The Sweatshop Connection:

From Bangladesh to ISU

Sweatshop Workers Are Paid 1 1/2 Cents to Make ISU Hats

By Nick Berveiler

Have you ever wondered what it is like to work in a sweatshop? Talking during working hours is strictly prohibited. Total repression of Freedom of Association. No day care center. No sick days. Cheated on overtime wages. The factory is overcrowded and hot and often hazardous. Trapped in misery.

The most visible form of sweatshop abuse available in Bloomington Normal can be seen in the Illinois State University hats made in Bangladesh. ISU Students Against Sweatshops was contacted by the National Labor Committee to purchase an ISU hat made by Headmaster labeled “Made in Bangladesh.” When the NLC received the hat at their New York City office, they confirmed that the hats were coming from a factory they had investigated, Lim’s Bangladesh Ltd. in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The National Labor Committee is releasing several reports of factory conditions discovered through research in Bangladesh factories that produce apparel for universities across the country. [Full Story] [Take a Tour]

The Struggle for Workers Rights in Bangladesh

By Charles Kernaghan

Executive Director, National Labor Committee

An National Labor Committee (NLC) delegation has just returned from Bangladesh. There are 1.6 million apparel workers in 3,200 factories producing 980 million garments a year for export to the U.S. The workers, mostly young women, are in a trap, stripped of their rights. Forced to work 14 hour shifts, from 8am to 10pm seven days a week for 8 cents an hour.

Fourteen-year-old helpers are paid just 3 to 5 cents an hour. At least once a week, they are forced to work 19-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. right through to 3:00 a.m. the next morning. The workers then sleep a few hours on the factory floor and start work all over again. There is not one single union with a contract in any of the 3,200 factories. The factory managers hire thugs. We heard of many cases where workers were beaten in the factories. When a woman reaches 30 or 35 years of age she is fired. Fired for having a gray hair. Fired for being worn out, used up and exhausted. [Full Story] [Listen to Charles Kernaghan]

Disney’s Wonderful World of Sweatshops

By John K. Wilson

Disney may be America’s most beloved corporation: from Mickey Mouse to Winnie-the-Pooh to Snow White, no company is more associated with childhood, innocence, and purity. Except that Disney is now being associated with sweatshops around the world where impoverished workers are paid pennies to make Disney merchandise in miserable conditions. “Disney tries to project this image of children’s dreams but in fact they are one of the worst sweatshop abusers in the world,” Charles Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee has noted.

Illinois State University has been the site of the most intense conflict in the country over Disney and its sweatshops. In March, members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) at ISU protested a Disney recruiting visit; graduate student Nino Selvaggio was arrested for criminal trespassing (the charges were later dropped) when he disrupted the Disney event at CVA 151 by talking about sweatshops for 15 minutes before police took him away in handcuffs. Another student, David McHone-Chase, dressed as “Sweaty Mouse” for the protest. The USAS students promise another protest when Disney returns to ISU to recruit on October 30. [Full Story]