Garment workers want oversight
Journal and Courier
By Alison Banks
abanks@journalandcourier.com
About 150 students and supporters gathered in Purdue University’s Stewart Center on Monday night to listen as garment workers told of their experiences with poor working conditions in sweatshops and their pursuit to improve them.
The talk, part of a nationwide college tour featuring workers from abroad, is sponsored by United Students Against Sweatshops and was brought to Purdue by Purdue Organization for Labor and Equality
“Pregnant women are not given protective gear, and we never receive raises,” said Josefina Hernandez Ponce, a worker and union secretary at MEXmode factory in Puebla, Mexico.
“They tried to force us to eat bad food and we refused. That is how the pursuit of a union came about.”
Ponce and fellow garment workers Vladimir Acevedo Andujar of the Dominican Republic and Joaquin Alas of El Salvador communicated with the aid of Spanish interpreters.
“Sweatshop conditions are often characterized by poverty wages, long hours, harassment and child labor,” Jessica Rutter, a national USAS organizer, said.
“It is extremely hard for these workers to try and change things because of disincentives such as being fired or even beaten up.”
USAS has three immediate goals: a code of conduct for factories, a factory disclosure policy that would force brand names to reveal sweatshop locations, and to have universities join Workers Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors working conditions.
Additionally, USAS and POLE want Purdue to adopt New Sweat Free Campus, a campaign that proposes college apparel be made in sweat-free factories.
“Provisions of this campaign will include that colleges and universities only purchasing apparel from union factories,” Rutter said.
Joseph Bennett, Purdue’s vice president for university relations, said that Purdue has not yet decided whether to join the campaign.
“Some universities have committed to the campaign, but as of right now we have not committed due to a few issues we have with the provisions,” he said.
Purdue has joined the Workers Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, which are monitoring working conditions in the factories that produce licensed university apparel.
“We actively support them in the monitoring of the unfair working conditions,” Bennett said.
Purdue has between 400 and 500 licensees, and at least half of them are clothing licensees.
