Kay Spiritual Center was filled with squirming members of the AU community Tuesday, all craning their necks and stretching their arms backwards as they tried to peek at their own shirt labels, checking to see where their clothing was assembled. The exercise was part of the "Wal-Mart Sweatshop Workers" speaking tour.
The tour was organized by the International Labor Rights Fund in an effort to pressure Wal-Mart into enforcing codes of conduct in the company's factories across the country.
Trina Tocco, of the International Labor Rights Fund, explained that "we are intricately connected to the workers you will hear from tonight."
Tocco, along with Flory Arevalo and Damarys Meza, spoke about labor rights violations in their factories.
"We have to fight against exploitation," said Arevalo, a native of the Philippines.
According to Wal-Mart's Web site, www.walmart.com, suppliers must comply with "Global Ethics Principals." Wal-Mart suppliers sign a detailed list of standards, which includes guarantees of minimum wage, reasonable hours, freedom of association and access to information labor rights.
"The only code of conduct in the factory is in English," Meza said. "None of us speak English."
Meza has been an inspector for Mil Colores, a factory in Nicaragua that has supplied Wal-Mart with Faded Glory jeans for four years. She worked for 39 cents an hour, which was not enough to supply her family with their basic needs. According to Mesa, she has to inspect 1,000 jeans per day. If her company fails to meet its quota, Wal-Mart will choose another factory as a supplier.
Meza said that companies try to prohibit unions because "we bother them."
Arevalo has produced shirts for Wal-Mart and other U.S. companies for 16 years in Chong Won Fashion, Inc., a factory in the Philippines. Arevalo said she worked 14 to 24 hours in unsanitary conditions and had one 30-minute break per day to meet quotas.
In 2000, the workers of Chong Won Fashion, Inc. formed a union, but the company refused to make a collective bargaining agreement. They suspended workers and attempted to break up the union by transferring its members to different departments.
"I am appealing to you as American consumers to pressure Wal-Mart management so they will pressure my company [to make an agreement with union workers]," Arevalo said.
The ILRF has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for failing to enforce its Supplier Standards Agreement.
According to Terry Collingsworth, executive director of the ILRF, Wal-Mart is "the worst employer in the world."
"We want to hurt them in the marketplace before we can hurt them in the courts," Collingsworth said, encouraging the audience to boycott Wal-Mart.
Amanda Glensky, a freshman in the School of Communication, said she knew there were numerous lawsuits against Wal-Mart, but it was "really enlightening to be given primary sources on labor rights violations."
Jill Niebrugge-Brantley, a sociology professor at AU, has been active in the fight against Wal-Mart.
"A lot of people have said that the media is beating up on Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart helps one understand the economy of the U.S.," Niebrugge-Brantley said. "Our society is held together by cheap goods."
Students from other universities and local union chapters also attended the program. Ann Church, from George-Washington University and an intern for Co-op America said that the program gave "a human side to all the statistics."
The worker's tour was brought to campus by AU Solidarity, an on campus group.
