Football fans are slitting their own throats by buying offshore sweatshop goods, according to critics.
Women at the Ocean Sky “sweatshop” in El Salvador are paid just eight cents for each $25 NFL T-shirt they sew, according a press release just issued by the National Labor Committee.
Their wages amount to just 3/10ths of one percent of the NFL shirt’s retail price, according to the non-profit pressure group with un-posted sources of funding. One wag suggests that this gives a whole new meaning to one Super Bowl team – the Steelers…
The auto industry is a major advertiser supporting the NFL of course. And the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) is an AFL-CIO union that represents all professional football players, past and present. Neither appear to have any interest in the issue.
Super Bowl XLV advertising is sold out, according to Fox, the network that will (profitably) air it, with the following automakers and related suppliers planning ads: Audi of America, BMW North America, Bridgestone, CarMax, Chrysler, General Motors, Hyundai Motor North America, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen of America.
The NLC says the “lack of accountability on the part of our U.S. corporations–now operating all over the world and the resulting dehumanization of this new global workforce is emerging as the overwhelming moral crisis of the 21st century.
“The struggle for rule of law in the global economy–to ensure respect for the fundamental rights of the millions of workers producing goods for the U.S. market–has become the great new civil rights movement of our time.”
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
