Issue No 88 | 16 March 2001 | |
NewsHotel Workers Refuse to Raise SweatBy Andrew Casey
Hotel workers employed by the Starwood hotel and resort chain want to wear only uniforms made under the FairWear No Sweat Shop label.
The union will ask for a clause to be inserted into their Enterprise Agreement guaranteeing that all their uniforms will be manufactured by companies signed up and accredited by the FairWear No Sweat Shop label campaign. The LHMU National Executive voted this week to include in all Enterprise Agreement talks a claim for a No Sweat Shop label on workplace clothing worn by members whether they be in the hospitality, health, cleaning, security or manufacturing industries. " School kids are campaigning to make sure their school uniforms are not produced by sweated labour, now their parents, in their workplaces, are joining this very popular campaign to deliver decent working conditions, and fair wages, to garment workers," LHMU Assistant National Secretary Tim Ferrari said. The Starwood Hotel chain has about a dozen hotels in Australia , including the up-market Westin and W hotels, the Sheraton-on-the-Park, Sheraton Towers Southgate and a number of other smaller Sheraton hotels. " We are happy with the fact that a number of employers in our industries are already using uniform manufacturers who are signed up to the Fair Wear campaign. " We are looking now to spread this process to any workplace where our members have to wear workplace uniforms or other specialised clothes," Tim Ferrari said. " Many of our members have relatives working as homeworkers in the clothing industry, so they have first hand experience of the exploitation that goes on in this industry," Tim Ferrari said. " That's why this union is enthusiastic about standing up and being counted in helping garment workers get a better deal." The LHMU is writing to the ACTU and State Labor Councils asking them to get other unions behind this campaign -and asking them to ensure that any union caps, clothes and jackets are also made by a manufacturer who has signed up to the FairWear campaign. "We are also reviewing all our own LHMU clothing to ensure that they fit into the campaign," Tim Ferrari said. Union members wearing workplace clothing can get behind the FairWear campaign by checking out the No Sweat Shop website ( http://www.NoSweatShopLabel.com) and asking their employers to make sure their workplace clothes come from one of the signatories to this campaign.
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Interview: Labor Law Shadow Attorney General Robert McClelland outlines his plans for workers entitlements, legal aid and a Bill of Rights Unions: Poetic Justice The ACTU kicked off its 2001 Living Wage campaign this week with a new shock tactic: poetry. Technology: Big Brother�s Legacy Organisations with restrictive staff email polices risk locking themselves in the Industrial Age by treating their staff as units to be monitored. Corporate: Scumbags Exposed On the eve of the inaugural Corporate Scumbags Tour, we look at the worst of the worst from the Top End of Town. International: Playing Away Pat Ranald looks at a proposal to hold Australian companies to basic standards when they invest in developing countries. Environment: Nuclear Titanics The Maritime Union has joined Greenpeace in a campaign to stop our seas becoming a nuclear highway. History: Out of the Bog Neale Towart looks at the life of big Jim Larkin, one of the heroes of an Irish trade union movement that continues to thrive. Politics: Westie�s Macquarie Street Alert The Workers MLC, Ian West, provides the first in a series of regular rundowns on the upcoming Parliamentary session Review: The Next American Century? How will the United States maintain its global power in an era when the very notion of the nation-state is under challenge? Satire: Dollar Crashes Through Psychological 0.00c Barrier The bedevilled Australian dollar dropped below the crucial 0.00c barrier losing its battle to avoid the humiliation of being worth less than the commemorative Bradman coins distributed by the Sunday Telegraph last weekend.
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