Baseball Begins to Listen to Sweatshop Foes
But at the recent All Star Game in Pittsburgh, something started to give. Zirin and Tyner explain:
“The Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance (PASCA) held a spirited rally outside Tuesday’s game at PNC Park followed by a march to Roberto Clemente Bridge. The procession was a celebration of something antisweatshop activists had never been able to claim with Major League Baseball: real progress….
A citywide debate was ignited when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recognized PASCA’s work in a recent editorial that asked, ‘Would you mind if that Pittsburgh Pirates shirt you bought last week was sewn by a fourteen-year-old girl in Bangladesh during her twelfth hour of labor in a factory that pays her in pocket change?’ …
All of this wrangling served to keep the issue in the public eye. On the morning of the big game, the Pittsburgh City Council passed a resolution urging ‘companies and organizations that…have benefited from the continuous support of this city…to behave in a way…consistent with the morals and values of the people who provided them with the opportunity to succeed.’
Baseball finally blinked. Larry Silverman, VP and general counsel for the Pittsburgh Pirates, wrote to PASCA promising to review the information and give it ‘proper attention and consideration…once the All-Star Game has concluded.’ …
While the Pirates didn’t go so far as to sign a pledge to develop and promote ‘sweat-free procurement and licensing standards,’ the confrontation with PASCA opens the door for Major League Baseball to follow the lead of colleges and universities that have agreed to adopt codes of conduct and independent monitoring of working conditions in factories producing their apparel….
Antisweatshop activists can claim some real progress as a social movement. Claeson described it as ‘potentially a breakthrough in the antisweatshop movement’ because the group is shifting its impact from campus to the major leagues. Some of PASCA’s key members are alums of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).”…
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
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Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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