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New Era Cap Co. Labeled "Sweatshop Employer"
In the midst of tough negotiations with CWA Local 14177, the New Era Cap Co. has been hit with an investigation and report branding it a “sweatshop employer.”
At the request of CWA, community-action partner Jobs with Justice and its Buffalo affiliate, the Coalition for Economic Justice, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) sent students from five universities to the Buffalo, N.Y., area March 17-20 to investigate working conditions at New Era’s factories downtown and in outlying Derby.
The company has laid off 130 Local 14177 members from the Derby facility and has threatened to lay off 100 more, while shifting work to low-wage factories in Alabama and offshore.
The Derby local is struggling both to save jobs and to win a fair contract to replace one that expired in December, said CWA Printing Sector Vice President Bill Boarman, who thanked the students for their effort.
Over the past month, CWA has stepped up the pressure on New Era by running radio spots and print ads in the Buffalo area. The union also arranged for a small plane to fly over Major League Baseball spring training games in Florida at Disney/Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Baseball City, trailing a banner that reads, “New Era: Stop Job Cuts! Keep People Who Make Caps.” New Era is the exclusive supplier of big league caps.
Whirlwind Agenda
During their three days in the Buffalo area, CWA Representative Dave Palmer said the students interviewed nearly 30 New Era workers. They tried to meet with management at the Buffalo plant but were refused entry.
At the Derby plant, they gained access to the cafeteria but then were summarily ejected. They met with members of the Erie County Legislature, which issued a proclamation of support for the workers.
In the course of their investigations, the students uncovered high incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion injuries among workers at the Derby plant and heard evidence of blatant union busting at both plants.
The students reported that New Era fired three officers and four members of the formerly independent union at Derby when it conducted a campaign to affiliate with CWA in 1997, and that the company pushed a petition this past winter to have an election to decertify Local 14177, at the same time announcing layoffs and proposed wage cuts. By a 4-1 margin, the workers voted to remain CWA.
In 1999, when the “company union” at the Buffalo plant sought to affiliate with CWA, the students reported, “New Era undertook an anti-union campaign, targeting the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian immigrants in a plant comprised of 80 percent people of color.”
“This time it was successful,” the students said. “The plant manager addressed the workforce one day at the factory, telling them that when they went to vote, they should think carefully about what they would do for future employment. The company gave workers time off, rented buses and took them over to the polling location, giving anti-union instructions on the way.”
In their 10-page report, they noted that New Era imports caps from China and Bangladesh, where workers slave away and earn barely enough to support themselves. But they also took into account the grueling pace at which the Derby workers must perform to meet stepped-up quotas, incurring crippling injuries and paying about 30 percent of their income for health care.
“Sweatshops do not just occur overseas and do not just concern the issue of wages,” they concluded.
Campus Clout
“USAS has for the last 2 1/2 years built up a good degree of leverage in the $2.5 billion collegiate apparel market,” said National Organizer Eric Brakken, who accompanied the students to Buffalo.
USAS recently orchestrated the safe return to work of about 850 workers who went on strike in January against Kuk Dong, a Korean-owned company with a factory in Atlixco de Puebla, Mexico. The workers there, who manufacture apparel for Nike and Reebok, have faced threats and even beatings in their fight to organize an independent union.
At CWA News press time, the students were planning to release their report to university campuses and the media. USAS represents activists at 150 universities, including about 60 that purchase New Era caps and apparel for their athletic teams and sell New Era apparel to fans through collegiate outlets.
Resolve and Gratitude
The Erie County Legislature’s proclamation urging the company to settle its labor dispute and rehire the workers laid off in Derby will be sent to the governing bodies of professional baseball, hockey, basketball, football and golf, as well as Little League baseball. It urges them to “contact the company and voice concern over its treatment of the workers at the Derby plant.” Legislator Crystal Peoples helped arrange for the proclamation, Palmer said.
“Our members thanked me for the opportunity to talk to the students and asked me to thank them for their support,” Local 14177 President Jane Howald said. “They did a great job in the short time they were here.”
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen praised the effort as “terrific work — exactly the concept of a perfect student-labor coalition in action.”
As the CWA News went to press, a religious social justice coalition had invited both workers and management to a candlelight vigil March 25 at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church in North Evans, N.Y., Howald said. CEJ Executive Director Maria Whyte and activists were to participate in a fast on the workers’ behalf March 27-29, sponsored by the New York State Labor/Religion Coalition. Also, the local was continuing to regularly leaflet Buffalo Sabers hockey games.
