All Star Sweatshop -Testimony -Defense Plan and -Literature - visitors from Camden Yards!

Four members of the United Workers Association of Maryland will be joining us!  The UWA is organizing day laborers at Camden Yards in Baltimore.  The owner of the Orioles, Peter Angelos, promised these workers a living wage and has now broken his promise.  Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance will make Peter Angelos feel UNWELCOME in in Pittsburgh during the 2006 All Star Game when UWA members join us Roberto Clemente Bridge. 

AGENDA ITEMS 

• Review worker testimony - especially the All Star Honduras Majestic and Nike outreach.
• Recap the May 30 meeting between Ms Pittinger of Pittsburgh's Civil Police Review Board, Mona Wallace of the Police Departments' Intellegence/Crime Analysis department and Kenneth Miller of PASCA about our FREE SPEECH at the 2006 All Star Game.  Absolute FREE SPEECH AND SAFTEY all around PNC Park.
• Pick up HOT OFF THE PRESS copies of liturature to build for the All Star Sweatshop event
• MORE
   
  Contact Kenneth Miller 412-241-1339 or Tom Kertes, Communications Organizer for the United Workers Association 443/803-9574
  

---------------------- Figure out 36 Days between this meeting and Sweatshop All Star 2006.  Be a part of the planning for the 2006 SweatFree All Star Game by joining the SweatFree Baseball Campaign List Serve - - SweatFree_Baseball_Campaign-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Check out the HOT OF THE PRESS June 2 All Star Literature stored as a word doc file.   

No Sweatshops Bucco!

Attached BELOW  is the draft legislation that will create a "security zone" around PNC Park and the convention center.  Also is the first newspaper article about this.  The ACLU and the National Laywers Guild are looking into and trying to protect our rights - we need advise to hone our defense plan!  The advice that we recieve will be discussed at our meeting on June 6. 

Members of PASCA will also testify at City Counil at 10 AM and County Council at 5 PM on Tuesday May 6 - these legislative groups are prepared to past the best anti sweatshop procurment legislation in america - THIS MONTH - in time to set an example of our high standards for all of Major League Baseball.  YES WE CAN! 

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From Pakistan's Daily Times - Textile unrest spreads in Bangladesh

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshi textile workers staged fresh walkouts on Saturday as unrest over low wages spread to other areas amid government calls for calm, officials said.

Police and paramilitary forces were called to the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) at Ashulia, north of the capital, where workers from several factories held demonstrations, said Dhaka police chief Jahirul Islam Bhuiyan.

Last week, tens of thousands of workers demanding better wages rioted in Dhaka and adjoining industrial zones, torching at least 16 factories and ransacking another 300.

Two workers were killed and scores injured after security officers shot at the rioting workers.

On Saturday, at least seven factories in the DEPZ were shut following walkouts by several thousand workers demanding increased salaries, overtime and a weekly mandatory holiday, said the zone’s general manager Kamal Akhter.

Bangladesh’s commerce and labour ministers rushed to the DEPZ, 40 kilometres north of Dhaka, and urged the workers to remain calm after foreign investors threatened to close down their factories, he added.

Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed told workers he would sit with their representatives and foreign investors Sunday to find a “peaceful solution” to the labour unrest.

“I will talk (to) all the parties including the owners, workers’ representatives and the unions to discuss the issues. We hope we will be able to find a peaceful solution through discussion,” Ahmed told reporters.

Trouble also flared at several other factories in the Ashulia industrial town but outside the DEPZ, police said.

There are over 60 foreign owned industries in the DEPZ, one of Bangladesh’s seven special economic zones where foreign investors enjoy special tax and fiscal benefits. afp