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NMASS (National Mobilization Against Sweatshops) is
a workers membership organization that was founded by young
working people in 1996 in New York City. We have two Workers'
Centers -- one in Brooklyn and one in the Lower East Side
of Manhattan -- and members and supporters all over the country.
Some of us are:
- Injured workers fighting for our right to compensation
and medical benefits
- Working people from Lower Manhattan suffering health and
economic problems because of the government's discrimination
against low-income people following the 9-11 disaster
- Mothers demanding recognition for the work we do raising
kids
- Garment, restaurant, construction, office and other workers
standing up to long work hours and other sweatshop conditions
- Students, white collar workers, and others feel the system
is more and more limiting our choices, downsizing our dreams
and channeling our lives.
- We are people born in this country and we are immigrants
from many regions of the world.
Together, as working people, we are taking back the right
to control our work, our health, our time and our lives. One
central demand that unites is the right to a 40-hour workweek
at a living wage for all. This does not mean that we are fighting
for everyone to work the same hours or for there to be a cap
on hours. Instead, we are demanding control over our time
-- the right to say "no" to hours beyond a 40-hour
workweek and the right to have the hours we put in raising
the next generation of workers in our homes compensated as
part of that 40-hour workweek. We recognize that working people
taking back this kind of control means ending what we call
"the sweatshop system."
The United States today resembles the brutal sweatshop system
that existed in the garment industry over a hundred years
ago. Financiers and employers are sweating immense wealth
out of us without any accountability, using downsizing, subcontracting,
outsourcing, and temporary and contingent labor. We are working
longer and longer hours, leading to injuries and occupational
diseases. Our human rights to medical attention, to compensation,
to rest and recovery are increasingly violated. This sweatshop
system also fails to compensate the hard work we do outside
of our jobs, such as raising children in our homes. It is
stealing away our freedom and our lives, turning us into disposable
work machines.
In its first few short years NMASS played a leading role
in forcing the scandal of sweatshops to the forefront of national
and international consciousness. We're getting people to see
that sweatshop conditions exist right here in the United States.
Sweatshop conditions, such as long hours have spread to every
corner of our economy. We've begun to popularize the idea
that long hours are the key issue facing U.S. workers. We
are organizing in many ways through fighting campaigns and
building a new working people's culture through videos, theatrical
productions, music concerts, poetry slams, art shows, social
events. We are educating people with presentations, our website,
and publications such as Sweatshop Nation.
Join us!
What We Want:
- We want a society where we the people, the workers
who produce society's wealth and who make everything possible,
control our own lives. There are many major crises we
face today -- global economic chaos, our planet is being
destroyed, wars and militarism, and rising inequality and
poverty around the world. We have to begin, however, with
ourselves. The root cause of these problems, and the most
fundamental problem for working people here in the United
States is that we have lost control, not only over our government
and over U.S.-based corporations and institutions, but over
our very lives. The only solution is for all of us who work
-- either in paid jobs, or in our homes, or in other places
like schools -- to organize to take back control. While
recognizing our differences, we have to come together around
what we have in common, to transform the existing system
according to our collective needs and interests as working
people.
- We want the right to control our time, beginning with
the right a 40-hour workweek at a living wage for all--
whether we are currently overworked, underemployed, unemployed
or working at raising children or doing other care-taking
in the home. Working people of all different backgrounds
and income levels are being overworked and have lost control
over their lives. While some are working long hours, others
are excluded from any employment at all. We demand the right
to 40-hours of work paid at a living wage. We demand the
right to say "no" to hours beyond a 40-hour workweek
and the right to have the hours we put in raising the next
generation of workers in our homes compensated as part of
that 40-hour workweek.
- We want equal rights for all workers and an end to
the superexploitation of workers of color and women and
the liberation of the underclass of undocumented slave labor.
From the theft of these lands from native Americans and
the enslavement of African peoples, through Chinese coolie
contract labor and the indentured labor of Latino workers
in the Bracero program, to today's prison-industrial
complex, and many other examples, the superexploitation
of people of color has been the systemic root of racism
and white privilege. To this day, women are superexploited
in the home as caregivers, beyond whatever paid work they
do at jobs. Women and people of color are often paid less
for the same work compared to white workers and males as
a whole. Continuing the ugly history of racism and slavery
in a modern-day form, in 1986 the government created, for
the first time, the category of "undocumented worker,"
a criminalized underclass of labor that can be superexploited.
All of this superexploitation pits worker against worker,
driving down conditions for all. We demand an end to all
forms of superexploitation and equal rights for all workers,
including the abolition of the category "undocumented
worker" and a process for the adjustment of status
for all immigrant workers. We oppose all forms of homophobia
and prejudice that divide working people.
