Members of the Student Labor Action Coalition gathered on Bascom Hill Friday for a “die-in” to protest UW-Madison’s affiliation with JanSport.
The protesters lay on the ground for 15 minutes, one minute for every 100 workers killed in garment factories in recent years. Meanwhile, a member of the Teacher Assistants’ Association read some of the 1,500 names of garment workers who were killed as a result of unsafe building conditions in Bangladesh.
The event honored dead garment workers and its attendees demanded that Chancellor Rebecca Blank cut UW-Madison’s apparel contract with JanSport so as to comply with the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.
The accord requires any UW apparel licensees to regularly inspect factory conditions and ensure worker safety.
While JanSport does not have factories in Bangladesh, its parent organization VF Corporation does have subsidiaries producing in Bangladesh and has not signed the agreement.
“Because JanSport is owned by VF, the University of Wisconsin giving JanSport money gives that money eventually to VF,” SLAC member Melanie Meyer said. “The university is saying that because JanSport doesn’t directly produce out of Bangladesh, they’re not willing to cut the contract.”
Fifteen other universities have cut their contract with JanSport, according to fliers distributed at the event.
Friday’s protest was not the first time SLAC has organized to call on Blank to cut the university’s contract with JanSport, and the group maintains the urgency of the situation.
“No more innocent blood can be spilled for the sake of UW-Madison apparel,” Charity Schmidt, a member of the Teacher’s Assistant Association, said in a speech during the demonstration.
