Chicago, IL
As governments and corporations promote policies of economic integration without protection of workers' rights, workers are being dragged into "a race to the bottom."
In industrial countries, the effects are clear: high unemployment in Europe, stagnant wages and growing economic inequality in the United States. Even in low-wage countries where growth is occurring, it is often based on the intense exploitation of workers and their families most flagrantly characterized by the employment of tens of millions of children and the growth of sweatshop conditions in production facilities throughout the world.
The labor movement can encourage and help shape the voice of popular protest against these policies that exploit powerless workers and harm working people everywhere.
A coalition of religious, human rights, labor, women's and student organizations initiated by the National Labor Committee has called for a Day of Conscience to End Child Labor and Sweatshop Abuses on October 4, 1997. The Day of Conscience will feature simultaneous actions in hundreds of cities and communities across the country and throughout the world--vigils, candlelight marches, religious services, leafleting, musical events, demonstrations, ringing of church bells, street theater, and other activities. Students of all ages will be playing a major role in these actions.
The coalition is also circulating a petition calling on President Clinton, Congress and the White House Task Force to End Sweatshop Abuses to adopt policies that will assure the payment of a living wage to all workers, independent monitoring of corporate codes of conduct, and effective and enforceable workers' rights at home and abroad. The coalition has set a target of objective of one million signatures by December 25, 1997.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council endorses the October 4 Day of Conscience and the Holiday Season of Conscience to End Child Labor and Sweatshop Abuses. We urge all affiliates to participate in the many localities across the nation where activities are being planned.