Saint Martin's University hosts talk on sweatshops and social justice

October 19, 2009

Lacey, Washington – On Thursday, October 22 at 4 p.m., nationally renowned educator and social justice speaker Jim Keady will discuss “Behind the Swoosh: Sweatshops and Social Justice” in the Trautman Union Building (TUB) at Saint Martin’s University. This interactive, multi-media event includes video footage and a question-answer period. The event is free and open to the public, although seating is limited.

Jim Keady spent one month in an Indonesian slum living with Nike factory workers on $1.25 a day, a typical wage paid to the workers. In his presentation, Keady shares his stories of living with Nike’s factory workers and his decade long effort to end sweatshop Nike abuses. He has traveled the United States with his “Behind the Swoosh” lecture to more than 300 campuses, educating tens of thousands of students about the issue. Keady has been sought out by members of the U.S. Congress, as well as various university administrators, religious and union leaders and student groups to offer his personal and professional experience and critiques on the issues of sweatshops, globalization and social justice. He was formerly a soccer coach with the St. John’s University Red Storm, the NCAA “Division One” National Champions, when he stood up against Nike and their sweatshops and lost his job for doing so. Since then, he has made ending sweatshop labor his life mission.

This event is sponsored by Saint Martin’s University’s PROS (PRogramming Options Specialists). PROS is a part of the university’s Office of Campus Life, which strives to offer a variety of dynamic and innovating programming to enhance students’ collegiate experience.

For more information about this concert and other Campus Life PROS events, contact Tim McClain at 360-486-8875 or tmcclain@stmartin.edu. For more information about Jim Keady, visit http://www.ciaspeakers.com/pages/behindswoosh.html.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College, and Tacoma Community College.

For additional information:

Genevieve Canceko Chan
Director of Communications & Marketing
360-438-4332
gchan@stmartin.edu
www.stmartin.edu