Five years ago, universities throughout the country began adopting anti-sweatshop codes of conduct for university apparel. Since that time, we have seen codes of conduct used successfully to support workers' efforts to achieve positive change in individual factories. We are very proud of these achievements. But it is also true that even in factories in which there have been significant gains, these gains have been sharply limited and are under constant threat due to the destructive pressures of the apparel industry, and that the majority of university apparel continues to be made in factories that violate workers' rights. Workers producing university garments continue to endure abusive treatment, excessive hours, wages that are insufficient to meet basic needs, and illegal repression when they organize for improvements.
In order to make the principles behind our codes of conduct a reality, we believe our universities need to strengthen our policies and set a higher standard. USAS has launched a new campaign to get university apparel to be produced in a set of sweat-free designated factories. Each of these factories would be required to have a legitimate labor union, or another representative employee body, so that workers can have a voice at work. Each factory will be required to pay workers a living wage, as negotiated by worker representatives. And university licensees will be required to order products at prices and in sufficient quantities to allow the factories to pay a living wage and provide secure employment.

PRESS RELEASE

April 12, 2006

Shortly after midnight, ten students engaged in a peaceful sit-in in the office of Chancellor France Cordova since 12:15 that afternoon were arrested and escorted out of the building. These students, acting in conjunction with students at UC Berkeley, where 18 students were arrested for participating in a similar action in the office of their chancellor earlier in the day, had stated that they would not leave the Office of the Chancellor until the University of California adopted a proposal aimed at ensuring that university apparel and uniforms are produced in factories in which workers are represented by a democratic union and earn a living wage.
Told for years that there was no real alternative to the use of sweatshops, students and labor academics, in consultation with garment workers all over the world, this year unveiled the Designated Suppliers Program. If they signed on to the DSP, colleges and universities would require licensees such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and Champion to exclusively produce collegiate apparel at sweat-free factories. United Students Against Sweatshops defines sweat-free as those factories in which workers right to organize is respected, basic safety standards are met, and workers earn enough to support their families.
One of the leaders of the outside protests that, at their peek, saw more than three hundred students marching in a circle around the administration building, said "By requiring Nike, Adidas, and Champion to buy their goods from union factories, the new national movement will address the cruelty of the global garment industry the best and only way we know how: by allowing empowered workers to exercise control over their own workplaces." Students at UC Riverside, in conjunction with students at UC schools across the state, will hold a rally today, at noon, in front of their universitys administration building to protest the universitys arrest of peaceful demonstrators and to demand that the University of California immediately adopt the DSP.
To date, eleven universities have already signed onto the Designated Suppliers Program - including University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indiana University, Duke University, Georgetown University, University of Connecticut, Syracuse University, Cornell University, the University of Maine-Farmington, Smith College, Hamilton College, and Santa Clara University.
According to the Designated Suppliers Program, universities would be required to source apparel from factories which have demonstrated respect for workers associational rights, as evidenced by the presence of a legitimate, active representative body. The brands would additionally be required to pay increased price to supplier factories in order to enable workers to negotiate a living wage. The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) an independent monitoring organization with 144 college and university affiliates in the United States and Canada will enforce and monitor this policy.