Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly is a production of THIRTEEN for WNET. Visit www.pbs.org/religionandethics for additional information. Show #1722 will be fed over PBS at 5:00 p.m. EST on January 31 (check local listings).
Living Wages in the Overseas Garment Industry – The world’s garment industry is so competitive, factory owners typically say they cannot afford to pay their workers anything above the usually pitiful third-world countries’ minimum wage. But one successful American garment maker is conducting what could be an expensive experiment. He is betting that if his customers know the Dominican Republic workers who make his sportswear are well paid, they will continue to buy his line, even if it ends up costing more. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from the Dominican Republic and the University of Notre Dame.
Kentucky Nuns Versus the Bluegrass Pipeline – When an energy company wanted to build an underground pipeline through central Kentucky to help carry toxic by-products of fracking to the Gulf coast, an order of aging Catholic nuns, the Sisters of Loretto, fought back. The nuns feared a pipeline accident could poison the land they have farmed for 200 years, so – as Judy Valente reports — the Sisters mounted a vigorous public campaign to divert it. And they succeeded.
