| US: Anti-Sweatshop Student Sit-Ins Continue March 9th, 2000 |
As students celebrated anti-sweatshop victories at Wisconsin, Indiana, and other schools, sit-ins began at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Macalester College in Minneapolis. The Johns Hopkins sit-in entered its tenth day today. In addition to their sweatshop demands, students are demanding a living wage for all campus workers, and justice for workers fired for union organizing at a contractor that works for the university. Macalester students began their sit-in Monday morning to protest their school's membership on the industry-led Fair Labor Association (FLA). "While President McPherson has agreed to sign Macalester on to the Workers Rights Consortium, the monitoring group that over 600 Macalester students, faculty and staff have endorsed, this decision is meaningless if the administration continues to support the FLA," said one of the sit-in students. To date 13 schools have joined the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), which is endorsed by United Students Against Sweatshops, UNITE, and human rights groups. Meanwhile, students across the country are protesting their universities' membership in the Fair Labor Association. Yale Students Against Sweatshops held a 500-person rally against the FLA, while UNC students took advantage of the warm weather to shed their clothes in a rally themed: "I'd Rather Go Naked than Wear Clothes From a Sweatshop," also to protest the FLA. Links to student-run sites and articles:
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