Today's Port Protest is Part of National Effort

A Thursday protest planned for outside the Wando Shipping Terminal seeks to bring awareness to the plight of factory workers in developing nations, according to organizers.

Workers rights and labor groups are leading the local protest, which falls on the heels of a similar "Block the Boat" demonstration outside the Port of Newark.

Protesters are following the Maersk Carolina, a container ship moving clothing items reportedly sewn at a Bangladeshi factory where 112 workers died in late November.

Local protesters say they want to call attention to the plight of those workers, who work for pennies and hour, often in rough conditions, producing goods that undercut America's manufacturing sector.

"The clothing, made for 28 cents an hour before the fire, is bound for Walmart and other retailers," said William Hamilton, a Mount Pleasant lawyer who's leading the local protest effort.

"Offshoring to factories like those in Bangladesh has devastated the South Carolina textile industry, eliminating 93,000 jobs in this state between 1990 and 2005 and destroying entire towns," he wrote in a blog this week.

The Tazreen factory operators had expanded the facility without government approval and had not provided adequate fire exits, according to media reports. More than 500 Bangladeshi factory workers have died in fires since 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Organizers of Thursday's demonstration claim the garments on board the Carolina are bound for Walmart and Sam's Club stores. They want the retailer to agree not to sell the items.

“The picket will be a legal and peaceful call for these garments not to be unloaded in Charleston until Walmart agrees to donate the clothing to the needy and agrees to compensate the survivors and families for their loss," according to a message distributed to supporters by the S.C. Progressive Network.

In Charleston, demonstrators plan to form a chain of 112 foreign-made garments along Long Point Road leading into the shipping terminal. Organizers have alerted police and the port of the planned demonstration.

The ship is scheduled to arrive Thursday morning, according to Port of Charleston records. Protesters plan to assemble at 7 a.m. The organizers have set up a Facebook page to coordinate the protest.