A STAIN ON THE NAME OF LEVI STRAUSS
THIS IS JIM HIGHTOWER SAYING. . .
Last fall, Levi Strauss an nounced that, because of a worldwide glut in the production of jeans, it was shutting down 11 of its U.S. manufacturing plants and terminating 6,400 workers.
Just five months later, however, Levi Strauss has suddenly reversed itself, saying it will now expand the number of factories it has for making jeans. Guess what, though? The factories will not be in the U.S. and those 6,400 good American jean-makers are not being called back. Instead, Levi's expanded production will go to China! Proof again that today's corporate executives have all the characteristics of dogs ... except loyalty.
Levi Strauss is also abandoning its principles. In the early '90s, it had been one of the few global manufacturers to say no to the low-wage lure of China, correctly deciding that the intolerable labor practices and human rights abuses in that country are so gross that doing business there puts an indelible stain on a corporate name. Now, however, Levi executives have had a change of heart, announcing that they are willing to accept that moral stain in exchange for the financial gains of human exploitation. CEO Peter Jacobi put it curtly: "Levi Strauss is not in the human rights business."
Besides, said Jacobi, "It's clear to us that the [labor] environment is getting better there." Oh? That'll come as news to Chinese workers. Just the month before Jacobi tried to put his rosy, conscience-salving PR gloss on Levi's move, a firsthand report on Chinese factories found 96-hour workweeks, no freedom for workers to assemble, 13-cent-an-hour pay and arbitrary firings. And Harry Wu, the renowned Chinese dissident, says flatly: "The business opportunities are improving, but human rights conditions are getting worse."
Shame on Peter Jacobi and Levi Strauss.
What do bananas, buses, and bathroom urinals have in common? They've all become spaces for corporations to plaster more of their advertising. If you can find any surface in our society that does not yet have an ad for Budweiser, M&Ms, Nike, Visa, BankOne or some such slapped on it, try to get it declared a historic site because you can bet some company's got designs on it.
Already there are ads on small screens that jabber at you while you pump your gas, while you use your ATM machine and while you wait in the supermarket line. There are specially-imprinted floor tiles to put product promos literally under the feet of kids in schools and shoppers in grocery stores; there are ads on the luggage carousels at airports, and there even are ads on the stall doors of bathrooms at restaurants and bars. Think about that - We can't even be alone in the bathroom! A sales rep for a company selling these toilet ads brags that "the average viewer is in front of our ad for three minutes. They really have no choice but to look."
Indeed, those who are spending nearly $4 billion a year on what is called "out-of-home" media view us as nothing but receptors. They've figured out that the typical human blinks 6,000 times a day--and their ambition is to have something in front of us with each blink.
What they haven't figured out is how to keep this blitzkrieg from annoying us to the point we stop buying the stuff they've advertised. As Kenna Nevill of Dallas told the New York Times after finding tiny ads for a movie stuck on each apple in the grocery bin: "I didn't want my apple defiled with advertisements. I get frustrated with ads everywhere you look."
You're not alone, Kenna. The good news is that people are beginning to fight back against this advertising excess-especially when it's directed to children.
To join them, contact the Center for Media Education at 202/628-2620.
According to park rangers, a tourist to the Grand Canyon actually asked: "Was this man-made?" Well, the Middle Class these days finds itself in a hole that's even deeper than the Grand Canyon, and, yes, their hole is man-made, made by global corporate executives and their puppets in Washington.
A current example of this hole-digging is a special immigration visa that allows thousands of skilled foreign workers to come to America each year to take high-tech jobs here. Wait a minute-aren't these high-tech jobs the very ones we're being told are "the future" for American workers? Yes! Indeed, they tell us not to worry about the massive loss of manufacturing jobs from our country, because the U.S. "information industry" is creating new, high-paying positions for what they call "knowledge workers."
But that very industry is now using the government's H-1B visa program to bring in 65,000 foreign workers to take these positions ... and Silicon Valley lobbyists are demanding that Washington allow even more foreigners to get these high-tech visas. Both Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich want to please big campaign contributors like Bill Gates of Microsoft, so Washington is about to expand the number of H-1B visas to 100,000 immigrants a year.
Are there no Americans who can do this work? Of course-but the computer giants don't want to pay a decent salary for engineers and programmers, and hungry immigrants from India, Russia, and elsewhere will do the work for half the going rate paid to skilled Americans. Once the foreign workers get into the country under this temporary employment visa, the companies can then sponsor them for permanent employment status--completely shutting out American applicants for these jobs, and knocking down the salary level for all other high-tech jobs in the U.S.
It's a win-win for the executives and the politicians--and a lose-lose for our own workers and our country.
Today's feature: A devil gets a halo! It's the Blue Devils of Duke University I'm talking about, one of the most popular names in sports. Because of this popularity, the university sells some $20-million-a-year worth of products bearing the Blue Devil logo--everything from basketball shirts to bumperstickers, jackets to gym bags.
But wait a minute, said some of the students at Duke. It's fine for the university to rake in big bucks selling these products, but what about the folks who make them? Well, said university officials, we contract with Nike, Russell Athletic wear and some of the other top names in sports garb to bring these products to our customers.
Fine, said the students, but where do the companies get their stuff made? We don't ask, replied the officials. So ask, said the students--after all, Nike is a notorious exploiter of teenage Asian girls, effectively holding them as indentured workers in sweatshops making Nike's high-priced goods.
The campus group, Students Against Sweatshops, kept pushing its demands, kept organizing and protesting until--lo and behold--the Blue Devils gave in . . . and got their halo. The university's head of marketing now says, "We cannot tolerate having the sweat and tears of abused and exploited workers mixed with the fabric of the products which bear our trademarks." Not only has Duke adopted a "no sweatshop" code of conduct for its suppliers, but much more significantly, it provides for a tough enforcement mechanism. To sell to Duke, Nike and the rest must now open their factories to Duke-financed, independent inspectors.
These students, with right on their side, turned this university around.
To learn from them how you can say no to sweatshops wherever you are, call (919) 613-1446 .
There never has been a warm spot in the hearts of Americans for bankers. But these days, that normal chill has become an icy deep freeze, as local banks have become tentacles of powerful, national, corporatized bureaucracies seemingly intent on squeezing every last dime they can out of us customers.
Institutions that used to pride themselves on service, now have plastic signs on their facades and actually have staffers at the front door of their lobbies telling depositors to use the ATM machine outside, rather than bother the tellers.
You can still get service at a bank, but you'll pay ... and pay ... and pay. To open an account, check on your account, put money in, take money out--fees, fees, fees at every step. Fees have become the hottest profit center for banks, and the greatest ripoff of consumers.
There are so many fees that banks now print brochures listing them. Here's one from Bank One, the giant bank holding company based in Ohio. Labeled "Miscellaneous Fees," it lists 26 categories of tariffs it levies on its customers. There are fees for depositing coins, for using a counter check, for getting a duplicate of your monthly statement, for . . . well, for everything.
Here's their Account Reconciliation Fee, $25-an-hour for the bank to correct their errors in your account. Want to put your cash in their bank? It's a dollar per thousand bucks if you drop it off in the night deposit, a buck-and-a-half if you hand it to them over the counter. If you use a canvas bag to deposit cash, there's a $2 handling fee; if you use a plastic bag, there's a different handling fee, depending on the bag selected. I wonder what they charge if you use one of those plastic supermarket bags?
Fed up and want to close your account? Fine, but there's a $15 fee . . . sucker!
This is Jim Hightower saying . . . Shouldn't today's bankers have to wear ski-masks?
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