AREA FACTORY WORKERS TAKE STAND AGAINST SWEATSHOPS

Shirlene Voerg has worked at the Florsheim shoe factory for 30 years. But the Cape Girardeau woman worries that cheap labor outside the country could leave her unemployed.

Fellow employee Cindy Gosnell of Commerce has a similar worry.

"I have to wonder about my future," said Gosnell, who has worked at the factory for 10 years.

At one time, union leaders say, the company had about 60 shoe plants in the United States. Today, the Cape Girardeau plant is the company's only production facility in the United States.

All the rest of its plants are in places like Indonesia, India and Mexico where wages are low.

Voerg and Gosnell, both union shop stewards, were among about a dozen people who chanted slogans and circulated petitions in front of the Cape Girardeau Post Office Saturday to call attention to sweatshops.

The petitions call on President Clinton and Congress to end child labor and sweatshops.

The Cape Girardeau event was part of a national "Day of Conscience" Saturday organized by a coalition of religious, labor and human rights organizations.

The group included members of UNITE!, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

Organizers plan to collect petitions nationwide.

The petitions call for independent monitoring of clothing contractors to protect against child labor and the violation of workers' rights.

Local union leader Phyllis Dinger of Cape Girardeau said the anti-sweatshop coalition opposes efforts in Congress to accelerate the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

She said the fast-track legislation would make it easier for companies to move their manufacturing operations to foreign countries with cheap labor.

Dinger is president of UNITE! Local 1106. She works at the Thorngate clothing plant.

The labor union represents 475 workers at the Thorngate clothing plant and some 400 workers at the Florsheim shoe factory in Cape Girardeau.

Dinger said the local protest was held in front of the Cape Girardeau Post Office because of concern that the U.S. Postal Service may purchase some of its uniforms from sweatshops.

Dinger said this is the first of several "Season of Conscience" events planned this fall by the national coalition to draw attention to the issue.

"We don't want jobs taken away from American workers and Missouri workers," she said.

Union members made that point repeatedly as they marched in front of the post office, shouting "Ho, Ho, hey, hey, don't send our jobs away."

Dinger said sweatshops aren't just in Third World countries. They also have been found in places like Los Angeles and New York, she said.

"It affects us because it takes jobs away from us," she said.

Gosnell said Florsheim has eliminated about 100 jobs at the local plant in the last five years.

The plant has gone from cutting 2,000 pairs of shoes a day to les than 500, Gosnell said.

Workers typically are working three and half to four days a week for a total of 32 hours, she said.

"That is why we are so against sweatshops," Gosnell said.

"It's hard even nowadays to go out and buy a pair of shoes made in the United States," she said.