UNITE !
Midwest Regional Joint Board
333 South Ashland Avenue
Suite 206
Chicago, Illinois 60607
Tel 312 738-6212
Fax 312 738-6211

NOEL BEASLEY
International Vice President/Manager

RICHARD METCALF
Secretary/Treasurer

DALLAS SELLS
Eastern Distinct Manager

For Immediate Release
February 27, 1997

For more information contact:
Susan Barkulis 888/539-8398 or
Michael Step 800/635-6080

Photos from the event

Mishawaka, Indiana -- February 27, 1997 The Local L.S. Ayers department store was the target of an anti-sweatshop protest by members of labor unions, and community members. The protest is in response to the revelations of a UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) investigation that the private label goods made for May Stores are produced in sweatshops both in the U. S. and abroad.

The anti-sweatshop activists passed out shopping bags to L.S. Ayers customers to reinforce the "Don't Sell Injustice -- Stop Sweatshops" message.

The union released a report "Misery By Design", which provides intimate details and first-hand accounts of sweatshops which supply L.S. Ayers and other May department stores.

"As consumers and workers, we believe that the people in this area don't want to be buying clothes that are made by the hands of men, women or children who suffer in sweatshops", said Eric Brown, Vice President of the North Central Indiana AFL-CIO Council. "It doesn't have to be this way, retailers have the power to demand decent and lawful working conditions from the contractors they choose to make the clothes".

Conditions documented in the UNITE expose, show that many private labels made for May stores both here in the U. S. and abroad are made by workers who are children, denied minimum wage and overtime pay and who work in an environment of sexual harassment and other worker abuses. The report describes overseas sweatshops in Indonesia, Honduras and other countries making private label goods for the May Stores where workers are strip-searched, paid less than the minimum wage in those countries, and are subject to dangerous working conditions and other forms of inhumane treatment at work.

The action today is part of nationwide protest against sweatshops directed at May Stores in other cities across the country, including Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles. May has exclusive lines of private label clothing in all of its retail chains including L. S. Ayers.

We urge you to call these local telephone numbers below and ask them to quit carrying sweatshop-made clothes.

L.S.Ayers & Co.
Scottsdale Mall
South Bend, IN
(219 291-7700

L.S.Ayers & Co.
Univ. Park Mall
South Bend, IN
(219) 277-2950

Private Labels Sold Exclusively At The May Department Stores Co.