BUSH / CHENEY CAMPAIGN PARAPHERNALIA
MADE WITH SLAVE LABOR IN BURMA
NEWSDAY Article, "Bush campaign gear made in
Burma," by Lauren Weber, Friday March 19, 2004
*Bush / Cheney '04 Campaign Fleece pullovers obtained by NEWSDAY were made in Burma in factories operating as joint ventures with the brutal military dictators. Workers in Burma earn as little as seven cents an hour, 56 cents a day and $3.23 a week. Any worker in Burma daring to ask for her most fundamental rights would be imprisoned. The garment workers in Burma were paid approximately four cents for each $49.95 Bush / Cheney fleece pullover they sewed.
*U.S. Customs import records show a large $124,241 shipment of fleece goods made in Burma which was raced to the U.S., entering at the port of Los Angeles on August 21, 2003---just 10 days before the Burma import ban would go into effect.
Another shipment of fleece goods from Burma entered Vancouver, Canada on September 6, 2003. It is not known if these goods entered the U.S. in violation of the ban. The landed customs value-the total cost of production-of the fleece pullover entering Canada was just $5.21. One company located in Denver called Yes America Inc. imported $2,000,000 worth of fleece goods made in Burma between March 19 and May 12, 2003. The fleece goods were manufactured at:
Myanmar Yes Company Limited
Industrial Zone (Plot 64 / Port 3)
Hlaing Thayar Township
Yangou, Myanmar (Burma)
All Bush / Cheney campaign goods are handled by the Spalding Group based in Louisville, KY. [In the last three years, Kentucky has lost 36,200 manufacturing jobs.] Ted Jackson, Spalding's President, told NEWSDAY that out of their entire fleece pullover inventory they could find only one other garment made in Burma. However, this appears to be untrue. Last evening the National Labor Committee placed an order to purchase several Bush / Cheney fleece pullover which were due to arrive on Monday. At 11:00 a.m. this morning we reviewed a call from the Spalding Group saying that -without explanation-they could not send us the fleece pullovers we ordered.
*Since President Bush came into office in January 2001, the U.S. has lost 337,000 textile and apparel jobs in the last 12 months. There are now 709,000 textile and apparel jobs left in the U.S., down from down from 1.5 million in 1994. The U.S. had a $70 billion textile and apparel trade deficit last year, as imports shot up 10.3 percent. In the last three years the U.S. has lost an average of 78,000 manufacturing jobs a month.
CALL OR EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE & BUSH-CHENEY CAMPAIGN
HEADQUARTERS!
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
202-456-1111
president@whitehouse.gov
BUSH-CHENEY '04, Inc
P.O. BOX 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
Phone: 703.647.2700
Fax: 703.647.2993
Email: BushCheney04@GeorgeWBush.com