by Cornelius Cardew
Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 at 5:49 PM
Sweatshop Watch, a California-based coalition working to end exploitation in the garment industry, joined Billionaires for Bush, a group that uses humor and street theater to expose corporate greed to protest sweatshop labor.
i2005-12-17-112958.jpg, image/jpeg, 501x333
Anti-sweatshop activists held a festive holiday-themed protest to demand that Levi’s take responsibility for labor violations. Demonstrators had cardboard cut-outs of mock Levi’s jeans styles, linking these to sweatshop exploitation. At the same time, hundreds of postcards were collected and sent to Levi’s. Protesters also sang satirical songs that highlight corporate power and sweatshop exploitation to the tunes of Christmas carols.
Since January 2005, garment workers in Lajat factory in Gomez Palacio, Mexico have been organizing to address sweatshop conditions including: - unpaid overtime - lack of access to drinking water and clean bathrooms - exposure to dangerous chemicals - denial of freedom of association Since workers began organizing to form an independent union, they have experienced harassment by management, police attacks, blacklisting, lock-outs, and reduction of wages to starvation levels. Because Levi’s is Lajat’s largest client, workers and their supporters are calling for Levi’s to ensure workers’ rights are respected at the factory.