Media Coverage : "The University and Fair Trade Conference"
Copy of article from the Herald Times, www.heraldtimesonline.com
Student group protests IU policies for logo contracting
Activists pressure universities to do business only with 'fair trade' companies
by Steve Hinnefeld
331-4374 | shinnefeld@heraldt.com
September 30, 2005
Student anti-sweatshop activists called on Indiana University Thursday to ensure its licensed apparel is made only in factories that pay workers a living wage and let them join unions.
"The simple fact is, IU apparel is still made in sweatshops," said Philip Shelton of No Sweat!, a student group.
Two dozen students held signs and chanted slogans in a rally at the Sample Gates, then marched to IU President Adam Herbert's office to present their demands. The effort is part of a national campaign launched this week by United Students Against Sweatshops to involve universities in pressing for better conditions in Third-World factories where college T-shirts, caps and other items are made.
Under the proposal, universities would do business only with factories that are certified to pay fair wages and permit unions. Students at 43 universities, including Purdue, Michigan, Illinois, Duke and Yale, are involved in the campaign.
Jenny McDaniel, vice president of licensing and trademarks with the IU Research and Technology Corp., said she expected the university's Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee will consider the plan. It reports to Herbert.
Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, which monitors fair trade for universities, said the student proposal makes sense.
"If universities want to reach the goals they've set forth … this is what it's going to take to get them there," said Nova. He was at IU for a conference on "Fair Trade and the University" sponsored by the IU advisory committee.
Five years ago, Indiana University joined other schools in the Worker Rights Consortium and adopted a code of conduct for companies that make IU-licensed apparel.
Activists said that approach led to some progress, but not enough. Pressure to hold down costs and volatility in the market, they said, produces a "race to the bottom" with wages kept low and pro-union workers harassed or fired. Factories that comply with the code lose orders and close.
Under the proposal by IU No Sweat! and United Students Against Sweatshops, the Worker Rights Consortium would work with local experts to determine which factories pay a living wage, provide decent working conditions and allow union organizing.
Apparel companies would have six months to comply. Then universities would have to have 25 percent of their licensed apparel made in complying factories in the first year, 50 percent the second year and 75 percent the third year.
Nova said the result would be a small number of factories specializing in the college market but providing stable jobs with decent pay in such countries as El Salvador, Indonesia and Lesotho.
He said the approach would have little impact on the retail price of IU-logo clothing. He cited a men's knit shirt that sells for $44 - its labor cost is just 69 cents, so doubling wages would increase the price to $44.69. "That's a very small price to pay for what would be an extraordinary degree of change," he said.
An IU conference on "The University and Fair Trade" concludes today.
Panel discussions include:
• 9:30-11:30 a.m., "The University's Current Role in Fair Trade," with licensing officials from IU, Duke and Notre Dame; Ballantine Hall 004.
• 1-3 p.m., "The University's Future Role in Fair Trade," IU and Purdue student activists and Scott Nova, director of the Worker Rights Consortium; Woodburn Hall 007.