SEARCH
Purdue Students End Hunger Strike, Vow to Keep Fighting for Justice |
One day after Purdue University President Martin Jischke rejected appeals by students on a hunger strike to adopt tough standards for producing college logo apparel, the students picked up strong support from the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) to continue the fight.
Ten students, members of United Students Against Sweatshops who were on the hunger strike, ended their fast today. Originally, 15 students were on the strike, but five stopped to preserve their health. The hunger strike lasted 27 days.
The students are demanding that Purdue adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), which is sponsored by the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring agency, and supported by about 30 colleges and universities.
If Purdue had joined the DSP, it would ensure that apparel with the college’s logo is made in factories where workers are free to join a union and can bargain toward a living wage.
At a press conference today, AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff, Indiana AFL-CIO President Ken Zeller, Secretary-Treasurer Joe Breedlove and Tim Watters of USW’s Rapid Response team pledged to back the students’ fight to stop sweatshop labor.
Acuff praised the students for sacrificing so much “for human rights, workplace democracy and workers’ rights.”
We thank all of you for your courage, your selflessness, commitment and vision. Your actions represent the best in all of us.
Although Purdue did not adopt the DSP, it is a member of the WRC and has in theory accepted a code of conduct for suppliers. But the students say the code’s enforcement is ineffective without the DSP. Acuff and other union leaders say they and the organizations they represent are committed to do “whatever is needed to make sure Purdue does the right thing.”
On the Purdue Hunger Strike website, the students said Jischke’s decision “blatantly demonstrates that the university has never seriously considered adopting the Designated Suppliers Program.”
It has become obvious that the administration had rejected the idea prior to meeting with the students and only feigned regard for the arguments of the hunger strikers. Nowhere in this statement did President Jischke acknowledge any of the arguments presented by students during the December 6th meeting. Having his mind already made up, Jischke waited 20 days into the hunger strike just to even meet with students so that he can ignore their concerns, and subsequently let them starve for another five days.
The WRC has documented that a good number of the factories in which Purdue apparel is produced are sweatshops. Also, three workers from these factories came to Purdue and spoke about the horrible conditions in those factories. These workers recognized the Purdue logo and confirmed that Purdue apparel was made at their factories.
The hunger strike is the latest in a wave of student actions for worker causes. Last year, students at Georgetown University and the University of Miami waged successful hunger strikes as part of a series of living wage campaigns on campuses in support of janitors, food service workers and other low-wage university staff.
Currently, students on 28 campuses are engaged in living wage campaigns, according to ACORN’s Living Wage Resource Center.
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
