Fw: 🔥 Garment Workers Lobby Congress for FABRIC Act, Taskforce to Bolster Jobs in LA, & Garment Youth Updates

[Gregory A . Butler]

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From: Garment Worker Center <g...@garmentworkercenter.org>

To: Gregory Butler <gregory...@aol.com>

Sent: Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 01:52:31 PM EDT

Subject: 🔥 Garment Workers Lobby Congress for FABRIC Act, Taskforce to Bolster Jobs in LA, & Garment Youth Updates

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GWC Allies & Friends, Things are HEATING UP in LA as garment workers are building power on a local, state, and federal level.

CA FABRIC Act Lobby Day!!! Last week, our members led *ten* virtual meetings with California Congressional offices urging our representatives to sponsor the bill in our efforts to build more federal support of the FABRIC Act. This is coming after our members participated in Congressional lobbying visits in Washington, D.C. last September when the legislation was reintroduced. The Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change (FABRIC Act), introduced in the Senate by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) and in the House of Representatives by Jerry Nadler (NY), would protect nearly 100,000 American garment workers and revitalize the garment industry in the United States by improving working conditions, reforming the piece-rate pay scale and investing in domestic apparel production.  Over 350 businesses, brands, NGOs, unions, fashion media outlets, and universities/campus groups have endorsed the FABRIC Act! There’s a strong appetite for this legislation and we’re gearing up for more coalition building in the coming months. Click here to find the complete list of endorsers. Have you signed the FABRIC petition yet?  Have you shared it with your organization and communities yet?  FABRIC Petition link: fabricact.org/petition

Partnership with CD1 & EWDD Goes Live at SPESA Last week Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s office and GWC led a SPESA panel discussing the new Garment and Fashion Industry Workforce and Economic Development program and how it will help grow the local garment manufacturing industry while protecting the garment maker workforce. We were also joined by local business owner and ally business partner GTLA’s Guadalupe Tlatenchi. We worked together to create this program as part of the DTLA 2040 Community Plan Update. This panel marked the first time we promoted this new program, which is being developed through a task force led by the LA Economic & Workforce Development Department. This taskforce has included  workshops on small business attraction, labor policies, business support and retention, all to inform Citywide economic development recommendations that strengthen the local industry and workforce while ensuring good jobs and worker well-being are at the forefront of the conversation. Stay tuned for updates on this crucial work we’re doing with the City.

GWC in the Media Our members’ work has been captured in local TV and print, as well as on national radio. Check out some of these recent highlights and share them if you haven’t already! “Los Ángeles apoya empleados de costura con nuevo programa” — Telemundo 52 (link) “LA’s Garment Worker Center highlights new effort to support industry and its employees” — LA Daily News (link) The high price of cheap clothes: Why can’t garment workers afford to buy the clothes they make? — Marketplace’s This is Uncomfortable (link)

Building Youth Power Garment Worker Youth Program participants have actively participated in a series of educational youth trainings, organized community events, established an on-campus Garment Worker Youth club and are at the forefront of the anti-sweatshop labor movement. Youth members recently traveled to UC Berkeley for the Young Worker Leadership Academy and Garment Worker Youth will participate in a Summer Garment Justice Youth Leadership Academy @ GWC to become promotores in their community! Applications are due May 15th. Click here to apply. Notably, youth participants launched their first Instagram account, @garmentworkeryouthvoices.  Stay connected with their impactful work by following their account, and witness their dedication to sustaining and leading the fight against sweatshop labor. Are you following Garment Worker Youth Voices on IG yet?

Donate to GWC Much of our organizing and programming is supported by community donations. We urge our supporters to give throughout the year when they can and to contribute generously to give back to those who made their clothes. Donations are tax deductible.  Donate to GWC here. Thank you for your continued support!!! In Solidarity, Garment Worker Center

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