For immediate release

Contact: Victoria Kaplan, SweatFree Communities, 310-531-3415

Trina Tocco, International Labor Rights Forum, 269-873-1000

Agricultural and garment workers visit 10 cities while touring Midwest as Vermont becomes the seventh state to ban sweatshop purchasing

Phal Savin of Cambodia spent many years sewing clothing for Wal-Mart. A mother of five, she was recently fired for trying to form a union.
She is now vice president of the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU).

Didier Leiton of Costa Rica worked for 17 years on pineapple and banana plantations and is now an organizer with the Union of Agricultural and Plantation Workers. He has been “blacklisted” by the plantations for his activities with the union.

By TJ Burgonio

MANILA, Philippines—For Fr. Jose “Joe” Dizon, the awards night in a posh hotel in South Korea was a sweet moment tinged with sadness.

The 59-year-old militant priest received the Justice and Peace Award of the Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Foundation on behalf of the Workers’ Assistance Center Inc. (WAC) on March 10 at the Sejong Hotel in Seoul.

The WAC, a Church-based NGO founded by Dizon in 1995 to empower factory workers in the export processing zone in Cavite, was cited for promoting workers’ rights and welfare amid repression.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A new report says a Chinese factory that makes light bulbs for Connecticut-based General Electric (GE) subjects many of its employees to 64-hour work weeks and toxic mercury used in the production process.

Cleveland-based Policy Matters Ohio accuses Xiamen Topstar Lighting Co. of violating China's labor law and GE's own corporate policies. Xiamen Topstar is a joint venture between Topstar in China and Fairfield, Conn.-based GE...