Communist Web Thursday 20th April 2000 9.30pm gmt Yale students demonstrate to end sweatshops By Joelle Fishman NEW HAVEN, Conn. - It's been cold and rainy, even some snow, but Yale Students Against Sweatshops continue their 24-hour shift changes at a shanty built in front of Woodbridge Hall on April 3. The students are part of a national movement to stop sportswear with college insignias from being produced in sweatshop conditions around the world. They are demanding that Yale join 21 other universities around the country in forming the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) to improve apparel industry conditions. Currently, Yale is part of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which is controlled by the companies in the industry who monitor themselves. The sweatshop movement, which has spread from campus to campus like wildfire, expresses this generation's anger at the destruction of quality of life and the extreme wealth gap created by global corporations. This movement has become part of the new, broad coalition of labor, community, farmers, students and faith-based communities all over the United States. At Yale, the unions of service and clerical workers and teaching assistants have added their voices to the student demand. The presidents of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Locals 34,35 and GESO spoke out at the April 3 rally, drawing connections between the struggle for worker rights from the sweatshops to the universities. Bob Proto, Local 35 president and president of the Greater New Haven Central Labor Council, commended the students for their solidarity efforts, and pledged full support. While the students recognize that most garments are made in sweatshop conditions, they have focused their attentions on solidarity with workers who produce Yale clothing. They explain that since Yale University licenses its name to companies who produce Yale apparel, the University can include requirements about the conditions under which Yale clothing is made in licensing agreements. They want the monitoring agency to be the Workers Rights Consortium."The WRC is a fledgling organization and needs the support of major universities like Yale," says an open letter to President Richard Levin in response to his refusal to join the consortium. "WRC is based on communication with workers, transparency, lack of company participation, a strong code of conduct, and... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/yale/yale.html