- We want an end to sweatshop conditions. Sweatshop
conditions such as long hours have spread to all sectors
of our economy, both blue- and white-collar, right here
in the United States. The only solution is for workers themselves
to stand up against these conditions. Unscrupulous employers
who refuse to change when confronted must be punished. To
give just one example, the boss of Saigon Grill restaurant,
Simon Ngyet, was thrown in jail as a result of workers'
organizing to assert their rights. To give another example,
in the precedent-setting case of New Silver Palace restaurant,
individual board members of the restaurant were held liable
for stolen wages and tips. We need stronger policies and
legislation to defend workers rights and punish law-breaking
employers.
- We want an end to the sweatshop system. We demand
an end to the sweating system, where large firms use subcontracting
to exploit workers under brutal conditions. We are fighting
for retailer and manufacturer accountability in the garment
industry and have strengthened legislation and policies
on the city, state, and federal level. This will have an
impact on other industries, such as construction, cleaning,
and even office temping, for example, where contracting
out and subcontracting allows large firms to exploit workers
under harsh conditions.
- We want control over our health. We need more than
just access to health coverage. Even when access to healthcare
is supposedly guaranteed, under the workers' compensation
system, for example, workers' lack control over the decisions
regarding their care and are often denied the care that
they need. We have called for the overhaul of the Workers'
Compensation system in New York State and have addressed
Congressional hearings and introduced legislation to address
problems of injured workers whose health is being destroyed
by long hours and unsafe conditions. We also led a successful
fight for the creation of 9-11 health programs that have
built-in community input from all workers and residents
affected by 9-11 toxic air. We've fought for and won special
clinics to address the toxic air in nail salons. We continue
to fight for more accountability and control over the institutions
that affect our health.
- We demand an end to the racist diplacement of people
of color. We want control over plans that affect our communities,
at all levels of government. Plans that affect our communities
should start from our communities, where we live and work,
and should be developed from the bottom up according to
the needs of working people, locally and in general. For
example, in opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's racist displacement
agenda for communities across New York City, we’re
developing an alternative plan for Community Board 3, and
building a city-wide movement to encourage other communities
to organize from the bottom up to build a united front against
racist displacement.
- We want control over our own culture. We want an
end to the culture of narrow individualism, cut-throat competition,
elitism, racism, sexism, greed and division. Together, through
our own arts, music, theater and dance, literature and poetry,
and by struggling together and finding common ground in
the fight to control our lives, and by celebrating our gains
in that fight, we are creating a new culture that promotes
the needs and potential of human beings as its highest priority.
Leadership & Membership
NMASS relies on the time and energy of our dues-paying members
and countless friends and supporters who lead and participate
in our campaigns and educational and cultural projects. Our
Board of Directors, composed of members and leaders from our
various campaigns, is elected by our membership. The Board
makes major decisions about the direction of the organization.
Numerous committees led by members who also plan and carry
out our fighting campaigns, cultural and social activities,
educational projects and other activities. At different times
some people have paid staff positions, where funds are availabe
and if the Board feels it is appropriate and necessary for
the development of individuals as organizers and leaders and
for our organization. Much of the staff, however, is volunteer.
Board members are not paid staff.
The NMASS Board:
NMASS is a membership organization
of working people finding our common ground in the struggle
to establish control over our health, time, work, communities
and lives. Every two years dues-paying members elect a Board
of Directors made up of leaders from among our ranks that
will help make major directional decisions for the organization.
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Amelia Aviles has been
a Lower East Side (LES) resident for many decades. She
is originally from Puerto Rico. She is part of the Health
Committee, the Caregivers' Committee and the NMASS representative
for the Coalition to Protect LES and Chinatown. |
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Pilar Alvarado is from Colombia. She was a clean
up worker on the Ground Zero area and became sick due
to the toxic dust. She is organizing other clean up workers
as part of the 9-11 Health Campaign. |
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John Antush was born in New York
City, grew up in the suburbs, and lives in Brooklyn. He
is a high school teacher and is part of the Anti-Displacement
Campaign and the Membership and Fundraising Committee.
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Lea Geronimo was born in the US and currently
lives in Queens after having spent many years on the
Lower East Side. Her family is from the Philippines.
She is an office worker near Ground Zero and became
ill after 9-11. She organizes with downtown workers
affected by the toxic air and is part of the 9-11 Women’s
Health Group.
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Yolanda Hernandez is a mother and grandmother from
Puerto Rico. She lives in the Lower East Side and has
organized in her community around 9-11 health problems.
