A) In general, a sweatshop is a factory where workers’ rights are continually violated to the point that the workers "sweat" over how they will complete all of the forced labor in a given amount of time, over how they are going to feed their children, and over how they are going to organize without being threatened or fired. Oftentimes, workers in sweatshops are paid less than $1/hour – far below the minimum and living wages of the country in which they work. A huge percentage of workers are injured yearly, and most of the time these workers have no healthcare or are continually denied the benefits they have already been promised. They often work mandatory 18-20 hour shifts with no overtime pay, and since many workers do not receive pay stubs with their checks, they can’t even prove that they work in the factory and that the deplorable conditions exist at all. Women who work in sweatshops often take compulsory pregnancy tests regularly, and if they are pregnant, they are fired immediately. If workers try to organize themselves in any way to fight for their deserved rights, they, too, are fired on the spot. This is unacceptable!

A) This is a complex question. Most anti-sweatshop activists, particularly those working on the No Sweatshops Bucco! campaign, do not want bosses to shut down factories. When bosses do this, yes, sweatshop workers are out of jobs. We are demanding that the standards be raised in these factories. We want workers’ rights – human rights – to be respected; therefore, we support the workers who want to organize themselves so that they can both keep their jobs and have decent working and living conditions.

A) Oftentimes people think that if sweatshop workers’ rights are recognized and respected, that apparel and merchandise prices in the US will skyrocket. This is not necessarily true. The money to pay sweatshop workers fairly and to give them the benefits they deserve already exists. However, it is pocketed by the bosses and CEO’s who "manage" the factories. The apparel industry is quite profitable, but since the money is not distributed fairly or equally, the rich men at the top of the factories continue to get richer, while the poor men, women, and children working extremely hard on factory floors continue to live in poverty. Wealth must be distributed more evenly.

A) Major League Baseball is the largest licenser of sweatshop-made merchandise in the world. This means that baseball in the US subcontracts much of its labor to factories across the globe where labor laws either do not exist or are not enforced. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the opportunity to be the first MLB team to support the workers who make the clothing they wear and the game they play possible by demanding that these workers be treated fairly. Baseball players in this country are unionized to ensure that their rights are met – shouldn’t the other workers who support baseball with their labor have the same rights?

A) No! No Sweatshops Bucco!, along with thousands of other Pirates fans, wants to have real pride in its local baseball team. Major League Baseball always talks about fairness – well, we are demanding real fair play in baseball where the Pittsburgh Pirates are the first Major League Baseball team to acknowledge they there is a problem with sweatshops and baseball and that they too, care about workers’ rights here and abroad. We want the Pirates to step up to bat and also demand that the workers who make their game possible be treated with dignity and respect!

A) There are a number of ways to get involved:
- Log on to www.nlcnet.org to review the research on sweatshops published by the National Labor Committee this February.
- Sign a letter to the Pittsburgh Pirates, demanding real pride in your baseball team.
- Join the No Sweatshops Bucco! discussion group and educational campaign by e-mailing: SweatFree_Baseball_Campaign-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
- Provide a financial contribution to help fund our campaign by mailing a check to:

The Thomas Merton Center
c/o No Sweatshops Bucco!
5125 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224 (please write "No Sweatshops Bucco!" in the memo section of your check)

- Come to one of our actions this baseball season (meet 90 minutes before game beneath Roberto Clemente statue):

July 3^rd – Stars and Stripes Cap Night
August 23^rd – Dollar Dog Night
September 19^th – Kids Snoopy Bobble Head Day

No Sweatshops Bucco! organizer Kenneth Miller holds a sign outside of the Pirate Gear Shop at PNC Park. Behind him is a display of Pirate Sweatshop promotional items, the dates they will be given away and the local promotional sponsor. (Photo by Woody Gibbs)

There must have been 5 – 7,000 people at the Los Lobos concert at Heartwood acres and it was a fantastic show! I am now a Los Lobos fan. Thousands passed Major League Sweatshop Baseball Cards around, the hats in Bangladesh, the MBNA free Pirate t-shirts are from Honduras, the Bobble Heads are made in China and the Baseballs in Costa Rica. Major League Educators can know there is Major League Sweatshop Education going on when they see people pass and discuss the Major League Sweatshop Baseball Cards. Just talk talk about sweatshops – let people pass the cards and teach one another.

The Los Lobos show was part of our "double header." Michelle reports from Point State Park… The fans at the Gillian Welch concert were VERY receptive to the baseball cards.  There were not as many people as there were at the Wilco concert, but hundreds of Pittsburghers embraced the anti-sweatshop education and were extremely concerned about this issue.  Kevin and I even chatted with a woman whose uncle owns some share of the Pirates.  It was amazing!  She took extra cards and a letter for him :)  hehehe

No Sweatshops Bucco! is laying Major League Sweatshop Education out on the lawn this summer! Join us and talk talk talk to Pittsburghers/Pirate Fans about sweatshops.

June 10 is the first scheduled "No Sweatshops Bucco!" teach-in. This is the presentation we will be making available to community groups of all kinds. Please join us. For details please call Michelle at 412-661-6776.

Campaign members have been handing out these cards with facts and information on the back. They have a variety of images to choose from. Get in touch with them if you'd like to help hand them out and educate people about sweatshops.l

Jalapeno Hannah, the only female Ms. T’s Pierogie competitor has started a new organization, Tasty Potato Pasta Against Sweatshops. The primary reason she gives for standing up against sweatshops, "locked bathrooms and forced pregnancy tests make Pirate Sweatshops a women’s issue and an issue for Pirate Fans."

The announcement was made on Homewood MLK Bus-way platform in mid-June. Based on Jalapeno Hannah’s tremendous popularity and frequent appearances at PNC Park, many suspect that T.P.P.A.S. will be the largest Pirate fan organization ever. Hannah continued in a follow up interview, "I want cheering for me during the nightly Pierogie race to be the same as cheering on Pirate sweatshop workers struggling to organize labor unions." Here We Go Hannah!

– Kenneth Miller

Jalapena Hannah (Photo by Kenneth Miller)