LEWISTON – A touring group of women who worked in sweatshops producing goods for Wal-Mart stores will present a panel discussion at Bates College at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Keck Classroom (G52) in Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road.

The event is open to the public at no cost. Sponsored by the New World Coalition, a Bates student group advocating for social justice, the speaking tour was organized by the International Labor Rights Fund.

It is part of a campaign to hold Wal-Mart accountable for its use of sweatshop labor, said event organizer Erin Reed, a sophomore from Pembroke, Mass.

For more information, people can visit the International Labor Rights Fund Web site, www.laborrights.org or call (207) 777-7582.

The panel speakers are from the Philippines, Nicaragua and Colombia.

They have worked in sweatshops that produce goods for No Boundaries, White Stag and Faded Glory Jeans to be sold in Wal-Mart stores, as well as at flower plantations owned by Dole, which sells nearly all its flowers at Wal-Mart stores, according to the organizers.

The Labor Rights Fund Web site states that factories that supply Wal-Mart have been associated with violations of overtime, minimum wage, health care and maternity leave laws.

“When the New World Coalition showed the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price’ this fall, hundreds of people became aware of how powerful Wal-Mart is,” Reed says. “This panel will give a face and a voice to the people who have suffered as a result.”

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