Groups urge Strickland's support of anti-sweatshop policy for state

July 2, 2008  The Daily Reporter

By Jonathan Nawn, Daily Reporter Staff Writer

The Ohio AFL-CIO, the Ohio Conference on Fair Trade, and Progress Ohio on Tuesday invited Gov. Ted Strickland to join a consortium of state and local governments committed to ending support for overseas sweatshops via tax dollars, marking the official launch of the SweatFree Ohio campaign.

A new report issued by the anti-sweatshop advocacy group SweatFree Communities claims human rights and labor violations are everyday occurrences at 12 overseas sweatshops in nine countries, and that two of the sweatshops are used as subcontractors by Ohio companies that manufacture uniforms for public employees.

The study, Subsidizing Sweat-shops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do, includes case studies of factories that manufacture public employee uniforms for nine major uniform brands.

The study reports human rights and labor violations such as child labor; illegally low wages; forced and unpaid overtime; verbal, physical and sexual abuse; pregnancy testing; long work hours causing physical ailments and elaborate schemes to deceive corporate auditors.

"When the state of Ohio does business, Ohioans need to be assured our policies set the standards in worker protections," said Tim Burga, chief of staff for the Ohio AFL-CIO. "No taxpayer dollars should go to companies that don't play by the rules."

The SweatFree Ohio campaign already has met with the governor's staff and the Ohio Department of Administrative Services staff to discuss the initiative.

According to Victoria Kaplan, Midwest regional organizer for SweatFree Communities, talks thus far have gone "very well."

The report details the alleged working conditions at KTS Textiles in Bangladesh, a supplier of undergarments to Bob Barker Co. of North Carolina, which then supplies them to the state of Ohio.

KTS Textiles was linked to a 2006 factory fire that killed an estimated 300 workers, mostly teenage girls.

"If we refuse shifts, are absent, or make a mistake then our supervisors and other mid-level management beat and slap us," said Bithi, a 22-year-old sewing operator who has worked the Bangladesh factory for four years, according to SweatFree Communities.

The company neither confirmed nor denied ties to KTS Textile and asserted that all suppliers are certified by the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production program, which means factories produce textiles under lawful, humane and ethical conditions. In addition, the company claims it conducts regular onsite inspections and audits of supply facilities.

The state of Ohio currently has a contract with Lion Apparel, a Dayton-based company that contracts materials from the Alamode factory in Honduras. According to SweatFree Communities, interview with employees at the factory revealed that all women workers must submit to a pregnancy test every March. "If any worker's results are positive, they fire her, no matter how many years she's been working," one worker at that factory allegedly stated.

Officials at Lion Apparel, the world's largest manufacturer of fire fighter protective clothing, declined to comment when contacted by The Daily Reporter.

Two communities in Ohio have already voiced their desire not to be a party to sweatshop operations.

Lucas County committed to joining the SweetFree Consortium last month when county commissioners unanimously passed a SweetFree purchasing policy.

"Lucas County, Ohio, is proud to be at the forefront of a national movement that will strengthen working families throughout the country and throughout the world," said Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop. "The SweetFree policy we adopted has been met with widespread support from our community as people realize that it's the right thing to do morally as well as economically."

In 1997, the first SweetFree cities policy in the country was passed in 1997 by North Olmstead.

"Ohio has a unique place in the movement to end sweatshops, and we look forward to Gov. Strickland continuing this leadership by joining the SweetFree Consortium," said Kaplan.