“The Man Who Made Kathie Lee Cry” to present Carleton Convocation on Global Labor and Human Rights

Charles Kernaghan, the executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, will present Carleton College’s weekly convocation address on Friday, Oct. 24 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Widely recognized as having launched the anti-sweatshop movement in the U.S., Kernaghan is best known as “the man who made Kathie Lee cry,” after publicly exposing that 13-year-old children were working in a brutal Honduran sweatshop earning just pennies an hour sewing Kathie Lee Gifford’s clothing line for Wal-Mart. Titled “The Race to the Bottom in the Global Economy,” Kernaghan’s presentation is free and open to the public. Convocations are also recorded and archived online at go.carleton.edu/convo/.

Kernaghan is a passionate crusader against sweatshops, corporate greed and the appalling living and working conditions of impoverished workers around the world. The Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights is dedicated to the promotion and defense of internationally recognized worker rights in the global economy. With a widespread and highly experienced team of international advocates, the Institute responds to appeals for support from exploited workers all over the developing world who produce goods for export to the U.S.

The Institute undertakes in-depth research, public education and popular campaigns that empower the American people to provide support and solidarity to workers struggling to defend their most basic rights. As workers across the developing world fight for their right to work in dignity, in healthy and safe workplaces, to earn a living wage and to organize independent unions, the Institute provides solidarity and international visibility to support their efforts. The Institute also continues to demand that corporations be held legally accountable to respect core internationally recognized worker rights standards. 

The Institute is headquartered in Pittsburgh with regional offices in Dhaka and San Salvador and research/advocacy partnerships in China, Jordan, Central America and South Asia. More at www.globallabourrights.org.

Kernaghan first became involved in the protection of worker rights while on an international peace march through Central America in the mid-80s, when scores of union leaders were being assassinated. He joined the Institute in 1988 and became its director in 1991. 

This event is sponsored by the Irene Whitney Distinguished Visitor Lectureship Fund. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on First and College Streets in Northfield.