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Pirate’s Sweatshop Monitor Detained in Bangladesh on January 24 and Race Discrimination at Major League Baseball’s NEW ERA

Submitted on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 8:05pm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 1, 2008

Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance
Contact Kenneth Miller 412-241-1339

The Workers Rights Consortium investigator in Bangladesh has been illegally detained, effectively disappeared. A description of events, confirmed by the US Embassy in Bangladesh:

Mehedi Hasan, a Bangladeshi national and a labor rights investigator for the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), was detained on January 24, in Dhaka, by the Bangladesh intelligence service and is being held for interrogation. The WRC, based in Washington, D.C., monitors labor practices at apparel factories on behalf of universities and government entities in the United States; it is clear that Mr. Hasan’s arrest is related to the labor rights monitoring work he has performed on the WRC’s behalf. It appears that the government plans to bring a number of bogus criminal charges against Mr. Hasan. Labor rights advocates in Bangladesh are very concerned that he will be physically mistreated while in custody.

The Sports and Exhibition Authority Board will meet Monday February 4 at 1:30 on the 3rd floor of the David L Lawrence Convention Center. Call the SEA on Monday morning to confirm that no changes have been made. 412-393-0200

Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance have been telling the Pirates that Major League Baseball is failing to protect workers rights in sweatshops making team apparel since 2000 while calling special attention to the need for the Pittsburgh Pirates to step forward. In a letter of July 6, 2006 Ethan G Orlinsky of Major Orlinsky July 7-WRC reference League Baseball told wrote,

It appears that virtually all of MLBP headwear and apparel licensees authorized to distribute apparel in the United States are members of groups such as the Workers Rights Consortium…

Companies like New Era LINK TO IWW.ORG node 3297, American Needle and Nike produce Pirates apparel in Bangladesh in the area where Mr. Hason was working. In some cases, Pirates apparel and university apparel is manufactured in the same sweatshops, sweatshops that Mr. Hasan was attempting to monitor. The WRC’s monitoring on behalf of the colleges and universities is critical to the protection of workers sewing Pirates apparel.

In an earlier letter to the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance on April 21 LINK TO PDF APRIL 21 MLB ORLINSKY TO PASCA – lifts up NEW ERA, Mr. Orlinsky brags about New Era baseball caps and Majestic baseball jerseys being manufactured in the United States. On Martin Luther King Day of this year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and United Students Against Sweatshops held a joint press conference in Mobile, Alabama alongside workers at a New Era factory. These workers face a pattern and practice of racial discrimination. There have been many illegal terminations of workers for union organizing. New Era Cap has rejected the investigative efforts of the Workers Rights Consortium.

What the detention in Bangladesh and the union busting in Mobile indicate is that Major League Baseball has dropped the ball by not showing any serious care for the workers sewing Major League Baseball/Pittsburgh Pirates apparel. The Pittsburgh Pirates, whose logo and apparel represent the City of Pittsburgh and who participate in Major League Baseball Properties Revenue Sharing Agreement, can have an appropriate impact by speaking out at this time. The Pirates should:

  • Issue a statement expressing concern for Mehedi Hasan and demanding his immediate release. Assure WRC monitors like Mr. Hasan access to factories sewing Pirates apparel. Having read Mr. Orlinsky’s letter of July 6, 2006, this is all something we would have expected MLB to do.

  • Send a representative to Mobile, Alabama (not far from Bandanberg Florida) to meet with the New Era workers there… deliver solidarity, as Roberto Clemente would do, demonstrate an understanding of their demands and New Era’s entire manufacturing capacity (get the disclosures required by licensees cooperating with the Workers Rights Consortium).

Members of PASCA are hopeful that Frank Coonelly’s tenure with the Pirates will be more productive for workers sewing Pirates apparel than was Kevin McClatchy’s. Mr. Coonelly has to use his knowledge of licensing and the Revenue Sharing Agreement he gained in his years in the Commissioner’s office and then use it to represent the Steel City. This is not a small task, but one left to him by McClatchy.

In a letter to participants at the 10th Annual Summit Against Racism, Dennis Brutus said, “The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance is asking for is Civil Rights Bridge…the Pirates use Pittsburgh as a platform to represent themselves. That representation is not sincere without accepting a responsibility, an obligation, to reflect our values.” LINK TO DENNIS BRUTUS STATEMENT and USE DENNISBRUTUS PHOTO

Sports and Exhibition Authority should use the anti sweatshop standards encoded in the City and County anti sweatshop legislation. It should rely on the All-Star 2006 Anti Sweatshop Pittsburgh Proclamation signed by then City Council President Luke Ravenstahl. Both the Pirates and the Sports and Exhibition Authority should be expected to address these issues at the Sports and Exhibition Authority meeting at the Sports and Exhibition Authority Meeting Monday.

Members of the One Hill Coalition will be at the meeting to discuss the role they would like the Board to play in their negotiations with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Volunteers from the Black Political Empowerment Project’s Racial Equity Monitoring Project will also be on hand and focus on the orientation of new SEA Board appointees.

PDF files containing the letters from Ethan G Orlinsky are available at www.sweatfree.org/baseball and www.iww.org

Participants at the 2008 Summit Against Racism 1/26 with County Council President Rich Fitzgerald (second from right). City Council President Doug Shields attended too and brought a Council Proclamation celebrating the Summit's 10th Anniversary. Both of these officials were informed that their respective anti sweatshop ordinances were not being enforced and that a county contract for "Parks Clothing" that includes city purchases (city and county purchasing has been merged) should be stopped. The City Controller, Michael Lamb, who was also in attendance at the Summit has begun an informal investigation. The bid submission period for this contract ends on 2/8.