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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 2011)
Feb. 4, 2011:NWLP 2/1/11 10:14 AM Page 12 I worker rights For Valentine’s Day, choose union- made, shun sweat-shop products Love may be priceless, but not all Valentine’s Day gifts are created equal. With a union, the workers who make them can bargain for decent wages and working conditions; without one, not so much. The good news is that con- sumers who care about humane work- ing conditions can buy candies and chocolates made by workers repre- sented by a union — Bakery Confec- tionery Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM). One of the oldest and best-known Valentine’s candies — pastel sugar hearts with quirky sayings — is made by members of BCTGM Local 348 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The so- called Sweethearts, made by New Eng- land Confectionery Company (NECCO) since 1902, are also the na- tion’s top-selling Valentine’s candy. Just be sure to look for the Sweethearts brand; otherwise the pastel hearts you’re buying are imitators made by nonunion competitors. Three national brands sell Valen- tine’s candies manufactured by mem- bers of BCTGM Local 125 in the San Francisco Bay area: Ghiradelli Choco- late Company sells Valentine’s Day chocolates in tins, boxes and packs; See’s Candies sells Valentine heart boxes with hard, soft and nut chocolate candies; and Jelly Belly Candy Com- pany sells Valentine’s Day gift boxes, tins, and packs. But the tradition of the dozen red roses, sad to say, is tricky from the standpoint of worker rights. Most cut flowers sold in the United States are grown in Colombia and Ecuador by workers — mostly female — who are exposed to unhealthy pesticides, paid poverty level wages of about $8.25 a day, and forced to work long hours in the period leading up to Valentine’s Day. Colombian flower worker unions aren’t asking U.S. consumers to boy- cott their products, says Steven Coats, executive director of U.S. Labor Edu- cation in the Americas Project (US/LEAP) — a union-supported worker justice group. But there are no certification systems in place to tell consumers that flowers were produced by workers treated humanely. Meanwhile, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is urging the public to take a stand — on Valentine’s Day — against forced labor and child labor in the West African cocoa indus- try. Most major chocolate companies have committed to using independent, third-party programs to certify that their cocoa suppliers comply with in- ternational labor standards, ILRF says. But Hershey continues to lag behind the industry. ILRF is asking supporters to send a “Valentine” card to Hershey CEO David West, and to watch or host a screening of “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” a documentary exposé available online for a $6 suggested do- nation. Visit laborrights.org to take part in the campaign. Some Hershey’s Kisses and other Hershey’s chocolates are still made by members of BCTGM Local 464 in Her- shey, Pennsylvania. But increasingly, the company’s products are made in Mexico or in nonunion plants in the United States, says BCTGM spokesper- son Corrina Christensen. The same goes for Nestlé Choco- late, which makes some products at BCTGM-represented factories in Illi- nois, but others at nonunion facilities and in Mexico. Portland Auto Show is eco-friendly A solar/electrical vehicle charging station — the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest — was unveiled at last month’s Portland International Auto Show. Also known as an Energy Transfer Merchant (ETM), the charging station prototype was designed by newcomer EV4 Oregon and installed by Portland’s Christenson Electric, a union company signatory with IBEW Local 48. The charging station will be built by Oregon companies, using Oregon products, as a kit that can be assembled anywhere quickly. The charging station includes a quick charger that electric car owners can plug their vehicles in with a “shade” made of solar panels. The solar energy collected from the panels can be used to run the station’s lights during the night or it can be used to help charge the electric cars, depending on how the station is set up. The first station in Portland will be located at a Portland Development Commission parking lot on NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., and will be fully operational in March. “People who drive electrical cars don’t want to use coal or petroleum to charge them. We’re using energy that was on the surface of the sun eight minutes ago,” said Chad Biasi, managing member of EV4 Oregon. “We were thrilled to partner with Christensen Electric on this project and use their extensive knowledge and expertise.” Biasi is pictured above left with Lynn Frank, Five Stars International, a consultant to EV4 Oregon; Hans van der Meer of EV4 Oregon; and Dean Skaar, vice president of business development at Christenson Electric. They are standing next to a quarter scale model of the charging station. PAGE 12 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS FEBRUARY 4, 2011
