Charles Kernaghan

Charles Kernaghan (born c. 1948) is the executive director of the National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights ([1]), currently headquartered in Pittsburgh. He has spoken out against sweatshops, corporate greed and the appalling living and working conditions of the poor of the world.

He is probably most famous for his outspoken stand on Kathie Lee Gifford's clothing line sold in Wal-Marts across the world. He revealed during congressional testimony in 1996 that child laborers in Honduras were making the Gifford clothing line..^[1] In response, it was reported that Gifford "cried". The president of the American Apparel and Footwear Association has said of the controversy, "We remember that every day and that's a lesson to us, the fact that we don't want that to happen again. As a result of that, you had an industry begin to mobilize itself to make certain that, over time, they produce their products in the most responsible manner to make certain that employees are treated with dignity and respect."^[2]

Since then he has given testimony to the U.S. Congress as well as the United Nations. He has written about workers around the world, most notably in Central America, China and Bangladesh. Some of the work he has done over the years has caused him some trouble. He is currently persona non grata in El Salvador.^{[citation needed]}

AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said Kernaghan, "Because of Charlie's crusades ... we're beginning to learn the awful truth about workers around the world who are slaving away their lives in sweatshops, who are denied the right to join or form a union in order to fight back a provide a better life for their families."^[3]

Noam Chomsky said of Kernaghan in The Nation that the anti-sweatshop movement is in some ways, he said, "like the antiapartheid movement, except that in this case it's striking at the core of the relations of exploitation. It's another example of how different constituencies are working together. Much of this was initiated by Charlie Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee in New York and other groups within the labor movement." ^[4]

In May 2006, Kernaghan's organization exposed the plight of thousands of victims of human trafficking in Jordan, working in sweatshops in free trade zones making clothing for export to the United States. The New York Times quoted him as saying, "These are the worst conditions I've ever seen."^[5]

Kernaghan has been a frequent guest on Democracy Now!, and has also been interviewed many times on Pacifica Radio stations WBAI, New York and KPFA, Berkeley. He has appeared on GRITtv with Laura Flanders.

Background

Kernaghan was born one of three children in Brooklyn to Roman Catholic immigrant parents. His mother was Czech, his father Scottish.^[6]

References

1. ^ "Keeper of the Fire", Mother Jones, July/August 2003
2. ^ "The Man Who Made Kathie Lee Cry", Washington Post, July 31, 2005
3. ^ 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Conference, Hunter College, New York City, December 4, 1998.
4. ^ "Talking 'Anarchy' With Chomsky", The Nation, April 5, 2000
5. ^ "An Ugly Side Of Free Trade: Sweatshops in Jordan," The New York Times, May 3, 2006
6. ^ "Keeper of the Fire", Mother Jones, op. cit

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