A-Infos (en) Celebrate Workers' Victory: Come to a Victory Party Friday December 5 2003 6:30pm-11pm

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

The Workers Solidarity Alliance invite all friends and comrades to come out for this party.
In solidarity, W.S.A. NY-NJ wsany@hotmai.com www,workersolidarity.org
Come to a Victory Party!Friday December 5, 2003 6:30pm-11pm
at the Angel Orensanz Foundation 172 Norfolk St. in Manhattan
(btwn. Houston & Stanton Sts., Lower East Side, NYC)
Food * Raffle Prizes * Music * Performances * Dancing
Cover: Suggested Donation $5Take the F to 2nd Ave., walk east on Houston to
Norfolk, & walk 1/2 block South on Norfolk
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We invite you to join our celebration of two major victories for working
people in New York City with an evening of food, performances, and dancing!
We are coming together to celebrate a group of garment workers who fought
and won against well-known designer, Donna Karan (DKNY), as well as to revel
in the triumph of injured workers and 9/11 survivors against the City of
Albany and NYS Governor Pataki. These victories were made with the help of
your strength and support.

WOMEN WORKERS HOLD MANUFACTURER ACCOUNTABLE
- RENEW THE BOYCOTT OF DKNY!
In 1998 Latina and Chinese women workers spoke out about the sweatshop
conditions-from long hours, no overtime pay, padlocked bathrooms-that they
endured while sewing clothes for DKNY in a unionized factory in NYC. DKNY
was especially abusive to the Latina women who were forced into lower-paying
jobs, frisked daily and accused of stealing, and barred from sewing with
machines because they were too "clumsy" and their "eyes were bigger than the
Chinese". After years of mistreatment, the workers couldn't take it any
longer. With the support of NMASS and Chinese Staff & Workers' Association,
workers came together to organize more workers, take legal action, and
launch a boycott. The Boycott DKNY campaign was successful because we
organized and relied the garment workers themselves instead of relying on
consumers. With this perspective, we were able to bring forth one group of
workers after another, and the campaign quickly grew into the national and
international arenas. DKNY capitulated
  to the mounting pressure, rather than wait for the pending Liberty Apparel
case (a federal case that threatens to undermine workers' right to hold
retailers and manufacturers accountable for subcontracted conditions). Last
month, DKNY settled out of court the class action lawsuit for wage
violations as well as the Latina workers' discrimination suit. DKNY
compensated the workers an estimated $1 million dollars.
INJURED WORKERS & 9-11 SURVIVORS WIN 1ST AMENDMENT VICTORY IN ALBANY

When injured workers and 9/11 survivors lead a march in Albany last year in
protest of Pataki's attacks on our health, we were brutalized and arrested
by the police. Yet instead of succumbing to the intimidation, we returned to
Albany several times and organized a 7-day hunger strike in front of
Pataki's NYC office. On October 10, 2003, organizations representing injured
workers and 9/11 survivors won one of the very few First Amendment cases
post-9/11. In an out of court settlement, the City of Albany agreed to
change it's Parade and Assembly Ordinance which violated the constitution
and accept our proposed amendment. We also won the right, not only for
injured workers and 9/11 survivors but for everybody, to march in the
streets. In addition, the City of Albany agreed to pay compensation of
$5500.

Amidst celebration of these important victories, we will also come together
on December 5th to renew the DKNY boycott until the company brings back the
work to NY and rehired the unjustly fired workers, and continue to fight
against Pataki's attacks on our health and to organize for control of our
health and our community. For more information, contact Karah Newton at
(718) 625-9092. Join us!

Respectfully,

Lea Geronimo, Board Chair

Read about workers' victory against DKNY | More on Injured Workers& 9-11
Victims' First Amendment Victory | Read the Center for Economic and Social
Rights Report on DKNY's sweatshops | DKNY Workers & the "Ain't I A Woman?"
Campaign | "It's About Time!" Campaign | NMASS Home


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