Olsen Twins for Human Rights??? :=8/
:=8D

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Well, just when you thought you've seen everything...


The high-powered teen titans have pledged to make sure their signature clothing line for Wal-Mart will not be produced in sweatshops.
The former child stars were targeted by the National Labor Committee and student activists from the twins' college, New York University, who sent an open letter Wednesday to the Olsens asking them to sign a petition to force Wal-Mart to guarantee female workers who make the clothing in factories in Bangladesh the "legal right to maternity leave with benefits."
The letter claimed the twins' company, DualStar Entertainment, refused hundreds of appeals over the last seven months to disclose the names of the Bangladesh factories where the Mary-Kate and Ashley brand is being manufactured so the NLC can ensure the women working there are aware of their legal rights.
"It is only through this simply and doable step that the women in these factories can be alerted that their legal maternity rights will now be respected, and that a system can be established to verify compliance," wrote Charles Kernaghan, the NLC's director.
Kernaghan cited statistics showing that exploited workers in certain factories work 14 hour days, seven days a week, while making a sweatshop wage of just 13 to 18 cents per hour without being able to take three months paid leave to care for their own children, a benefit that they are entitled to by law. Many of those female laborers are often fired or harassed until they quit should they attempt to do so.
NYU's student paper, Washington Square News, also called on the actresses to get involved in affording garment workers maternity leave, citing Wal-Mart's dubious track record as the world's largest retailer in using sweatshops and routinely intimidating and firing workers who tried to organize labor unions.
"It would be scandalous for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who are held up as examples of successful, independent, young women, to deny this most basic right to the women producing their clothing line," stated the paper.
Looking to avoid becoming the next Kathie Lee Gifford, the Olsens decided to play ball.
Pagnotta said DualStar reps had been in talks with the NLC since Wednesday, and once Mary-Kate and Ashley took a look at the maternity-leave pledge and evaluated it, they readily signed.
The pledge reads: "On behalf of the DualStar Entertainment Group LLC, I Mary-Kate Olsen hereby sign this pledge that to the best of our abilities we will guarantee that any woman sewing our garments in Bangladesh will be afforded her legal maternity leave of at least three months with full pay." It was signed by Mary-Kate and dated Dec. 9.
By Thursday evening, the NLC released a statement reading in part, "The Olsen twins have done the right thing. Now it is up to Wal-Mart to either support Mary-Kate and Ashley’s commitment to women’s rights, or tragically to shut them down."
The Olsens aren't the first celebs to get schooled by labor activists. Last year, the NLC accused rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs's Sean John fashion line of using sweatshop labor in Honduras, claims which were later denied by government officials.
In the '90s, the group was also successful in holding Gifford responsible for labor abuses against Salvadoran workers who made the former talk show queen's signature Wal-Mart clothes under horrible conditions.

Hmmm, just when you thought the Olsen twins were a couple of empty-headed, spoiled brats, they go and do this. Just makes you think. If we cud only get them to stop selling their shitty teeny-bopper crap at Wal-Mart, that would be an accowplishment. Wal-Mart sucks, I hope they all burn down to the ground.

:=8P


- posted by The MooCow @ 11:32 PM