Submitted on Thu, 03/30/2006 - 4:06pm
Chief Costa,
The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance is planning a large demonstration to take place on Roberto Clemente Bridge and around PNC Park before, during and after the July 11 Major League All Star Game. We are planning on approximately 5,000 Pittsburghers and several bus loads of workers from Camden Yards, amongst other places to join us, demanding that the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club publicly request that MLB lock its apparel licensing agreements into the factories where the apparel is being sewn now, what we call the “2006 ALL STAR MULIT FIBER FREEZE.” It is very possible that the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club will agree to this before the All Star Game, in which case our demonstration will become celebration – this is the Civil Rights Bridge from PNC Park to the floor of the global sweatshop.
Submitted on Thu, 03/30/2006 - 3:52pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
By David Zirin, DAVID ZIRIN is the author of "What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States." - Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2006.
WILL Major League Baseball be more resistant to change than apartheid South Africa?"
That's the question posed by Dennis Brutus, a former leading fighter against apartheid who is a founding member of the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance. The group is pressuring the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team to lead a major league campaign to improve the working conditions of those who stitch and sew uniforms and caps.
Submitted on Thu, 09/22/2005 - 11:06pm
Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it is an issue with some relevance to the IWW. The views of the author do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa.
http://www.shepherd-express.com/9_1_05/newsandviews.htm - Inside Baseball
MLB accused of avoiding labor responsibility - By Barbara Miner
Baseball is about statistics--lots of them. Here are a few you may want to keep in mind the next time the Brew Crew's Geoff Jenkins or Brady Clark hits one out of the park.
Baseballs used in the major leagues are hand sewn at a factory in Turrialba, Costa Rica, run by Rawlings Sporting Goods. Workers at the factory make roughly four baseballs per hour, which requires about one stitch every 8.3 seconds, or 4,536 stitches in a 10.5-hour shift.
The Costa Rican workers are paid about 28 cents per ball, for an annual wage of less than $3,000 a year, which barely brings them above the country's poverty level.
In 2005, the average salary for a Major League Baseball (MLB) player was $2,632,655, according to Baseball Almanac. There are 162 regular season games, for a per game average of $16,250.
Submitted on Wed, 07/20/2005 - 11:36pm
The Upstate N.Y. IWW Branch and its anti-sweatshop committee will stage their second informational picket in support of Sweatfree Baseball in Cooperstown, N.Y.on Saturday, July 23rd, beginning at approximately 11:30 a.m. on Main street.
The IWW here and in other locations in the U.S., including Pittsburgh, Baltimore Milwaukee and other cities, continues to call on Major League Baseball to create justice for workers who toil under miserable conditions to produce highly profitable MLB licensed logo gear. Factory production of MLB items like hats, shirts, jerseys and team jackets takes place in the larger context of globalization, in facilities all over the world whose common denominator is low pay,intimidation and harassment of workers, hostilitytoward unions and many other documented abuses.
The IWW and other groups with concerns about sweatshop production abuses have conceived Sweatfree Baseball to bring about a transformation of how licensed sports logo gear is produced. The recommendations for change are based on a 3 point plan. The gear must be produced via a process that allows citizens of the MLB Baseball system to serve in an advisory capacity to team owners and league officials to ensure that community standards and legal requirements are met for the items -- Community Collective Bargaining. Next, the production facilities who supply Major League Baseball with clothing must participate in Certified Payroll verification to prevent some of the worst abuses in pay shortages and other employer intimidation. And Free Speech rights must be honored for the factory workers and at the ballparks, often virtual lockdowns against public protest about such inhumane and anti-worker practices. The fans often pay for the stadiums through their tax dollars, so let's let them speak!
Submitted on Sun, 06/26/2005 - 10:05pm
No Sweatshops Bucco! Takes the Night Train to Ft Wayne at the end of July
By Kenneth Miller
Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance are pleased to announce the content of a 2-hour meeting with the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club on April 11, 2005. Michelle Gaffey, Celeste Taylor and Kenneth Miller represented PASCA. The Pittsburgh Pirates, significantly, brought their Director of Merchandising -- Joe B., the person who knows the most about licensing agreements and promotional items, to the table. We discussed the urgent need to identify exactly who the workers that make Pirate gear are and what their rights are. We presented the testimony of workers who make Gildan Activewear in Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti. We presented the testimony of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity that visited Pittsburgh on October 16, 2004. The Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to do many things in advance of a follow up meeting but have so far refused to meet with us again.
Individuals and organizations can be a part of PASCA bargaining by contacting the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club, demand a report from the April 11 meeting with PASCA and join us at the table when we meet again. Stop by TMC for sets of the 4th Edition Major League Sweatshop Baseball Cards, educate yourself and others about the struggle of workers in the Global Apparel Industry. A SweatFree Baseball Campaign website is graciously hosted by the Industrial Workers of the World. You can learn about our strategies and Major League Sweatshop Education at http://www.iww.org/unions/iu410/mlb
Some of the activities of the Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance are unique in the anti sweatshop movement. Our success requires that we bring in knowledge and information from many different sources. Members of this Pittsburgh community have been very generous by helping to make this possible.