ECONOMIC STIMULUS WORKER TOUR hits Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice & SweatFree Communities, 30.03.2009 13:38
"Calling on Ashland to Pass a Strong Sweatshop-Free Purchasing Policy and to Help Build an Economy Based on Good Jobs"
The Ashland SweatFree Campaign and Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice present:
ECONOMIC STIMULUS WORKER TOUR
Fighting sweatshops and building an economy based on good jobs
Saturday, April 4, 4:00-5:30 pm
Southern Oregon University
Stevenson Union (student union), Rogue River Room
1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR 97520
The tour schedule is at 
http://www.sweatfree.org/tour and we're posting photos online at http://www.tinyurl.com/tourphotos Guest radio interviews: Brain Labor Report 4/2/09 http://www.kskq.org/brainlabor/?p=492
Ashland to be a sweat-free community
"To be or not to be?"
Spend Tax $$ for Worker Justice
ECONOMIC STIMULUS WORKER TOUR
Fighting sweatshops and building an economy based on good jobs
Saturday, April 4, 4:00-5:30 pm
Southern Oregon University
Stevenson Union (student union), Rogue River Room
1250 Siskiyou Blvd. (Garfield & Siskiyou)
Ashland, OR 97520
This year, our elected officials will spend millions of our tax dollars on uniforms and other clothing for public employees like police officers and firefighters. Unfortunately, often this gear is made in sweatshops by workers forced to work long hours for poverty wages in inhumane and abusive conditions.
With the global economy reeling, now more than ever our tax dollars should – and can – support higher standards that level the playing field for U.S. workers and support worker organizing around the world. In December, Ashland passed a resolution supporting sweatshop-free purchasing -- just a couple months after Portland City Council adopted a ground-breaking ordinance to stop tax dollar support for sweatshops. Now the Ashland Sweatfree Campaign is working to ensure the passage of a strong sweatfree procurement policy in the city, and activists are also bringing the campaign to the state-level.
This event features workers from Honduras and Puerto Rico who will speak out against tax dollar support for sweatshops and for economic policies that lift all boats. Come hear their stories and take action to support their struggles and the sweatfree campaign.
Speakers will include:
Erlinda Elizabeth Gutierrez Reyes worked 15 years in the Honduran garment industry before becoming an organizer and educator for garment workers through FESITRADEH, a Honduran labor federation. Elizabeth is also a nurse. She has extensive knowledge of Dickies de Honduras, a factory in Choloma, Honduras that makes uniforms for the popular Dickies brand. Dickies supplies many U.S. cities and states with work pants, including the State of Illinois, the State of Wisconsin and the City of Milwaukee, but behind the label is a history of repression of human rights and labor rights. Dickies garment workers from Pakistan to Mexico to Honduras report poverty wages, forced and uncompensated overtime, and blacklisting.
Rafael Irizarry has worked for five years as a machine operator at Propper International's Las Marias plant in Puerto Rico. Propper is a major producer of military and law enforcement apparel that supplies San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington State, among others. He is a lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against Propper for damages of $225,000 related to unpaid work, alleging that the company did not grant legally required paid sick days and vacation days. Workers in the lawsuit also claim that Propper reduces employees' agreed-upon hourly wages when workers' production falls short of quota.
This event is part of a national speaking tour organized by SweatFree Communities. This event is sponsored the SOU Media Collective (campus host), Southern Oregon Central Labor Council, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, and SweatFree Communities.
For more information contact Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice at 
Brain@mind.net or contact organize@sweatfree.org, 413-586-0974, or visit http://www.sweatfree.org/tour
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Media Advisory for this event 01.04.2009 - 11:54 Media Advisory For April 1, 2009 Contact: Victoria Kaplan, SweatFree Communities, 310-531-3415 Wes Brain, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, 541-482-6898 Interviews Available on Request Amid economic crisis, Ashland may be using tax dollars to support sweatshops, say international garment workers on visit to Ashland, Oregon Workers from Puerto Rico and Honduras join Ashland Sweatfree Campaign advocates in calling on the City of Ashland to end taxpayer support for sweatshops "Economic Stimulus Worker Tour comes to Southern Oregon" Two workers with experience making uniforms and other apparel for U.S. city and state governments, funded by taxpayer dollars, will speak at a public event in Ashland on Saturday, April 4. They are speaking together to inform American taxpayers about the dangerous and abusive conditions under which some government contracted products are made, a practice which has also led to the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing jobs. The Ashland event is part of a two-week tour which went first through Wisconsin and now the Pacific Northwest as human rights and labor organizations call on elected officials to join the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium, which would stop tax dollar support for sweatshop abuses and level the playing field for ethical U.S. businesses. The city of Ashland passed a sweatshop-free purchasing resolution on December 16, 2008. That resolution called for city staff to come back to the Ashland City Council within 6 months with an ordinance that would spell out the policies and procedures which along with joining the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium will move Ashland towards becoming a sweat-free community. The Ashland event is hosted by various organizations, including Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, SweatFree Communities, the Southern Oregon Central Labor Council and the Southern Oregon University Media Collective which is a student organization and campus host. Who: Elizabeth Gutierrez Reyes, from Honduras, worked 15 years in garment factories and has witnessed human rights violations at a factory for the popular Dickies brand, which supplies the State of Wisconsin and the City of Milwaukee. She is now a leader with FESITRADEH, a Honduran labor federation. Maritza Vazquez, from Puerto Rico, works as a machine operator for Propper International, a major producer of military and law enforcement apparel. She and fellow employees are organizing to improve conditions in their factory. Liana Foxvog is director of Sweatfree Communities. Victoria Kaplan is Midwest regional organizer for Sweatfree Communities When: Saturday April 4, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Where: Rogue River Room, SOU Stevenson Union, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland Our goal is to educate Southern Oregon residents about sweatshop abuses and inspire action to improve working conditions at home and abroad. For more information about the Ashland Sweatfree Campaign and this tour stop in Ashland, visit http://rogueimc.org/en/2009/03/14781.shtml. For even more information about the speaking tour and events, visit www.sweatfree.org/tour . ### SweatFree Communities coordinates a national network of grassroots campaigns that promote humane working conditions in apparel and other labor-intensive global industries by working with both public and religious institutions to adopt sweatshop-free purchasing policies. Using institutional purchasing as a lever for worker justice, the sweatfree movement empowers ordinary people to create a just global economy through local action. Learn more at http://www.sweatfree.org The Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium, comprised of states, cities, counties, local government agencies, and school districts, as well as human rights advocates and labor rights experts, will pool resources of public entities to investigate working conditions in factories that make uniforms and other products for public employees. Cities and states will hold vendors to the same standards, use the same independent monitor for enforcement, and create a market large enough to persuade companies to deal responsibly and ethically with their suppliers and workers. Learn more at http://www.buysweatfree.org
STOP SPENDING TAX DOLLARS @ SWEATSHOPS>  Homepage:: http://
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