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Anti-Sweatshop Activists Will Continue to Fight For Workers

United Students Against Sweatshops has had representatives present at Kukdong since the beginning of the struggle. Jeremy Blasi, a recent graduate of the University of California-Berkeley reports: "I came to Atlixco two weeks ago to see the situation with my own eyes and act as an observer for the United Students Against Sweatshops. So far I have met with about 30 workers and visited 10 of their home villages. What I have observed is a workplace that can only be described as a sweatshop. Reflecting the general profile of the factory, the majority of the workers I've met are young women, between 16 and 20 years old, who live in poverty-ridden towns often far away from the factory.

"Today I met with workers in the rural town of Ahuatlan after a two-hour ride often interrupted by road-crossing cattle. The women in Ahuatlan wake up at 4:30 a.m. to work 10-hour shifts and return home at 8:30 p.m. For this they earn about $5 a day, which even in Mexico's impoverished economy is well below what one needs to meet his or her basic needs, let alone those of their family.

"At the factory they have consistently endured verbal and physical assaults by their managers; in one incident a manager struck a worker with a screwdriver. 'Judith,' an energetic 16-year-old, told me 'They treat us like dogs there.' The workers' main complaint is that they are represented by the FROC CROC, a mafia-like organization that calls itself a union but profits from an inadequate and illegal contract it signed without workers' consent."

Blasi continues, "If the factory matches the popular image of sweatshops, the Kukdong workers could not resemble less the common stereotype of sweatshop workers as passive and docile. These are strong, soulful, witty people, and they are fighting every day against great odds to defend their rights. This January the Kukdong workforce decided it had had enough with the CROC pseudo-union and they organized a 'paro' (work stoppage). For three days it shut down the factory, camping in the Kukdong front patio. They faced nights of drizzling rain with shared or no blankets, sleeping curled under the entrance overhang or open to the sky. They fought the cold with card games and humor, naming sleeping areas after local hotels -- the Grand, the Crystal, etc. -- and joked about couples hanging out in the 'one-hour' hotels. In the mornings they serenaded the CROC office, located above the Hotel Crystal, with 'You're Gonna Miss Me' love songs.

"But on the third night things got ugly. The police, joined by CROC thugs, closed in the workers from all directions. Josefina Hernandez, a leader of the strike, grabbed a stick that the head of the CROC was holding. Several cops grabbed her, dragged her away and threatened that she would have 'to sleep in the officer's bed' if she did not shut up.

"Meanwhile, the cops attacked. Alberto Alarcon, was struck in the head repeatedly and fell unconscious. The police hit Catalina Torres so hard that, upon waking, she did not respond to stimuli. In the end, 17 workers were hospitalized."

Nike's initial response to the situation has been insulting. Nike representatives blamed the paro on a cultural misunderstanding over food -- the Korean mangers were providing "steak" while the workers wanted beans and rice -- failing to mention that the food in question was in fact rancid.

What do the events in Mexico and Nike's slow and misguided responses to the situation mean for UNC anti-sweatshop policy? The events at Kukdong have suggested that if the policy is going to be effective in protecting workers making UNC apparel, students need to continue protesting. It was after students held demonstrations at their universities and at Nike stores across the country that the company began to take responsibility for problems in the factory. As students, we wish that Nike would listen first to the workers. Yet we are thankful that our voices in the United States, raised in solidarity with the workers in Mexico, have helped improve the workers' situation at Kukdong.

Despite improvements, fabricated arrest warrants against seven individuals are still pending, and Kukdong's most violent managers are still on the job. Nike can and must resolve these issues immediately. The workers at Kukdong are not giving up -- they are continuing their campaign to oust the CROC and to build their own democratic union. Student pressure on Nike will likewise continue until it fulfills the UNC Code of Conduct, ensuring workers in factories like Kukdong the ability to exercise their rights.

UNC has signed onto the Worker Rights Consortium, but students are asking for stronger participation in this organization. The Kukdong case has demonstrated the importance of this membership, as it was WRC, as a factory-monitoring organization, that worked immediately and effectively to produce a report on Kukdong that was critical in bringing the abusive situation to light.

Despite such proactive measures by the WRC, Nike and conservative economists continue to attack both the anti-sweatshop movement and the WRC. They claim those of us who fight sweatshops do not "understand" business or economics. Yet we understand quite well that it is "bad" business for Nike to actually pay its workers a living wage, and we refuse to accept such Nike economics. We owe it to the workers at Kukdong -- and the workers all over the world -- to support their struggles. We refuse to let "good" business and profits supersede the voices of the workers.

Mary Bratsch is a junior English major and a member of Students for Economic Justice. Reach her at bratsch@email.unc.edu.

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