She is part of the Anti-Displacement Campaign and the
Caregivers' Committee. |
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Hoon Kim was born in Korea and raised in Argentina.
He is a Spanish instructor in New Jersey. He works with
the Membership and Fundraising Committee and the Cultural
Activities Committee.
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Adolfo Lopez is from Guerrero, Mexico
and lives in Upper Manhattan. He successfully organized
with his fellow delivery workers at Flor De Mayo restaurant
and is a part of our Service Workers Committee. |
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Maria Marca is from Ecuador. She
worked in East Buffet Restaurant where she was exploited
and mistreated and is now organizing with other workers.
She is part of our Service Workers’ Committee. |
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Similiano Martinez is from Mexico.
He is a construction worker and is organizing other workers
around prevailing wage. He is part of the Service Workers'
Committee |
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Jennifer Wager is Irish
American and lives in Newark, New Jersey. She is a community
media organizer. She works with the White-Collar Workers
Committee, the NMASS Video Project and the Membership
and Fundraising Committee. |
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Doreen Wang is Taiwanese
American, lives in Elmhurst, Queens and grew up in New
Jersey. She is an office worker in Chinatown who is concerned
about her health after 9/11 and is part of the White-Collar
Workers Committee and the Anti-Displacement Campaign. |
Executive Director: JoAnn Lum
Staff Organizer: Tosh Anderson
Join Us! Become a Dues-Paying Member!
Some Accomplishments
Some General Accomplishments
- Came together as workers to expose sweatshop conditions
and exploitation as a national problem that exists right
here domestically, in the United States, including coverage
in the local, city, national and international media.
- Raised consciousness about the common interest between
native-born workers and immigrant workers in ending the
superexploitation of undocumented workers. We have influenced
the immigration debate with our call for equal rights for
all workers and the abolition of the category of "undocumented
worker."
- Through organizing, shattered the myth that immigrant
workers, and especially undocumented workers cannot fight
back, by uniting undocumented and documented workers to
stand up for their rights in many workplaces and in a call
for equal rights for all workers. This kind of organizing
is resulting in higher wages and shorter hours in many in
New York City's Upper West Side neighborhood, for instance.
- Lead by example in helping to build a new, multi-racial,
multi-ethnic, multi-trade, multi-lingual, inclusive movement
for all workers – employed, working as caregivers in
the home, working as students in school -- to fight, not
only for better conditions, but for real control over our
lives, as working people. We articulate taking back control
over our time as fighting for the right to the 40-hour workweek
at a living wage as a human right.
- Put in motion a model for a new labor movement that is
more than an employees movement, but is for all workers,
including the unemployed, people who do unpaid work in the
home, and the non-union majority, to fight to fundamentally
transform the system according to the interests and needs
of working people as a whole.
- Brought forward the question of caregiving as work that
should be included in the right to a 40-hour workweek at
a living wage for all.
- Changed many workers’ thinking to overcome their
fears and to open their minds to the possibility of, not
only changing economic conditions, but fighting, long-term
for systemic changes. As one member put it at our 2009 retreat,
“we’re not just organizing for better conditions
but for control.” For example, garment workers organizing
against the manufacturer Bahari demanded more than what
they were entitled to according to the law – they demanded
that Bahari clothing manufacturer keep a percentage of its
work here, in New York. One nail salon worker, Gloria said
that before she found NMASS she didn’t think her conditions
could be changed. Now she thinks, “I am an achievement.
NMASS changed my thinking. I want to change the nail salon
industry.” Rosa, a garment worker, added, we “help
people to end the fear of speaking up, even if you are undocumented.”
- Expanded the definition of who is a worker and who is
exploited to include middle-income and even higher-income
white-collar workers. These workers also lack control over
their time and lives, and now have less and less control.
For example, we launched a White Collar Workers Committee,
ignited by the struggle of an office worker who was fired
for asking for a raise and discussing with her coworkers
and supervisor the long work hours and skipped meals she
was forced endure. Workers at several different workplaces,
including non-profits, have also come forward.
- Put forward a new perspective on workfare and welfare
reform that calls not for more handouts or cheap-labor programs,
but for the recognition of the work of raising children
and making a home.
- Buiilt two independent workers' centers, after only meeting
in apartments, community spaces and even having clinics
and meetings on sidewalks.
- Created a national network of over 9,000 working people
and youth.
- Developed a multiracial organization, membership, leadership
and Board of Directors composed of working people from diverse
walks of life.
Accomplishments in 911 Health and other Workers' Health
Issues
- Made workers’ health a nationally-recognized issue
and combinging health issues in the workplace with health
issues in our communities.
