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Overseas Sweatshop Abuses, Their Impact on U.S. Workers, and the Need for Anti–Sweatshop Legislation

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Overseas Sweatshop Abuses, Their Impact on U.S. Workers, and the Need for Anti–Sweatshop Legislation S. HRG. 110–1062 OVERSEAS SWEATSHOP ABUSES, THEIR IMPACT ON U.S. WORKERS, AND THE NEED FOR ANTI–SWEATSHOP LEGISLATION HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE, TRADE, AND TOURISM OF THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION FEBRUARY 14, 2007 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 35–685 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:17 Oct 01, 2010 Jkt 035685 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\35685.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Chairman JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia TED STEVENS, Alaska, Vice Chairman JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota TRENT LOTT, Mississippi BARBARA BOXER, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas BILL NELSON, Florida OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine MARIA CANTWELL, Washington GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JIM DEMINT, South Carolina CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri DAVID VITTER, Louisiana AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARGARET L. CUMMISKY, Democratic Staff Director and Chief Counsel LILA HARPER HELMS, Democratic Deputy Staff Director and Policy Director MARGARET SPRING, Democratic General Counsel LISA J. SUTHERLAND, Republican Staff Director CHRISTINE D. KURTH, Republican Deputy Staff Director KENNETH R. NAHIGIAN, Republican Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE, TRADE, AND TOURISM BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, JIM DEMINT, South Carolina, Ranking Chairman JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon BARBARA BOXER, California JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire MARK PRYOR, Arkansas CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:17 Oct 01, 2010 Jkt 035685 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\35685.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on February 14, 2007 ....................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator DeMint ................................................................................. 4 Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 Prepared statement of William Jones, Chairman, Cummins-Allison Corp.; Member, Board of Directors, U.S. Business and Industry Council .......... 22 WITNESSES English, James D., International Secretary-Treasurer, United Steelworkers .... 32 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 33 Fuentes, Beatriz, President, Sintrasplendor Union, Splendor Flowers .............. 5 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 Griswold, Daniel T., Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, The Cato Institute ................................................................................................................ 38 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 40 Jesseph, Steven A., President/CEO, Worldwide Responsible Apparel Produc- tion (WRAP) .......................................................................................................... 11 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 13 Kernaghan, Charles, Executive Director, National Labor Committee ................ 25 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 29 Nazma, Sheikh, Founder/Former President, Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity .............................................................................................................. 8 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 9 Socolow, Hon. David J., Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development ............................................................................... 35 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 37 APPENDIX Athreya, Bama and Ferm, Nora, International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), joint prepared statement ..................................................................................... 56 Snowe, Hon. Olympia J., U.S. Senator from Maine, prepared statement .......... 55 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:17 Oct 01, 2010 Jkt 035685 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\35685.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:17 Oct 01, 2010 Jkt 035685 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\35685.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE OVERSEAS SWEATSHOP ABUSES, THEIR IMPACT ON U.S. WORKERS, AND THE NEED FOR ANTI–SWEATSHOP LEGISLATION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2007 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE COMMERCE, TRADE, AND TOURISM, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA Senator DORGAN. I am calling the hearing to order this morning. This is a hearing of the Subcommittee of the Commerce Com- mittee, and I am Chairman of the Interstate Commerce, Trade, and Tourism Subcommittee. Senator DeMint, who is the Ranking Mem- ber, will be with us shortly. And when he does arrive, I will recog- nize him for an opening statement. We have a hearing today on the issue of overseas sweatshop abuses, their impact on U.S. workers, and the need for anti-sweat- shop legislation. I have introduced such legislation here in the U.S. Senate, and today we will examine this issue in some detail. The global economy is producing a lot of interesting results, some quite wonderful and some very beneficial to our country and others around the world, and some that are not so wonderful, some that cause very significant problems in our country. And yesterday’s an- nouncement of a trade deficit, for the last year, of $832 billion is a demonstration of the fact that our trade policy is far out of bal- ance and needs to be changed. When manufacturing plants in foreign countries are able to grossly mistreat workers with impunity, our own workers will suf- fer, as well. We see a movement going on, in the global economy, of American jobs moving overseas, and some think that’s fine. I don’t. It is an opportunity for those that produce products to circle the globe and find the lowest cost of production, and, with that low- est cost of production, to employ foreign workers—in some cases, in countries where you can pay pennies an hour; in some cases, in countries where if someone dares talk about organizing workers, they can be sent to prison; in some cases, in countries where work- ers have no rights at all. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:17 Oct 01, 2010 Jkt 035685 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\35685.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 2 I think while there are differences of opinion about these trade issues, I believe there should be general uniform opinion on a cou- ple of things. We’ve already reached a uniform judgment on the question of whether products that are produced in foreign prisons— that is, products of prison labor—should be imported into this country and represented as products that are engaged in fair com- petition with our producers. The answer for our country has been to say no, the product of prison labor is not acceptable. And so, we do not allow the import of the product of prison labor. What about the product of labor that is produced—or of goods that are produced in sweatshop labor conditions, in plants in which gross violations of the existing laws in the existing countries—gross violations of workers’ rights, are routine? Should the product that comes from foreign sweatshops be allowed into this country? If not, what do we do to try to prevent the import of goods produced in sweatshop conditions? I’ve introduced a piece of legislation to deal with these problems, S. 367, the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act. The bill would do two things. First, the bill says it is illegal to bring the product of sweatshop factories to this country. In this bill, a ‘‘sweatshop factory,’’ is one where workers are abused, in viola- tion of their own country’s labor laws. Second, the bill would allow U.S. retailers the right to sue their competitors for damages in U.S. courts if their competitors are sourcing their merchandise from sweatshop factories. This is a bipartisan bill. I’m grateful that Senator Lindsey Gra- ham, the Senator from South Carolina, has agreed to be the lead Republican cosponsor. And the reason I decided to introduce the bill was the revelation that there are serious sweatshop abuses in a number of areas of the country; most recently, discussions about sweatshop abuses in the country
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