After meeting with workers and leadership of UNITE local 1501, marchers decided to show their support for the more than 6,450 workers fired from the Pillowtex plant in Kannapolis, NC. Pillowtex is a casualty of NAFTA. Pillowtex was forced into bankruptcy because it was unable to compete with low wage labor in poor countries. The town of Kanapolis has been devestated by the plant closure and the union has been forced to hold school supply and food drives for the workers. Some of employees were making $40,000 a year and now might lose their houses, retirement funds, and all hope of a decent future.

To call attention to this catastrophe, the marchers erected NAFTAville, a tent city, on the grounds of the abandoned factory. The police threatened to arrest the whole group and turn them over to the Department of Human Services. Some of the marchers led the children to a safe place and Cheri, Maria, Laiesha and Todd were arrested after they refused to move from the spot. They were bailed out later that day, and will stand trial in Kannapolis on October 17th.

Cheri Honkala, national spokesperson for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights campaign, wrote a letter to UNITE the day after her arrest. It was accompanied by a small donation.

August 16th, 2003
Dear UNITE,

We write this letter on behalf of the Pillowtex workers who have lost their jobs ... We would be honored if some of the Pillowtex workers could lead our march into Washington, D.C. on August 23rd. Enclosed is a small donation from a group of poor and homeless people from around the country. We know your pains and we are experiencing them now too. Together we can fight for a better America free from the economic human rights abuses caused by NAFTA and the current administration.

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The march route was changed to include Kannapolis because marchers decided that the situation there cried out for action. Just as King felt he could not lead a poor people's march without stopping in Memphis at the sanitation workers' strike, the new Poor People's Campaign had to address largest downsizing in the South. This time, though, workers aren't striking for better conditions -- they are in dire need of assistance after losing their jobs.

On the 16th, marchers held a press conference outside of Representative Hayes' office. Rep. Hayes, a republican from North Carolina, cast the deciding vote to give Bush fast-track authority to negotiate the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas). This agreement, like NAFTA before it, will destroy millions of American jobs and allow for the exploitation of workers in the third world. The Poor People's Campaign is indicting him as a human rights violator for putting corporate profits over people.

To make your voice heard in opposition to the FTAA, download this ballot from the AFL-CIO and vote to stop it in their people's referendum.