- This included organizing lower Manhattan workers and residents
and others affected by 9-11 toxic air to make 9-11 health
a national issue, forcing the creation of the Bellevue 9-11
program, and speaking on workers’ health issues and
workers’ compensation in Congress. The Bellevue program
eventually got federal funding and was expanded to Elmhurst
and another hospital. This program is the only treatment
program for residents and workers affected by the toxic
fallout of 9-11.
- Drew attention in city, state, national and international
arenas to the human-rights abuses suffered by injured workers
forced to work long hours and then abused and dehumanized
by the Workers' Compensation system, using an international
NAFTA lawsuit, an international public hearing, protests
and organizing spearheaded by injured workers.
- Gained the introduction of a bill in 2001 by State Assembly
Member Catherine Nolan in the New York State Assembly that
calls for ending delays at the Workers' Compensation Board,
raising the minimum rate of benefits, and prohibiting mandatory
overtime work.
Service Worker Organizing
- Created a network of service workers in the New York,
New Jersey and Connecticut area through which hundreds of
workers have organized to win millions of dollars and improvements
in their working conditions.
- For example, we ousted the notoriously abusive management
of the New Silver Palace restaurant through a campaign to
fight for stolen tips, wages, and the reinstatement of pro-union
workers; the restaurant's workers led pickets three times
a week, even after they won their jobs back.
- Winning in 2000 the first minimum wage increase for tipped
workers in New York State when the government wanted to
separate their wages from minimum wage increases and freeze
it at $2.90 an hour.
- Organized workers at delis, gorceries, nail salons, restaurants
and other workplaces, winning back millions of dollars in
unpaid wages, stolen tips, minimum wage and overtime violations,
etc.
Garment Worker Organizing
- Institutionalized the concept of manufacturer accountability
by compelling government and other institutions to hold
garment manufacturers responsible for the labor-law violations
of their contractors and contributing to the passage in
1998 of a N.Y. State law to that effect.
- Strengthened manufacturer accountability laws for garment
workers in New York State.
- Raised national awareness of the issue of manufacturer
accountability through the publicity surrounding our worker-led
campaigns against Kathy Lee and DKNY and through meetings
with the Federal Department of Labor in Washington and in
Congress.
- For example, we forced the garment manufacturer Street
Beat to pay almost $300,000 in owed wages to Brooklyn garment
workers who were forced to work 137 hours a week, as well
as another $85,000 to NMASS and two other organizations
for damages as a result of a lawsuit that Street Beat initiated
against the three groups, which in 2000 was ruled a SLAPP
suit.
- Won a precedent-setting decision that gives workers the
power to enforce Labor Department agreements signed by manufacturers
to take responsibility for the wage-law violations of their
contractors.
- Organized DKNY garment workers to protest, educate the
public, and launch a class-action lawsuit against Donna
Karan for the illegal and inhumane conditions the manufacturer
has promoted in New York sweatshops.
- Organized workers to hold garment companies accountable
for sweatshop conditions in the factories, winning back
millions of dollars in unpaid wages, overtime pay, stolen
wages, etc., involving workers in a longer-term movement
towards manufacturer and retailer accountability that is
impacting other subcontracted workers, in construction and
other industries.
Fighting Racist Displacement of Working People of Color
- Fought the racist displacement of working-class people
of color as part of building a workers' movement to have
say in our communities and at the city level.
- For example in New York City's Lower East Side we’ve
fought the exclusion of workers of color from jobs on NYU’s
construction sites and the displacement effect of NYU’s
developments.
- After 9-11 we demanded that the government end its aid
policies that discriminated against the LES/Chinatown, which
were encouraging landlords to kick out low-income people.
- Exposing and undermining New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's
racist displacement agenda against working class people
of color, connecting our organizing in the Lower East Side
with organizing in Chinatown and people's struggles across
the city, slowing the Mayor's agenda, and laying groundwork
to restore our communities.
Developing Working Class Culture
- Developed a video project to document and popularize working
people's struggles. We've organized community screenings
and air these videos on Manhattan Neihborhood Network.
- Developed theater events, including the original play,
"American Tien," that ran for a week at the Theater
of the New City, depicting the struggles of garment workers.
- Organize poetry and spoken word events at our Brooklyn
Center and in other venues.
- Influenced musicians and worked with them to produce original
songs about workers rights and involved them in performances
at rallies and benefits.
- Produced original comic books and prints to popularize
workers' struggles and demands.
- Established a tradition of bringing workers together to
break down barriers and to celebrate our accomplishments
at monthly "First Friday" parties, picnics, and
other kinds of events.
- Produced our newsletter Sweatshop Nation, our website,
and other publications, such as the magazine, Punching
the Clock.
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