Campus groups unite for anti-sweatshop pit protest
Online Exclusive
By: Elisabeth Gilbert, Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/20/08 Section: University
Three hours after Students for a Democratic Society staged an anti-war protest, another group of students gathered in the Pit to protest injustice.
Julio Castillo and Manuel Pujols, workers in a Hanesbrands Inc. factory in the Dominican Republic, spoke to about 20 students about their experiences there - experiences they say have included illegal 12-hour workdays with insufficient pay and poor labor conditions.
"The company refuses to comply with what they promised workers over two years ago," Pujols said via a translator.
"We just want a just salary and just treatment, as worker's rights are human rights."
The men alleged that Hanes prevents workers from forming unions, pays them only $240 a month when they were promised $450 and has a workplace environment that includes loud machines and flying cotton fibers that cause hearing and lung problems for workers.
Pujols also said he faced threats from a company official's husband, who threatened to run him over with a car because he was active in trying to unionize.
The presentation was hosted by Student Action with Workers, a UNC student group devoted to workers' rights issues.
It was part of the organization's continued push to convince University officials to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program, a move Chancellor James Moeser declined in August.
Implementing the DSP would require the University to source most of its logo apparel - 75 percent in three years - from supplier factories that it has determined respect employees' rights.
Zack Knorr, international campaigns coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops, said doubling workers' wages through such programs would increase the cost of a $40 UNC-logo shirt by $0.75.
About 40 public and private universities support the program, including Duke University, according to a Worker Rights Consortium Web site.
Moeser stated in August that after two years of deliberation, he ultimately had too many unanswered concerns about the DSP to accept it, particularly how it would operate and whether it would prove effective in improving the labor code situation.
He said the University will explore other means of disassociating itself from sweatshop labor.
But SAW organizer Salma Mirza said she still is frustrated with what she calls UNC officials' lack of response.
"It's just been really tough to try to get the chancellor's ear," she said. "But we're not going to stop."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
Julio Castillo and Manuel Pujols, workers in a Hanesbrands Inc. factory in the Dominican Republic, spoke to about 20 students about their experiences there - experiences they say have included illegal 12-hour workdays with insufficient pay and poor labor conditions.
"The company refuses to comply with what they promised workers over two years ago," Pujols said via a translator.
"We just want a just salary and just treatment, as worker's rights are human rights."
The men alleged that Hanes prevents workers from forming unions, pays them only $240 a month when they were promised $450 and has a workplace environment that includes loud machines and flying cotton fibers that cause hearing and lung problems for workers.
Pujols also said he faced threats from a company official's husband, who threatened to run him over with a car because he was active in trying to unionize.
The presentation was hosted by Student Action with Workers, a UNC student group devoted to workers' rights issues.
It was part of the organization's continued push to convince University officials to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program, a move Chancellor James Moeser declined in August.
Implementing the DSP would require the University to source most of its logo apparel - 75 percent in three years - from supplier factories that it has determined respect employees' rights.
Zack Knorr, international campaigns coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops, said doubling workers' wages through such programs would increase the cost of a $40 UNC-logo shirt by $0.75.
About 40 public and private universities support the program, including Duke University, according to a Worker Rights Consortium Web site.
Moeser stated in August that after two years of deliberation, he ultimately had too many unanswered concerns about the DSP to accept it, particularly how it would operate and whether it would prove effective in improving the labor code situation.
He said the University will explore other means of disassociating itself from sweatshop labor.
But SAW organizer Salma Mirza said she still is frustrated with what she calls UNC officials' lack of response.
"It's just been really tough to try to get the chancellor's ear," she said. "But we're not going to stop."
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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