Student-led anti-sweatshop group speaks out against Nike’s practices
Advocates oppose unfair labor, support Workers
Rights Consortium
BY JACKIE LEATHERMAN
U-WIRE
Submitted February 27, 2001
COLUMBUS, Ohio - "What’s disgusting? Union busting! What’s
outrageous? Sweatshop wages!"
This chant was heard throughout the Ohio State University Oval yesterday
as members of Columbus United Students Against Sweatshops delivered a
letter of discontent to President William "Brit" Kirwan in Bricker
Hall.
"We’ve been talking to the administration since the beginning
of the year, and we don’t feel we’ve been taken seriously,"
said Will Staler, a second-year English major and member of CUSAS.
Kirwan was not unavailable for comment.
CUSAS, formed by a group of students last summer, has actively participated
in informing OSU about the Nike Corporation and its alleged affiliation
with sweatshops, particularly in the Kukdong factory in Puebla, Mexico.
The factory management, according to CUSAS, has employed child labor,
used racial and sexist slurs against employees, and has not paid sufficient
wages to their workers.
According to Nike, the company has used the factory before, but is not
running anything in the factory right now, said Janet Ashe, vice president
of Business and Finance.
A Labor Advisory Committee has formed to advise the president and present
initiatives about the issue.
The first meeting of the committee was Feb. 13.
The committee, in planning since last October, has a diverse membership.
There are six students, an undergraduate, a professional, an athlete
and a student who has been to Mexico and is knowledgeable about the issue.
There are also three faculty members who are experienced with labor laws
and four administrators, Ashe said.
The first meeting consisted of informing the group members and "catching
them up to speed," Ashe said. "We need to give this Labor Advisory
Committee a chance."
CUSAS doesn’t want to see the abolition of business between OSU
and Nike, but it does want to see an unbiased, fair and independent monitoring
firm to oversee factory labor conditions.
CUSAS is in favor of the independent monitoring firm, the Workers Rights
Consortium, which was created for the purpose of monitoring factories,
Staler said.
There is a huge conflict of interest between industry-sponsored monitoring
firms, such as Price Water House, which was employed by Nike to look into
various factories, Staler said.
WRC is able to relate to the Mexican worker’s effectively because
its inspectors their language and conduct thorough interviews, Staler
said.
"WRC gives a complete picture, while others give a limited view
of what’s going on," he said.
"Workers Rights Consortium has the most comprehensive action and
it works with the workers more," said Bret Liebendofer, a freshman
in biology.
Loud chanting, banging on buckets and masks worn by participants grabbed
the attention of parade passers-by.
Geoff Ball, a senior in engineering, said he thinks that it was effective
for the first action that CUSAS took against the administration. CUSAS
will see what the results of the action are and what the Labor Advisory
Committee says before the next action is taken, Ball said.
Eric Kane, a sophomore in English, and one of the original starters of
CUSAS, believes that "one of the strongest qualities of the university
is the ability to start a social change, to influence, to have a voice
and to take a stand."
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