Students call for better code supporting labor

Not one Nike shoe could be seen on the feet of 70 participants in an anti-sweatshop rally, which moved from the Diag then south on State Street to Weidenbach Hall yesterday.

The Collegiate Licensing Corporation, which includes the University and 159 other schools, recently drafted a new code of conduct to improve international conditions of factory workers, said LSA junior Joe Sexauer, a member of Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality.

The code is scheduled to be finalized Feb. 1, Sexauer said.

The new code lacks certain attributes that SOLE and similar organizations would like to see added, Sexauer said.

PETER BAKER/Special to the Daily Keith Molin, a member of the University's task force examining the new Collegiate Licensing Corporation code, speaks yesterday to members of Students Organizing for Labor Economic Equality outside of Weidenbach Hall.

"We want to show the (University) administration that they have our support to put a living wage and public disclosure in the CLC's manufactured code of conduct, which will be a good first step in ending sweatshops," Sexauer said.

The Michigan Student Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday night to endorse SOLE's revised code.

At 3 p.m. on the Diag yesterday, members of SOLE began speaking about their goal of ending what they called sweatshop labor and encouraged others to aid in their efforts.

"Students and faculty, if you're appalled that your clothing is being made in sweatshops, please come and join us in the rally," said Andy Cornell, an LSA junior and SOLE member using a megaphone to address the crowd.

SOLE is the campus branch of the national organization, United Students Against Sweatshops.

"We're trying to help and support the University's effort to curb sweatshop labor," Sexauer said. "It's an industry-wide problem"

By 3:15 p.m., members of the rally began to march toward Athletic Department offices at Weidenbach located on Hoover Avenue and State Street.

During the walk, rallyers shouted their messages on megaphones while drivers honked their cars horns and passers-by voiced their opinions.

Several SOLE members shouted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, sweatshop labor's gotta go!"

An Arbor Street resident yelled to the protestors from the couch on his porch, "Nobody cares, nobody cares, nobody cares!"

Upon their arrival at Weidenbach, rallyers shouted for University Athletic Director Tom Goss and Keith Molin, a member of the University's task force examining the new CLC code.

"Goss, Molin; their lives are in your hands," rally members chanted.

Shortly after the chanting began, Molin emerged from the building and was presented with the SOLE and MSA-approved revised code by rally participants.

"The ultimate objective is not to write a code, but to eliminate sweatshops," Molin said. "I am reasonably confident that the final code will lead to disclosure of the sweatshops."

After speaking with Molin, philosophy Prof. Eric Lormand said "the resolution is dead on arrival in Keith Molin's hands.

"He said he won't even ask for a living wage," Lormand said. "And Michigan won't ask for its own code."

Molin also commended the students for their concern.

"This kind of passion took us from no code three years ago to where we are today," Molin said.

In recognition of a National Day of Action yesterday, groups at 29 other universities across the nation also confronted their administration departments, Sexauer said.

"This has been an issue at Harvard, too," Harvard sophomore Mary Rude said. "I know that the Harvard administration has been pretty responsive."

Several individuals, including Molin, members of SOLE, and Nike spokesperson Vada Manager said the issue does not only pertain to one company or one type of apparel.

Last year, Nike President Phil Knight laid out several steps for satisfactory worker conditions across the globe, Manager said.

"Our position is one of action," Manager said. "You won't find other competitors doing what we're doing."

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