[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 50 (Thursday, April 24, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          SWEATSHOP WORKERS SHOULD NOT BRING DAUGHTERS TO WORK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. NYDIA M. VELAZQUEZ

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 24, 1997

  Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, today across the country parents took 
their daughters to work. There is one group of workers, however, that 
does not celebrate taking their young children to work. I bring to your 
attention this article that appeared in the New York Times. The article 
reminds us that sweatshops and child labor are a reality in our 
country.
  Let us give our daughters positive goals to strive for. At the same 
time, though, let us work together to fight sweatshops and child 
exploitation.

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 23, 1997]

           Take Daughters to Work? Union Offers Another Idea

                         (By Steven Greenhouse)

       Upset that so many New York garment factories still use 
     child labor, the nation's largest clothing union has come up 
     with a novel approach to combat this longstanding problem--it 
     is called Don't Bring Our Daughters to Work Day.
       While the union says it applauds the American parents who 
     will take their daughters to work tomorrow to excite them 
     about potential careers, the garment union will spend the day 
     telling thousands of garment workers, many of them struggling 
     immigrants from China, not to take their daughters to work 
     tomorrow, or any other day for that matter.
       The campaign seeks to draw attention to the sweatshop 
     conditions by capitalizing on the growing prominence of Take 
     Our Daughters to Work Day. In fliers and educational 
     meetings, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile 
     Employees is warning garment workers who let their daughters 
     work in garment factories that such child labor is often 
     illegal and dangerous.
       ``Child labor in the shops is a serious problem, especially 
     in the summer,'' said Danyun Feng, coordinator of the don't 
     Bring Our Daughters program. ``Unfortunately, these children 
     are very easy to exploit, and their wages are usually very 
     low.''
       The union is pushing this program because it thinks child 
     labor is wrong and hurts youngsters, and it asserts that 
     child labor undercuts union wage scales. It also recognizes 
     that campaigning against such violations could make the union 
     more popular among the Chinese-American workers it is seeking 
     to unionize.
       The child labor campaign is concentrated in two Chinese-
     American neighborhoods where garment factories flourish: 
     Chinatown in Manhattan and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
       ``Child labor has been a source of heartache for garment 
     workers past and present,'' said May Ying Chen, assistant 
     manager of Local 23-25, representing 24,000 New York garment 
     workers.
       Ms. Feng said garment workers often tell her that they have 
     little alternative but to take their daughters to work on 
     Saturdays or summer days. They often take 3-year-olds who 
     play next to their sewing machines and frequently take 13-
     year-olds who are employed at nearby machines.
       ``They tell us they are low-income families who have to 
     work very hard and need almost everybody in the family to 
     help earn money,'' Ms. Feng said.
       The campaign aims not just to discourage children from 
     working but also to develop ways for children to spend their 
     nonschool days somewhere other than a clothing factory. Last 
     summer, the union funneled some teen-agers into a voter 
     registration drive.
       This summer, the union hopes to establish a program in 
     which teen-agers can take courses, care for children and 
     clean neighborhoods.
       Union officials feared that the Ms. Foundation for Women, 
     which sponsors the nationwide Take Our Daughters to Work Day, 
     would attack their program for mocking the name of the 
     national effort. But Marie Wilson, president of the Ms. 
     Foundation, said: ``I think it's great. When we created this 
     day, it was really to call attention to the conditions in 
     which girls live. This day is all about respecting your 
     daughter, and that's what this program does.''
       Union officials acknowledge that part of the Don't Bring 
     Our Daughters drive is intended to encourage the children of 
     garment workers to aspire to better-paying, more stimulating 
     careers. The union also wants to make sure children 
     appreciate how hard their parents toil and how bad factory 
     conditions often are.
       ``Of course, we want our children to get better jobs than 
     we have,'' said Chung Siu, a garment district seamstress. 
     ``They should go to college. We hate these garment shops.''

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