP explained how the conditions in the global apparel industry are beneath the standards of Pittsburgh’s baseball fans. Violations of fundamental human rights and core labor standards, as set out by the International Labor Organization, were covered as well. PASCA and B-PEP reminded the Pirates that Pittsburghers expect that the Pirates will represent the city’s high standards for human rights when dealing with baseball’s role in sweatshops and poverty in the US and around the world. Pittsburgh fans are calling on the Pirates to go to bat for sweatfree baseball by calling on the rest of the league to do the right thing and take a stand for human rights.
At the July 8 meeting, Pirates representatives were joined by an advisor from Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) who challenged PASCA’s review of factory conditions and boasted about the corporate conduct of MLBP’s licensing partners. The advisor made these assertions despite clear evidence to the contrary. A detailed report with examples such as Nike and Reebok, companies that admit pervasive problems throughout their supply chains has been delivered (visit sweatfree.org for detailed documentation of sweatshop conditions). The Workers Rights Consortium, an organization of 158 colleges and universities which requires disclosure of factory locations and factory monitoring independent of manufactures and licensees, has offered its assessment of factory conditions and offered to help follow up an All Star anti-sweatshop proclamation from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Following today’s City Council meeting PASCA members will be talking to baseball fans about baseball’s sweatshops as fans arrive at PNC Park via the Roberto Clemente Bridge for the All Star Game. “Pittsburghers have every reason to be hopeful that the Pittsburgh Pirates will use the 10 hours between the council hearing and the All Star Game’s opening pitch to decide to represent Pittsburghers in a meaningful way by signing on to a proclamation for baseball to take a stand against sweatshop apparel. This is the way Pittsburghers expect to reflect on the 2006 All Star Game,” said Dennis Brutis, co-founder of PASCA.
At 4:30 PM on July 11, 2006 PASCA and 2006 Anti Sweatshop All Stars from around the country will gather at Freedom Corner Pittsburgher’s premier Civil Rights monument and the place where the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh delivered testimony about working conditions in factories that produce Pirates apparel on October 16, 2004 and begin a march to Roberto Clemente Bridge. The life and death of Roberto Clemente exemplify the Civil Rights Bridge we are building to the floor of the global sweatshop and the humanity Pittsburghers expects to share with the whole world at the 2006 All Star Game.
At 6:00 PM the Anti Sweatshop Carnival will begin on Roberto Clemente Bridge and around the statues of Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Honus Wagner. This carnival signifies the beginning of several new initiatives that will extend the Civil Rights of Pittsburghers directly to workers in the global apparel industry and high light factories sewing baseball apparel.
Background
The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance is committed to supporting the global apparel industry union organizing drive because the lives and expectations of workers in other parts of the world are directly connected to our own. PASCA is under the umbrella of Azania Heritage International, an organization that celebrates STEVE BIKO DAY each year. PASCA co-founder Celeste Taylor serves on the board of SweatFree Communities whose staff and board members have been critical to the development of campaigns such as this.
The 2006 Anti Sweatshop All Stars include: the United Workers Association of Baltimore, who work at Camden Yards; the Up State NY (Cooperstown) branch of the Industrial Workers of the World; Sonny Scroggins and the Bias Busters of Kansas; and Tom Lewandowski of the Fort Wayne Central Labor Council.