University of Wisconsin merchandise is made in sweatshops. What does this mean?
Workers in the factories that make UW caps, hats and sweatshirts are routinely denied their basic human rights. They are forced to work 60- to 70-hour weeks, sometimes 24-hour shifts. They are physically and verbally abused. They are groped and sexually harassed by their supervisors. They are paid poverty wages.
The extent to which health and safety regulations are routinely violated in these factories is illustrated by a story UW alumnus David Alvarado tells about a factory he visited in Mexico. The workers there are forced to cut huge stacks of fabric in order to finish orders on time. The machines used to cut this fabric are so sharp that the workers cannot even feel it if their fingers are cut off-they only can tell from the spot of blood on the fabric.
Most importantly, when the workers that make UW merchandise try to organize unions to demand better pay or when they unite and demand respect, their factory shuts down and moves down the street or to another, more repressive country. UW apparel workers overseas, just like workers in the United States, feel that if they exercise their human right to free association and try to organize a union their employer will cut and run to another country.
The University of Wisconsin tradition of shared governance has broken down. The idea that the university administration is accountable to staff, students and faculty no longer holds any water. Shared governance committees are routinely ignored by the university administration. Nowhere is this more obvious than Chancellor Wiley's treatment of the Labor and Licensing Policy Committee, the shared governance committee that deals with the university's policy towards sweatshops.
The committee worked very hard to arrive at recommendations to Chancellor Wiley that would have made this university a leader in the fight against sweatshops. If these recommendations had been followed, students could feel confident that our university was taking the firmest possible stance in support of workers worldwide. Chancellor Wiley undermined this effort and never even engaged the committee in dialogue regarding his opinions on these recommendations. He wrote a letter to the committee stating that there was a \growing misunderstanding of the committee's agreed purview and function."" Basically, he said he is the boss, and he gets his way.
For this reason, the members of the Student Labor Action Coalition, along with our close staff and faculty allies who sit on this committee, resigned. We feel it is clear that Chancellor Wiley and his close friends in the apparel industry view the committee as nothing more than a smoke screen to cover the routine human rights abuses in the sweatshops that produce UW apparel.
In the staff opinion, ""LLC undermines its own cause,"" (3-30-05)The editors of the Cardinal felt that this was not a good decision, perhaps because they felt that if the committee dissolved, there would be no watchdog to make sure UW apparel is made in an ethical manner. We can assure them and assure Chancellor Wiley that we are prepared to fight as long as it takes to make sure UW clothes are not made in sweatshops.
SLAC is preparing to build coalitions with other groups, to organize and educate the university and wider community about these sweatshop conditions. We plan to hold educational events and take direct action against the apathy of the Administration on these issues. Chancellor Wiley has forced us to take this campaign off the committee and into the streets.
opinion@dailycardinal.com.
