Taking the Sweat Out of Georgetown Caps

Racial discrimination and sweatshop conditions in a southern factory making Georgetown caps is the focus of a student-led forum tonight at Georgetown University (GU). New Era factory workers in Mobile, Alabama - who are primarily African-American women - were recently fired for seeking to organize a union to end racial discrimination, wage exploitation and unfair conditions. Following a similar incident in 2001 at a New York New Era factory, students demanded that Georgetown - based on a decade-old code of conduct developed after student pressure - suspend its contracts with New Era. "Since that time, New Era has been shifting jobs to the southern US in search of communities with no options but to accept lower wages and where labor unions are weaker," says the Georgetown Solidarity Committee website (GSC). Factory workers - via video conference call - will speak at the forum, along with GSC member Chessa Gross, who recently traveled to the New Era factory, and Hilary Shelton, Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau.