L-I: Yale students against sweatshops.

["Macdonald Stainsby" <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Spoiled kids from Yale? Holy geez, we may be onto something....

Macdonald

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Thursday 20th April 2000 9.30pm gmt

Yale students demonstrate to end sweatshops

By Joelle Fishman
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - It's been cold and rainy, even some snow, but Yale
Students Against Sweatshops continue their 24-hour shift changes at a
shanty built in front of Woodbridge Hall on April 3. The students are part
of a national movement to stop sportswear with college insignias from
being produced in sweatshop conditions around the world. They are
demanding that Yale join 21 other universities around the country in
forming the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) to improve apparel industry
conditions.
Currently, Yale is part of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which is
controlled by the companies in the industry who monitor themselves. The
sweatshop movement, which has spread from campus to campus like
wildfire, expresses this generation's anger at the destruction of quality of
life and the extreme wealth gap created by global corporations. This
movement has become part of the new, broad coalition of labor,
community, farmers, students and faith-based communities all over the
United States.
At Yale, the unions of service and clerical workers and teaching assistants
have added their voices to the student demand. The presidents of Hotel
Employees and Restaurant Employees Locals 34,35 and GESO spoke out at
the April 3 rally, drawing connections between the struggle for worker
rights from the sweatshops to the universities.
Bob Proto, Local 35 president and president of the Greater New Haven
Central Labor Council, commended the students for their solidarity efforts,
and pledged full support. While the students recognize that most garments
are made in sweatshop conditions, they have focused their attentions on
solidarity with workers who produce Yale clothing. They explain that since
Yale University licenses its name to companies who produce Yale apparel,
the University can include requirements about the conditions under which
Yale clothing is made in licensing agreements.
They want the monitoring agency to be the Workers Rights
Consortium."The WRC is a fledgling organization and needs the support of
major universities like Yale," says an open letter to President Richard
Levin
in response to his refusal to join the consortium. "WRC is based on
communication with workers, transparency, lack of company participation,
a strong code of conduct, and...
http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/yale/yale.html


_______
Macdonald Stainsby
-----
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