UH anti-sweatshop activists raise awareness : Houston Indymedia

On Wednesday morning November 7 a group of anonymous University of Houston students affiliated with the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) dropped a banner off an awning of the Welcome Center. SLAP is trying to call attention to the University's use of sweatshop labor to produce UH logo apparel. They remain anonymous to avoid disciplinary actions faced by other UH activists like the Students for Fair Trade.

There is a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMzbsh6Bc4. The student newspaper wrote and article about the event here: http://media.http://www.thedailycougar.com/media/storage/paper1206/news/2007/11/08/News/Group.Posts.Unsanctioned.Banner-3087030.shtml

The banner read "Rudley stop using sweatshop labor. Sign the DSP." John Rudley is the interim president and and chancellor of the University of Houston. The DSP acronym refers to the Designated Supplier Program . The Designated Suppliers Program is a procurement process proposed by the Worker’s Rights Consortium and the United Students Against Sweatshops. 38 Universities have signed on to the DSP.

The Workers Rights Consortium is ("WRC ")is a non-profit organization created by college and university administrations, students and labor rights experts.

The WRC's purpose is to assist in the enforcement of manufacturing Codes of Conduct adopted by colleges and universities; these Codes are designed to ensure that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers. See http://www.workersrights.org/ for more info.

There is also a new labor rights group on campus called UH Students Against Sweatshops ("UH SAS") who are affiliated of the national organization the United Students Against Sweatshops ("USAS"). You can check out the UH groups activities on their blog:
http://uhstudentsagainstsweatshops.wordpress.com/ and find out more about USAS here: http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/.

So far Rudley and other crooked U of H administrators have been very dismissive of the student activists concern for the working conditions UH apparel workers. The University refuses to release the locations of the factories it sources its apparel from. The University of Houston is run like a corporation instead of the tax payer funded public institution it is. Therefore administrators do not want students to have any say in how any of its policies.

Both UH SLAP and UH SAS need the help and support of the community to do their work so please keep your eyes on the Houston Peace and Justice Center's calendar or their blog for events they host and go out and show some support. or contact UH SAS to see how you can get involved.