Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 August 1999 — Page 6

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, ItW

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from the juvenile justice and child welfare systems return to environments that lack the supervision and supports necessary for them to grow and thrive in the community.

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Our community will work to support our juvenile justice and child welfare systems to help the young people of our community become strong, independent, responsible adults.

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UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL INDIANA

Sweatshop monitoring group gaining momentum

By JIM LOBE

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WASHINGTON (IPS)-The sweatshop monitoring group created eight months ago by a White House task force of human rights organizations and clothing and footwear companies is gaining momentum. Recently the apparel giants Adidas-Salomon AG and Levi Strauss joined the Free Labor Association (FLA), which requires corporate members to enforce a code of conduct in all their foreign factories and permit FLA-certified monitors to review their compliance. At least two other big retailers, Eddie Bauer and the GAP, may join in the near future, according to trade sources. Critics of the scheme, however, maintain that the FLA is a public-relations ploy by corporations to lull consumers into

to impose tougher anti-sweat-shop conditions on licensee companies than those included

in the FLA code'.

By signing up with the FLA, say the students, many universi-' ties are trying to backtrack on * their previous commitments and take the steam out of what has been described as the most effective student movement in -

the last 20 years.

“Universities aren’t joining > the FLA to end sweatshops; they' are trying to seek cover from ]' criticisms,” according to Marion ’ Traub-Werner, a USAS activist 0 at the University of North • Carolina. “By participating in 1 the FLA, they are lending their 1 legitimacy to prop up a corrupt 1 institution.” 1

thinking their products are not made under sweatshop conditions.

They are demanding that the association should either

toughen its code or disband. “It’s really just a corporate whitewash,” says Erik Brakken, a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin and a staff member

of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). The movement has been

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Children & Youth will succeed.

Families and Neighborhoods will be healthy and safe.

People will have a second chance.

Seniors will not be alone.

angered because 100 universities have also joined the FLA. They have come to play a key role in the anti-sweatshop movement because they earn about $2.5 billion a year in sales of clothing which bear university names or logos. The competition among companies like Nike and Reebok for the license to produce those goods is stiff. In a highly effective two-year campaign that included sit-ins and other protests, USAS — which is backed by the largest US textile union, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) — has forced campus administrators around the country to agree

The addition of two new corporate members to the FLA if a major shot in the arm to the ’ association. Levi Strauss is one 1) of the oldest and best-known I U.S. apparel companies, while ' Adidas-Salomon, which has been a major target of Europe’s ' Clean Clothes Campaign, 1 extends the FLA’s clout across i the Atlantic. North America and Europe together account for more than 40 percent of global 1 apparel consumption. Until this month, the FLA had failed to attract any new companies besides its initial eight , corporate members including Liz Claiborne. Nike and Reebok. They were among a group of 18 companies, labor, consumer and human rights groups which > spent two years negotiating over ; a code of conduct and monitoring system that was acceptable ^ to as many participants as | possible. i Under the code, factories used, by member companies must pay the local minimum wage or die i prevailing industry wage, - I whichever is higher. The code also bars the use of forced or child labor or forcing employees to work more than 60 hours a >

week.

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There’s No Sense in Counting Our Numbers, If We Don't Make Our Numbers Count.

Indiana Black Legislative Caucus 1999 Legislative Weekend Quality Inn East, 3525 N. Shadeland Avenue August 13-14

Guest Speaker: Richard G. Hatcher, former Mayor of Gary

Featuring workshops on such topics as: Census 2000, How to be an Effective Lobbyist, Civil Rights, Education, Health, Political Action, Labor and Youth

For more informtion, contact Turae Dabney at 317-232-9646

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“Seeking a Common Agenda and Speaking in a Unified Voice" Authorized and Paid for by the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, Charlie Brown, Chairman