For five days between the Canadian and U.S. legs of the speaking tour, Cicih attended a retreat hosted by the primary U.S. sponsor of the tour. The N.W. Labor and Employment Law Office (LELO brought together workers from all parts of the world, including the U.S., to talk with each other on a island in the Puget Sound near Seattle.
The other participants all were union leaders. Indonesia forbids independent unions. It was a new experience for Cicih to be able to sit down with representatives of unions, to discuss issues relating to workers. She was surprised and pleased to discover that the other participants respected her work and her experiences as being just as valid as their own.
One result of the LELO retreat was that the other workers were able to hear about a labor struggle with global projections. The connections from that conference could lead to the Nike campaign beng picked up by organizations in countries which do not yet active work around Nike.
One specific connections will be especially important. Daniel Mitchell works with the Haitian organization Batay Ouvriye, which represents workers in a number of factories, including those contracting with Disney for clothing production. The Disney factories have been a focus of a campaign by the National Labor Committee, based in New York. One of those factories producing clothing for Disney also produces clothing for Nike. After hearing Cicih's story, Mitchell now is interested in making links with the Nike campaign. This could be an important step forward for the Haitian workers and for the Nike campaign as a whole. Campaign for Laborf Rights hopes that we soon will regularly be able to bring you news from Nike workers in Haiti.
On Saturday, May 17, the LELO conference participants returned to Seattle for a public presentation. Counting LELO participants and community people, 120 people attended the morning session. There was considerable interest among those present in doing something concrete around the Nike campaign. So, the next day, a group leafleted outside a Seattle Mariners baseball game.
Coming up: Cicih in Bellingham. Cicih meets with high energy student activists.
[Background: Cicih Sukaesih is an Indonesian woman who was fired by a Nike contractor when she and 6,500 of her co-workers stood up for their rights. She currently is on a speaking tour in Canada and the U.S. The Canadian portion of the tour is being generously funded by a major grant from the Canadian Auto Workers Social Justice Fund, with additional funding from the Alberta Federation of Labor. The tour is organized by Campaign for Labor Rights and Press for Change. See earlier postings for days 1-7. Her experiences in a Nike factory and the story of her struggle are in the posting for day 1.]
REMINDER: There will be an international mobilization on Saturday,
October 18 in support of Nike production workers. Local community-based
organizations and union locals in the U.S. and Canada are invited to
organize leafleting events at stores selling Nike products. If that
particular date does not work for your organization or your community, feel
free to pick another day in the same time frame.
To read about important labor rights struggles and for information on how to support those struggles, subscribe to the Campaign for Labor Rights newsletter. Send $35 to 1247 "E" Street, Washington, DC 20003. For a sample newsletter, contact us at (202) 544-9355 or clr@igc.apc.org. We rely on subscriptions to help us provide the many services of Campaign for Labor Rights. Also see our web site at http://www.compugraph.com/clr
If you are not already receiving Labor Alerts/Labor News directly via email, send a message to clr@igc.apc.org with "labor alerts -- Nike campaign" or "labor alerts -- all campaigns" in the subject line.
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