Northwestern Students Against Sweatshops dressed in black and wore masks Wednesday in front of Norris University Center to represent the unseen faces of sweatshop workers, whom organizers said produce university apparel.
NSAS members also distributed educational pamphlets and displayed sewing machines to celebrate National Student Labor Action Day, which falls a day before the one-year anniversary of NSAS’ first organizational meeting.
Since forming, NSAS workers have staged protests, traveled to conferences, met with administrators, circulated petitions and produced a 43-page research report – all in the name of improving workers’ rights.
NSAS began last April as an offshoot of the Peace Project, a coalition of student activist groups dedicated to improving human rights. Organizers said they aimed to educate students and improve working conditions for sweatshop laborers.
“The beginning of the campaign was very exciting right from the start,” NSAS co-founder Neel Ahuja said. “We had huge numbers of people for an activist group on campus.”
The founders’ immediate goal was to persuade NU to join the Workers Rights Consortium, a recently founded group that works to protect labor rights for workers who produce university apparel.
NU was at that time – and still is – a member of the Fair Labor Association, a group of universities, corporations and private groups that accredit apparel-making factories for non-sweatshop conditions.
In the FLA, corporations are actively involved in the factory-monitoring process and are not obligated to provide a living wage. Administrators and NSAS have clashed over these two issues.
In an effort to persuade NU administrators to sign on with the WRC, NSAS presented a student petition to the university last spring with more than 3,600 signatures. They also helped organize a Faculty Against Sweatshops group of about 60 faculty members.
“They’ve been very impressive in respect to what they’ve done and their commitment to workers issues,” said Scott Durham, FAS member and associate professor of French.
NSAS members also have repeatedly met with administrators and university trustees over the past year to discuss either switching membership into the WRC or participating in both groups concurrently.
Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance, said: “They (NSAS) are very well-informed and feel very fervently about their cause. They’re very respectful of the university position and what I and my colleagues have to say.”
Efforts to convince NU to join the WRC culminated with a 43-page report titled “Recommendations Regarding Labor Rights and the Production of Northwestern Apparel,” which was presented to administrators Jan. 29.
The students presented a well-researched report, but it couldn’t resolve the issue because NU has fundamental policy disagreements with the WRC, which NSAS students don’t have the power to change, Sunshine said.
But NU is not closed to the idea of joining the WRC in the future if WRC changes the problematic issues, he added.
“We’re open to any notion, plan or group that has as its agenda the improvement of the sweatshop situation,” Sunshine said. “As I’ve told the group many times, we’re not wed to the FLA, and we’re not sure they’re the best solution to the sweatshop problem.”
NSAS leaders say one of the main focuses in the future will be to continue lobbying administrators to join the WRC.
“Our main goal to get Northwestern to join the WRC is still unfulfilled,” said Lizzy Gore, a Speech sophomore and NSAS member. “We can’t stress that enough.”
NSAS also will begin a student education campaign during April, Gore said, where NSAS members will present a sweatshop labor awareness program to NU student groups throughout the month.
Kevin Danaher, a labor and environmental activist, will speak tonight on the World Trade Organization and corporate globalization at 8 p.m. in Harris Hall 107.
