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!
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