Hudsonhubtimes.com - Capital News: Ohio companies selling sweatshop wares to state

by Marc Kovac, Capital Bureau chief

Physical and sexual harassment. Forced overtime. Stringent control of toilet visits.

No, we're not talking about the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Such, allegedly, are among the working conditions for 25-some workers at an underwear factory in Bangladesh. So said Kalpona Akter, director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, who spoke to reporters about sweatshops.

"There is no drinking water for them," she said during a conference call earlier this month. "They drink [from] the same line as the toilet water line."

Yuck.

Akter was among the speakers who highlighted "Subsidizing Sweatshops" a study released recently by a bunch of groups who are working to draw attention to worker exploitation overseas and on the U.S. companies and governments that are supporting it.

Like the state of Ohio. According to the group, the state has contracts to purchase public employee uniforms from companies that employ such overseas sweatshops. Several other Ohio-based companies, the group said, also utilize those factories, where workers are paid less than minimum wage, children are forced to work long hours alongside adults, managers ignore workers' injuries and verbal, physical and sexual abuse are rampant.

In a sense, it's capitalism at its best -- companies seeking out the lowest-cost options for goods and services and, thus, becoming more competitive in the domestic consumer marketplace.

It's also capitalism at its worst -- a race for the cheapest labor possible, turning to companies unfettered by worker or environmental protections and taking away decent-paying jobs from our fellow countrymen and women.

As Tim Burga, the chief of staff for the Ohio AFL-CIO put it, the opportunity to purchase a new T-shirt for a buck "is costing us our jobs and our way of life."

He added, "Globalization is come to be known as an international avenue for profiteers to exploit workers wherever they can."

One solution: According to the group that released the study, state and local governments should adopt resolutions ending public contracts with companies that turn to foreign sweatshops for the goods and services they market here.

That's what happened in Lucas County earlier this year, where commissioners unanimously OK'd a Sweat Free Procurement Policy, setting forth guidelines for how the county buys its apparel and accessories.

"I don't think anyone wants their taxpayer dollars to go to a company that abused their [workers]," said Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop.

Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.