After reading Elizabeth Fox-Solomon's opinion piece in your periodical ("Activism for Activism's Sake," Nov. 12) I was, to say the least, dismayed by several aspects. Her presentation of members of the rally as uninformed is indeed interesting, considering the fact that she failed to quote any CWA 14177 union member or rally participant about in-depth strike or trade issues. Additionally, the notion that people today participate in such anti-sweatshop rallies do so "for activism's sake" assumes much about activists today.
Having been involved in labor, fair trade, and human rights rallies, I am merely one of many activists, on and off campus, who can speak in detail about the pernicious effects of what is erroneously termed "free trade." As a graduate student in history at UB, and an officer of the union, CWA 14177, which helped to organize the Nov. 12 rally, I am also well attuned to various ramifications of a corporation's decision to take advantage of workers overseas, who are too often poorly paid and routinely denied legal protection equal to that of corporations. New Era Cap Company, against which my union sisters and brothers and I are on strike, outsources caps from a sweatshop in the export processing zone (EPZ) of Dhaka, Bangladesh, which pays its workers wages as low as 10 cents per hour, 14 hours each day, every day. Such heinous working conditions closely parallel those of factory workers, miners, steelworkers, and garment makers in the United States a century ago, and are an affront to those of us in the labor and human rights movements around the world. Such opposition stems not merely from the deleterious ramifications on U.S. workers resulting from corporate flight overseas. Equally important is the genuine concern for those workers abroad, who often lack the legal protections which workers in most industrialized nations have attained.
Not mentioned in anything which Fox-Solomon has written is the fact that we were forced out on strike rather than accept New Era's concession contract mandating deep wage cuts of up to $6 per hour, no job security, no pension, and no cost-of-living allowances. Additionally, according to the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), with whose independent investigation New Era refuses to comply, the injury rate in the Derby plant where we work is "over five times the national industrial average." Yet New Era refuses to implement an adequate safety program to remedy such deplorable conditions, despite the success of such a plan at the Tops warehouse between Tops and Teamsters #264.
Meanwhile, New Era and UB have a licensing contract for New Era to manufacture caps to be sold at the university. Those who purchase New Era-made UB caps become complicit in the university, and New Era's, profit from the misery of others, both locally and abroad. Such conditions merit more attention than Fox-Solomon devoted to the issues, which we at CWA 14177 are more than willing to discuss when she is prepared to do so. This is simply not too much to ask from someone who criticizes activists for being uninformed, yet fails to adequately gather pertinent information relating to a rally, and the widespread global conditions that it decried.
There will be a teach-in at UB on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. at Knox Hall, Room 110, for those interested in a more detailed discussion of the CWA strike at New Era, the workers' conditions in Bangladesh, and how global trade has undercut labor rights globally.
