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Wednesday March 7, 2001

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Kukdong panel discussion to include Nike, SAS reps

By Shana Heiser

Arizona Daily Wildcat

6 members to bring first-hand perspectives of Mexican sweatshops

Key people involved in the Kukdong labor dispute in Mexico will hold a panel discussion today to educate the UA community and foster understanding about what comes next in the ongoing struggle against sweatshops.

Differing views will be presented, but all six participants oppose abuses happening in Kukdong and other international factories.

"The university community is going to get a chance to listen to a bunch of different perspectives on the situation at Kukdong," said M.J. Braun, a UA Students Against Sweatshops member. "It's important for the university community to hear all these different perspectives because they matter."

Gerald Morales, a Phoenix attorney and UA adjunct law professor who accompanied the Workers Rights Consortium team to Kukdong, will join Amanda Tucker, Nike senior manager of corporate responsibility, at the forum.

Also present will be Mil Niepold, director of policies and programs for Verite, the Fair Labor Association's third party monitor, and Evelyn Zepeda, United Students Against Sweatshops representative and a sophomore at Pitzer College in California.

Rounding out the panel are Pharis Harvey, executive director of the International Labor Rights Fund and Daniel Long, another member of the WRC who went to Kukdong with Morales.

In the past, debate has centered around theoretical situations, but that changed with the Kukdong strike in January.

"For the first time, we have a concrete situation in which abuses are pointed out in a factory that subcontracts for Nike," Braun said. "I think that how we interpret the situation at Kukdong is going to have everything to do with how the university acts."

The discussion is an opportunity for UA students, faculty and staff to ask questions of panel members.

"As we talk about Kukdong from the perspective of those who have been on the ground, I hope it will give us a better understanding of the complexities of the situation," Tucker said, "and what different stake holders, including Nike, have accomplished in trying to facilitate a fair resolution to the ongoing labor dispute."

Zepeda observed the factory in Atlixco, Mexico first-hand for about three weeks in January, and the first things she said she saw were bruised faces and arms, and people who could not walk.

"I really hope that... the focus is not dismantling USAS's arguments," she said. "USAS is the only organization that's kept a permanent presence down there."

She was skeptical about attending the discussion at first because she heard stories of past similar meetings, she said.

"I heard about these forums that have been taking place where Amanda Tucker will show up and say a couple of things and discredit USAS's position or information," Zepeda said.

Tucker said she is aware of some of the positions, or oppositions, USAS holds against Nike and other major corporations.

"I have no interest in going down there to engage in a war of words," Tucker said. "I think that some of their perspectives are quite one-sided. I hope there will be an atmosphere of open dialogue - what we're really interested in is in improving working conditions for men and women around the world."

Braun said she hopes a decision-making body will form so influencing opinions beyond UA President Peter Likins can be heard.

"A panel isn't the last step," Braun said. "What's taking place is a big step forward. The people who make the clothes have now become visible at the university and we have responsibility to those people."

The panel discussion begins at noon today at the Kiva Auditorium in the Education building.