Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 22:32:22 -0400 FORWARDED MESSAGE ===================== From: radman Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 3:29 PM Missouri Prisoners Labor Union Calls Boycott on Colgate/Pamolive, Endorses Boycott Against Marriott Group MissouriThe Missouri Prisoners Labor Union (MPLU) called a boycott of Colgate/Palmolive last month, in response to the continued harassment of Jerome White-Bey, MPLU president. White-Bey has served several moths in the hole for refusing to cease organization and the promotion of the MPLU, and as a few few weeks ago, prison guards at the Missouri Department of Corrections continue to physically harass and threaten him. The MPLU's demands are as follows: 1) The establishment of a minimum wage for prisoners comparable to workers on the outside of the wall, 2) abolition of forced labor and abuse by the authorities of the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC), and 3) support of a Bill of Moratorium on all executions in the state of Missouri. The MPLU argues that the chilling effect of the death penalty is the worst of the many forms of coercion used to scare prisoners from standing up as workers. The MPLU is a legally chartered union by the state of Missouri, but has not thus far been recognized by Colgate (who contacts labor to the Missouri DOC) nor the DOC. The IWW General Assembly will also consider resolutions in support of the MPLU and the boycott over Labor Day weekend. The Seattle IWW endorsed the MPLUs struggle for recognition in October of 1999. The Missouri Prisoners Labor Union also announced on August 14th that it was formally endorsing an international boycott initiated by Prison Moratorium Project against all products-services produced either directly or indirectly by Sodexho Marriott Services (SMS). On March 28, 1998, the French multinational Sodexho Alliance (SA) took over the North American operations of Marriott Management Services from the Marriott Group. The merger made the new corporation, Sodexho Marriott Services (SMS), the largest institutional provider of food services in North America, with $4.5 billion in annual revenues. As of the most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Sodexho currently holds investments totaling 11% in Prison Realty Trust/Corrections Corporation of America the leading investor in the world's biggest for-profit prison company. Corrections Corporation of America has a well documented history of abusing Prisoners . At a CCA facility in Tennessee, prison officials delayed taking a pregnant woman to a hospital, allowing her to suffer for 12 hours until she died from an undiagnosed complication. The Colorado ACLU filed suit against CCA's private prisoner transport company on behalf of a woman who claimed that members of the all-male transport crew sexually assaulted her repeatedly during her five-day trip from Texas to Colorado. Missouri Prisoners Labor Union-National Communications Officer (and fellow worker) Michael Lee stated " The entire history of private prisons is rife with abuse. Staff tends to be poorly trained, morale low due to substandard wages, [and] minimum standards of service provision mandated by the constitution are often ignored." "This situation directly causes Prisoner abuse to rampage within every private facility." He went on to state, "It is the use of Prisoner labor at slave wages which is very disturbing, for it attacks the standard of living which organized labor has fought so hard to attain." Student activists at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, successfully pressured the administration into dropping a contract with Marriott, after revealing Marriotts substantial holdings and profiteering in the prison industry. This is a victory in the continuing resistance and public campaign against the proliferation of the prison system in the US, both private and public. It is also a victory for prison workers, in that the bottom line of a corporation that profits from the prison industry is now being effected. To write in support of MPLU members directly, contact :Jerome White Bey #37479 (MPLU President); Potosi Correctional Institution; Rt. 2 Box 2222 (3a-46); Mineral Point, MO 63660; Bruce Cummings #36911 (National Representative) Jefferson City Correctional Center; P.O. Box 900; Jefferson City, MO 65102; Sheik Mark Moor-El #990115 (National Coordinator);Jefferson City Correctional Center; P.O. Box 900; Jefferson City, MO 65102. Letters must be addressed exactly as printed here, or they may be rejected by the DOC. To contact the MPLU office on the outside, write: Michael Lee, National Communications Officer, National Communications Office, Missouri Prisoners Labor Union,www.angelfire.com/sc2/mplu convict78@hotmail.com, 2435 E. North St. PMB 255; Greenville, SC 29615 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------- From: SCN User Stop the execution! New trial for Mumia! Youth & Students for Mumia http://www.mumia2000.org To subscribe or unsubscribe email: youth-4-mumia-owner@egroups.com