We invite you to join our celebrate 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.
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.
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 CSWA at (212) 619-7979. Join us!
Chinese Staff & Workers' Association. P.O. Box 130401. NY, NY 10013-0995.
(212) 619-7979. (718) 633-9752. cswa@cswa.org . www.cswa.org