At the request of CWA, community-action partner Jobs with Justice and its Buffalo affiliate, the Coalition for Economic Justice, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) sent students from five universities to the Buffalo, N.Y., area March 17-20 to investigate working conditions at New Era’s factories downtown and in outlying Derby.
The company has laid off 130 Local 14177 members from the Derby facility and has threatened to lay off 100 more, while shifting work to low-wage factories in Alabama and offshore.
The Derby local is struggling both to save jobs and to win a fair contract to replace one that expired in December, said CWA Printing Sector Vice President Bill Boarman, who thanked the students for their effort.
Over the past month, CWA has stepped up the pressure on New Era by running radio spots and print ads in the Buffalo area. The union also arranged for a small plane to fly over Major League Baseball spring training games in Florida at Disney/Orlando, St. Petersburg, Tampa and Baseball City, trailing a banner that reads, “New Era: Stop Job Cuts! Keep People Who Make Caps.” New Era is the exclusive supplier of big league caps.
Whirlwind Agenda
During their three days in the Buffalo area, CWA Representative Dave Palmer said the students interviewed nearly 30 New Era workers. They tried to meet with management at the Buffalo plant but were refused entry.
At the Derby plant, they gained access to the cafeteria but then were summarily ejected. They met with members of the Erie County Legislature, which issued a proclamation of support for the workers.
In the course of their investigations, the students uncovered high incidences of carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive motion injuries among workers at the Derby plant and heard evidence of blatant union busting at both plants.
The students reported that New Era fired three officers and four members of the formerly independent union at Derby when it conducted a campaign to affiliate with CWA in 1997, and that the company pushed a petition this past winter to have an election to decertify Local 14177, at the same time announcing layoffs and proposed wage cuts. By a 4-1 margin, the workers voted to remain CWA.
In 1999, when the “company union” at the Buffalo plant sought to affiliate with CWA, the students reported, “New Era undertook an anti-union campaign, targeting the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian immigrants in a plant comprised of 80 percent people of color.”
“This time it was successful,” the students said. “The plant manager addressed the workforce one day at the factory, telling them that when they went to vote, they should think carefully about what they would do for future employment. The company gave workers time off, rented buses and took them over to the polling location, giving anti-union instructions on the way.”
In their 10-page report, they noted that New Era imports caps from China and Bangladesh, where workers slave away and earn barely enough to support themselves. But they also took into account the grueling pace at which the Derby workers must perform to meet stepped-up quotas, incurring crippling injuries and paying about 30 percent of their income for health care.
“Sweatshops do not just occur overseas and do not just concern the issue of wages,” they concluded.
Campus Clout
“USAS has for the last 2 1/2 years built up a good degree of leverage in the $2.5 billion collegiate apparel market,” said National Organizer Eric Brakken, who accompanied the students to Buffalo.
USAS recently orchestrated the safe return to work of about 850 workers who went on strike in January against Kuk Dong, a Korean-owned company with a factory in Atlixco de Puebla, Mexico. The workers there, who manufacture apparel for Nike and Reebok, have faced threats and even beatings in their fight to organize an independent union.
At CWA News press time, the students were planning to release their report to university campuses and the media. USAS represents activists at 150 universities, including about 60 that purchase New Era caps and apparel for their athletic teams and sell New Era apparel to fans through collegiate outlets.
Resolve and Gratitude
The Erie County Legislature’s proclamation urging the company to settle its labor dispute and rehire the workers laid off in Derby will be sent to the governing bodies of professional baseball, hockey, basketball, football and golf, as well as Little League baseball. It urges them to “contact the company and voice concern over its treatment of the workers at the Derby plant.” Legislator Crystal Peoples helped arrange for the proclamation, Palmer said.
“Our members thanked me for the opportunity to talk to the students and asked me to thank them for their support,” Local 14177 President Jane Howald said. “They did a great job in the short time they were here.”
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen praised the effort as “terrific work — exactly the concept of a perfect student-labor coalition in action.”
As the CWA News went to press, a religious social justice coalition had invited both workers and management to a candlelight vigil March 25 at St. Vincent’s Catholic Church in North Evans, N.Y., Howald said. CEJ Executive Director Maria Whyte and activists were to participate in a fast on the workers’ behalf March 27-29, sponsored by the New York State Labor/Religion Coalition. Also, the local was continuing to regularly leaflet Buffalo Sabers hockey games.