10 SOLE members arrested at protest

ALEX WOLK/Daily

Lieutenant Stephen Heller (front left) prepares to book members of SOLE yesterday evening during a protest at Kohl's. The protesters refused to leave the store and were each charged with trespassing.

By Jen Fish

Daily Staff Reporter

A demonstration protesting the overseas manufacturing practices of Kohl's department store resulted in the arrest of 10 members of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality.

Chanting anti-sweatshop messages, the students were charged with trespassing after they refused to leave the Lohr Road store after warnings from the Pittsfield Township Police and the Kohl's personnel.

The controversy centers around the Chentex factory, one of Kohl's manufacturers located in Managua, Nicaragua. Protesters claim that the company is guilty of exploiting workers with low wages, poor conditions and union busting.

Yesterday's action at the Ann Arbor store is part of a nationwide drive by the National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights to secure a living wage and fair treatment

for the workers.

Former Chentex workers Angelica Perez and Zenayda Torres have been traveling with the NLC to speak about the conditions at the factory.

Perez and Torres said they worked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week for 30 cents an hour. They also said that workers were also required to work on Sundays until about noon.

"They expected us to work like robots," Torres said.

When the workers attempted to organize themselves and ask for better conditions, they were fired, Perez said.

"When we asked for a wage increase, the company fired 11 union leaders. The workers protested for two and a half days - the company fired 700 and hired new workers. They put everyone on a blacklist and no one can get a job at another factory," she said.

Throughout the protest, students shouted for the Kohl's district manager to call CEO Larry Montgomery to tell him their demands.

"Bad conscience got your tongue?" yelled RC senior Jason Keydel.

The district manager, who declined to give his name, had no comment.

Susan Henderson, Kohl's vice president for communications, reached at her office in Milwaukee yesterday, said she was aware of the problems at the Chentex facility and that Kohl's is working to improve working conditions there.

"We have launched an investigation into the Chentex factory," she said, adding that as part of the company's terms of engagements for Kohl's manufacturing vendors, "we do inspect all of the facilities where Kohl's products are produced."

Charles Kernaghan, executive director of NLC, said he was disappointed with Kohl's lack of communication.

"I thought Kohl's would be a bit more human," because they are a smaller retail chain, he said. "Kohl's has no soul - it's lost its moral compass. They are ruthlessly driven by the bottom dollar."

Henderson said that Colby International, one of Kohl's business agents that conducts inspections, found three areas of non-compliance in the factory, including health and safety violations, environmental problems and employment record mismanagement.

Henderson said Kohl's will follow up with additional inspections, but said the department store "will not get involved in labor disputes between third parties."

Since Kohl's does not own or operate any manufacturing facilities of its own, the company relies on vendors.

The arrested students were booked outside the store and given bond receipts for trespassing, which is a misdemeanor. They were released on personal recognizance and their cases will be referred to the Washtenaw County prosecutor.

"I thought if I went and asked them to leave they would, but that didn't happen," said Pittsfield Twp. Police Lt. Stephen Heller. "I'm sorry we had to arrest them. They wanted to make point and I guess we facilitated it..."

"I want do more to show Kohl's that this is unjust," said Michele Rudy, an LSA senior who was arrested. Rudy said she did not regret being arrested - "I'm not doing enough," she said.

The protest also attracted a number of curious passers-by, including one local man and his four-year old adopted daughter, Lucy.

The man, who asked to be identified only as Don, said he was drawn to the protests not only because he was in favor of workers' rights, but because labor conditions in the the Third World have affected him personally. Lucy, who proudly held a picture of Nicaraguan laborers, was adopted from Guatemala.

"I think it's a good thing to raise awareness of what's going on in the Third World," he said. He added that there are many children such as Lucy whose parents cannot afford to keep them because of low wages.

Besides Rudy, those arrested were RC senior Scott Burkhardt, LSA sophomore Sheila McClear, RC freshman Sasha Wright, LSA senior Rachel Edelman, RC freshman Adrian Esquivel, LSA sophomore Chris Fici, LSA freshman Matt Hannah, LSA senior Scott Trudeau and RC sophomore David Lempert.