One of the best things was listening to Reynoldo Donastrong, a union organizer and former worker at the BJ & B factory in the Dominican Republic where he sewed collegiate apparel. Now Donastrong is the Secretary of Education at the FEDOTRAZONAS organization which provides technical support to workers and unions. Donastrong related the history of his involvement in sweatshops and mentioned how important United Students Against Sweatshops were in the successful struggle to get BJ & B workers back and severance pay. Now Donastrong is involved with the very exciting Alta Gracia factory which is the first manufacturing facility to be certified by the Worker Rights Consortium as paying a living wage.

Sweat Free Houston sponsored Carmen Duran’s appearance at the Summit. Ms. Duran was the subject of the documentary Maquilapolis (City of Factories) which provides a strong case against NAFTA. It is a must see film for anyone interested in women’s struggles, environmental justice, sweatshops and community organizing.

We filmed the panel Ms. Duran took part in. You can watch it in two segments right here:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/16679827

Carmen Duran SweatFree National Summit part 1 from Tim O’Brien on Vimeo.

Watch part 2 here:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/16649582

Camen Duran pt 2 2010 National SweatFree Summit from Tim O’Brien on Vimeo.

Also  Houston Council on Occupational Safety & Health (COSH) which is an affiliate of the National Cosh also supports and endorses our campaign. They sent a letter to the Mayor also:

Another huge population of exploited workers are coffee farmers. While in the USA, we only drink Fair Trade certified organic coffee. Hey we need energy to change the world! Well the problem with having a third party independent certifier saying your coffee beans are ethical is that big corporations use the fair trade certification to green wash their entire corporation. (definition of green washing: The dissemination of misleading information by an organization to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive.).

Starbucks is likely the most skilled green washing multi-national corporation in the world. They do as little as possible when it comes to treating coffee farmers justly but they blow the tiny bit of their responsible behavior all over the place and pretend they care about their suppliers when in actuality they are nothing better than slave drivers. One of the founders of Sweat Free Houston just went to Korea on business and here’s an encounter we thought you’d enjoy. The photo shows a Starbucks in Daechi neighborhood in Seoul.

First it’s important to know that Starbucks has a long history of using Fair Trade to green wash their business. For example, see this press release from the Organic Consumers Association.

Only about 6% of the coffee Starbucks sells is fair trade certified but they very seldom have any brewing. Green LA girl, an awesome blogger, gives a nice history of this very issue. Starbucks likes to brag about being “The largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified coffee in the world,” but the simple fact is that more than 90% of their coffee is sweatshop coffee where the worker gets screwed by Starbucks on the price they receive for their product.

After I had been in Seoul for about 12 hours I figured it was time to stir things up a little. Before traveling to Korea, I had read how Starbucks were spreading like the disease they are all across the country, knocking mom and pop coffee shops out of business left and right. Just 4 minutes after  I walked out of my brother-in-laws apartment in Daechi Dong, the most exclusive neighborhood in Seoul, I saw a young lady with a Starbucks cup in hand. Sure enough, 10 yards ahead was the evil empire.

So I rolled in and went to the literature display and found this:

It was a nice little brochure that was entitled Starbucks CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Starbucks being socially responsible is like saying that the KKK was kind to minorities. The example of their literature above brags about how “responsible” they are. Now knowing that they claim to sell fair trade coffee in their brochures prominently displayed in their cookie cutter store, I stepped up to the counter and asked for some. Nope, they weren’t brewing any. The barrista pointed to the rack of bagged coffee where you could not see any fair trade certified coffee bags. I took a few more photos and the manager approached me and in perfect English, told me to stop taking pictures.  I asked about Fair  Trade coffee and she pointed out one bag way on the bottom of the display. I told her that I’d like to drink some now. She said “It’s out of season.” I said, “Then why are you selling it?” After that exchange I figured that the Starbucks corporate line in Korea is the same as in the USA and made my exit.

One of the featured speakers, Carmen Duran:

Last year (2009) the City spent almost 3 million dollars on apparel purchases and unfortunately all of them were made in sweatshops. If your organization is interested in joining our coalition, give us a call at 832.771.7263 or email us @ sweatfreehouston (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Right now they’re in the midst of organizing a worker tour. Read more about that here. Sweat Free Houston’s campaign is staying a float so far because we’re volunteers working out of our houses and because of our successful benefit show that will keep us going awhile. But SweatFree Communities could use your support. They have full time employees and times are tough in this economy. Become a sustainer for as little $20 a month. Click here to donate. You’ll be glad you did!

This past Saturday, Sweat Free Houston held a successful fundraising benefit show featuring six bands. The benefit raised more than 500 dollars. Sweat Free Houston would like to thank and give an outstanding shout out for amazing performances by Cop Warmth, Ghormeh Sabzi , Giant Princess, Bambara , Muhammad Ali, and Rapeworm. Also, thanks to all the people who came out to  support our campaign and enjoyed an amazing show. With this initial successful fundraiser we are well on our way to winning our campaign.

After reviewing our campaign goals, the HCGP voted on February 15th, 2010 to endorse our campaign and aid us in getting the ordinance passed.