IU, corporations have duty to workers

Nicaraguans suffer the burden of the highest per capita national debt. Poverty, exacerbated by Nicaragua's 55-60 percent rate of unemployment, breeds misery for the people. The situation for workers in Nicaragua worsened Oct. 19. Negotiations between the Chentex factory owners in the Las Mercedes free trade zone and one of the strongest independent unions in Latin America were cut short of any resolution.\nSince winning recognition, the struggle to organize in the free trade zone over wage disputes has been an uphill battle against unscrupulous tactics by factory owners and by FTZ authorities, including countless layoffs for union activity. Chentex workers produce, among other lines, Cherokee jeans for Target stores in the United States. The young women, daughters and mothers of dependent families, who toil behind barbed and razor wire breathing noxious fumes, earn less than 1 percent of the price of purchase for U.S. consumers. \nAware of the dreadful situation in Chentex, and because of bad publicity, Target will likely cut the Chentex contract and move production to avoid public scrutiny. This would be a terrible decision for the workers who depend on these jobs and the right to collectively bargain to achieve decent labor standards. Target should instead use its contractual relationship to pressure the Taiwanese management to rehire the dismissed workers and reconvene negotiations with the intention of settling the wage dispute.\nTarget headquarters avoided accountability for its contractor's behavior and denied blatant abuses of human rights. But Wednesday Target corporations recruiters were invited guests at IU.\nI call on IU's administration, which has demonstrated concern and responsiveness regarding sweatshop complicity, becoming a leader in the national movement by joining the Worker Rights Consortium, to stop inviting known corporate criminals to our school.\n"Complacency is the enemy of excellence and achievement," states the Strategic Directions Charter for IU. Stand by your stated charter and take a stand for economic justice.