Earlier this month, Pillowtex, Inc., a manufacturer of linen and bedding products, filed for bankruptcy, leaving more than 6,500 workers without jobs throughout the country and especially in the south.

Marchers are setting up a tent city, "NAFTAville," on the grounds of the abandoned factory. Click here to read a press release from the event.

"Pillowtex has become NAFTAville," said Cheri Honkala, national spokesperson for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, "because lawmakers and corporations continue to impose trade agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA. These people have lost their jobs, their healthcare, everything, because of corporate greed."

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It closed the doors of its plant in Kannapolis, NC on 4,600 unionized workers. Employees had no forewarning; they reported to work one morning to find their jobs gone forever. They still have not received pay for their final two weeks of work, and their health insurance policies have been discontinued.

The families of these 4,600 workers are now trying to figure out how they will buy school supplies for the coming semester. By placing American workers in competition with low-wage, exploited labor in other countries, free trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA and the FTAA are forcing more and more families like these into poverty.

In response to the glaring injustice of this situation, the Poor People's March will stop in Kannappolis and erect a NAFTA-ville tent city on the grounds of the abandoned Pillowtex factory. Poor and homeless families from across the nation will unite with those who are losing their jobs to NAFTA, because we too are suffering the economic human rights violations caused by policies such as NAFTA and FTAA. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign will continue to resist trade agreements that allow international corporations freedom to mistreat workers and destroy communities both the United States and around the world.

Este mes, Pillowtex Inc., una corporacion que produce telas, se cerro, dejando subitamente a mas de 6,500 trabajadores sin trabajo. Una de las fabricas que abandonaron esta ubicada en la comunidad de Kannappolis, en el estado de North Carolina.

En respuesta a esta injusticia grave, la Marcha de los Pobres se parara en Kannappolis y construira un campamento llamado "NAFTA-ville," (la Cuidad del TLC Norteamericana) en frente de la fabrica abandonada de Pillowtex. [english press-release].

Esta fabrica empleaba a 4,600 trabajadores sindicalizados. La compaņia dejo sin trabajo a todos esos 4,600 empleados, sin ningun aviso, despues de 25 aņos de trabajo; los trabajadores llegaron un dia para trabajar y la fabrica habia cerrado por siempre. Todavia no han recibido su pago por las ultimas dos semanas de trabajo, y su les ha quitado la segurancia de salud.

Las familias de estas 4,600 trabajadores no saben como van a comprar los materiales por la escuela por sus hijos este semestre que viene. Tratados de libre comercio como el TLC norteamericano, el TLC centroamericano y el ALCA esta esforzando a millones de familias a la pobreza profunda, por ponerlas en competicion con trabajadores explotados en otros paises.

Las familias pobres y sin techo de todas partes del pais se uniran con los que estan perdiendo sus trabajos como resultado del TLCAN, porque nosotros tambien estamos sufriendo las violaciones a los derechos humanos economicos causados por politicas como el TLCAN y el ALCA. La Campaņa de los Pobres por los Derechos Humanos Economicos seguira resistiendo los acuerdos de libre comercio que les dan a las corporaciones internacionales la libertad para maltratar a los trabajadores y para destruir las comunidades en los Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo.