End Slavery Campaign Responds to Prison Job Losses
For years, hundreds of Minnesotans folded life-sized Disney balloons for just 50 cents per hour in our state prisons.
In December, after documentation efforts led by currently and formerly incarcerated workers, the End Slavery in Minnesota campaign publicly demanded that Disney renegotiate its contract with Anagram to ensure fair wages for incarcerated workers and sign on to support the End Slavery in Minnesota campaign, in line with their company’s Modern Slavery Statement.
Instead, Disney did not respond to our campaign and pulled out of Minnesota prisons entirely. This resulted in a massive loss of work for incarcerated folks across the state. Anagram reduced hours for 600 incarcerated workers and completely eliminated 160 jobs at the Rush City facility.
We know how devastating this loss is for workers and their families. Especially for those without outside support, the small amount of money earned from working — even $80 per month — is essential to buying basic needs, like tampons and toothpaste, at inflated commissary prices.
To be clear: Our campaign does NOT intend to reduce jobs in our prisons but ensure more jobs, at better pay, with better conditions, that set workers and communities up to succeed.
We will continue to demand that:
The Department of Corrections stop confining people to their cells for up to 22.5 hours per day if they don’t have a job — especially in facilities like Rush City where there are so few jobs in the first place
Private corporations, like Disney and Anagram, to raise their rates to at least minimum wage and to maximize actually rehabilitative employment opportunities in our prisons
The DOC to take a smaller cut of the Anagram contract to give workers a raise, so ethical corporations can bring more jobs to our prisons knowing they aren’t participating in slave labor
To realize these demands, we need YOUR voice, too. Here are two important steps you can take today:
Take action for hundreds of workers at Rush City prison who lost their jobs and are now being confined to their cells because they can’t get jobs that don’t exist. Take action here!
Join us at our Day on the Hill to End Slavery on May 5 to learn more about these issues and tell our elected representatives in the Legislature to pass critical laws that would end slavery in our Constitution and ensure incarcerated workers earn at least minimum wage and have employee rights. RSVP here!