Students for Sweat-Free Sweatshirts - University of Wisconsin students protest sweatshops and the use of the college logo on sports clothing - Brief Article

Progressive, The, April, 1999 by Jennie Capellaro

For several days in February, a statue of Abe Lincoln on the University of Wisconsin campus held a papier mache sewing machine emblazoned with a dripping "W." The occasion for this impromptu art project was a student action protesting the connection between sweatshop labor and the use of the University of Wisconsin logo on sports apparel.

A five-day sit-in, organized by the Madison Anti-Sweatshop Coalition, helped persuade Chancellor David Ward not to sign a proposed apparel-industry code of conduct that, the protesters complained, "had no teeth."

Clothing that displays college logos makes up between 2 and 3 percent of the entire apparel market. For schools, it's a lucrative deal. A University of Wisconsin baseball cap retails for $19.95. The University of Wisconsin earns $1.50 per hat sold, while the worker in the Dominican Republic who made it earns eight cents, according to the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees.

"The U.W. sells its right to use its logo. That's where our leverage lies," says sociology graduate student Thomas Wheatley.

The proposed code would affect clothing manufacturers connected to the Collegiate Licensing Corporation, a trademark company that acts as a middleman for Nike, Champion, Reebok, and more than 180 universities. It would require factories that produce clothing bearing university logos to pay workers the minimum wage according to the "local law or the local prevailing industry wage," limit hours of work to no more than sixty per week, and ban child labor, slave labor, discrimination, and union busting.

The students felt that the code left out several important details. They demanded disclosure of factory locations so that human-rights organizations can monitor working conditions. Noting that women make up the majority of workers in these factories, they also asked for specific language ensuring women's rights. Finally, they insisted that the code require a living wage for all workers who produce clothing bearing the university logo.

For five days, sleeping bags, newspapers, and pizza boxes covered the foyer of Bascom Hall, which houses the University of Wisconsin's administrative offices. Area restaurants, co-ops, and local labor unions donated food. Nightly teach-ins eased the tedium of the ninety-seven-hour protest. The numbers increased daily, with 120 students joining in by the fourth night. The next afternoon, Ward met with students and signed a document of mutually agreed-upon language, including provisions for disclosure, women's rights, and a living wage.

Students at other universities staged actions on their campuses. A February sit-in at Duke University lasted thirty-one hours, and resulted in an administrative commitment to demand full disclosure of the factory locations of collegiate clothing manufacturers within a year.

Other colleges with recent anti-sweatshop actions include Arizona, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Princeton, and Yale.

"We've got the strongest agreement in the country here at U.W.," Eric Brakken, chair of the U.W. student government, says proudly. "What we signed is now what other universities are demanding."

For more information, contact Lorrie Bradley at United Students Against Sweatshops, 102 Kenan Hall, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, (919) 914-2188. Or contact Thomas Wheatley, Madison Anti-Sweatshop Coalition, 511 Memorial Union, 800 Langdon Street, Madison, WI 53706, (608) 265-4276.