Youth Tag Drive a Success

Youth Tag Drive
Successful Start to Action

Editor's Note: While we did not have a reporter covering this event, Lisa Chirpich sent the following information.

On Sunday, November 3rd, the following announcement appeared in the bulletin:

Tag Drive Today. The SJA “Sweat Free” Youth Group, in conjunction with YO! from the Resource Center of the Americas, is holding its first Tag Drive after both masses today. The purpose of the drive is to tell clothing companies that we want to buy clothes that are made under fair and humane conditions. Members of our youth group will help parishioners remove tags from their clothing and have letters addressed to the clothing companies available for signing. The tags will be included in the letters to show that our parishioners purchase goods produced by the individual clothing companies, and encourage them to stop using sweatshop labor. Stop by the tables outside the Gym entrance to contribute your labels!

The project is the SJA Service Sunday Youth Group collaborating with the Resource Center of the America's in working towards a Sweat-Free Minnesota. The passion behind this project came from our TNII Youth Delegation staying in homes of people who work in sweat shops. The grueling hours and inhumane conditions under which they worked moved our kids to wanting to do something. Many enthusastic parishioners, approximately 300, cut off theirs tags and signed the letter that will be sent to the companies.

The youth group did a great job of helping people remove their tags and explain the purpose of the drive. It went well! Their next step is to figure to whom these letters should be sent. Heidi Meyer, youth advisor, will create a list of all the brands we collected, and will ask the youth at their December meeting to each take a few of the brands and find their parent companies and who the letters should be sent to. This means most letters won't be mailed until January, but that our youth will be involved in the research process of the drive - which in the end is also valuable.

Here is an example of the letter being sent:

4537 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55409

November 5, 2002

Dear____________________________:

As you can see by the enclosed tag, I am your customer. I am writing to express my concern about the conditions in the factories in which your products are produced. I ask that you end the use of sweatshops in your supply chain, and instead choose fair and equitable methods of production.

Your company produces valuable goods and services for our community, and I appreciate having access to your products. In addition to serving the end consumer, I ask that you seek to meet the needs of your workers as well. Specific steps I request that you take are to:

Give workers a living wage - enough to meet basic human needs and enable them to plan for a better future

Ensure your factories have healthy and safe working conditions

Educate your workers - provide information on labor laws so that they know their rights

Give workers the right to organize and bargain collectively for improvements

Utilize independent monitoring groups to determine whether your products are made under sweatshop conditions

Tell shareholders and consumers about the steps you have taken to ensure a sweatshop-free supply chain in your annual report

Please know that my request is representative of the many like-minded members of the faith community to which I belong. If your company and its vendors already use fair and equitable labor practices, I thank you and encourage you to tell your customers and retailers that you are working to eliminate sweatshops from your supply chain. I look forward to doing more business with your company in the future with the expectation that you will make the fair treatment of workers a priority and a reality.

Sincerely,

_________________________________
Parishioner
St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church

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