Date of publication: March 9, 2005
Source: The Journal
Author: Tom Breen, Journal Inquirer
HARTFORD -- On the same day as the final game of the Big East women's basketball tournament, college students came to the state Capitol to urge the General Assembly to pass a law requiring Connecticut's public colleges to purchase and sell licensed merchandise made in what they called "civilized" workplaces.
Testifying before the Labor and Public Employees Committee, the students wore homemade T-shirts emblazoned with the names of their institutions, saying they would not wear garments manufactured under sweatshop conditions.
The bill, if passed in its current form, would institute some of the toughest standards in the nation for state colleges and other public institutions that purchase clothing or laundry services.
The legislation would require clothing manufacturers contracting with state agencies to provide a "non-poverty wage" to employees, let unions organize, and limit workweeks to 48 hours over six days.
The bill also would require companies to prove that employees are free from harassment or discriminatory policies, along with forced overtime.
To secure compliance, the bill would require each state agency or public college to hire "a competent nonprofit independent monitoring organization" to monitor conditions at the factories. Companies found in violations of the bill's provisions could lose their state contracts.
Although the bill would affect institutions other than colleges, college students have been particularly active in the effort, in part because officially licensed college merchandise can be both a big part of campus life and a significant source of revenue for schools.
"It's not acceptable that our tax dollars and our university dollars are perpetuating the global crisis of sweatshop labor," Central Connecticut State University student Caitlynne Palmieri told lawmakers Tuesday.
Garment workers in many countries often work between 70 and 100 hours a week for as little as 11 cents an hour, which is the prevailing wage in India. Critics describe working conditions as deplorable, with violence and intimidation used to prevent workers from protesting their treatment or forming unions.
Much of the attention in the campaign has focused on the University of Connecticut, which makes more money from its merchandise than other state schools and which already has taken steps to dictate the conditions under which its apparel is made.
UConn made about $1 million in royalties from clothing and other merchandise last year, helped by its high-profile sports programs.
In 2000, the university joined an independent watchdog group called the Workers Rights Consortium to monitor conditions in the factories where licensed merchandise is made.
Sarah Kowaleski, a UConn student active in the current campaign, praised the university bookstore for recently agreeing to create a "sweat-free zone" in its campus stores.
The UConn Co-Op, which is owned by its members and sells textbooks along with university merchandise and other items, has agreed to set up a portion of the store where union-made garments will be sold and literature on sweatshops will be distributed, Kowaleski said.
"I am proud my university has sports teams with such great reputations," Kowaleski said. "We need to use our reputation to set an example for other universities."
Some of the students who spoke Tuesday at the Capitol acknowledged that the bill, which if passed would be the sixth of its kind in the nation, does not provide a solution for all the ills associated with sweatshop labor.
In particular, they noted that there is little in the measure besides the monitoring agencies to ensure compliance from manufacturers, and said that monitoring groups often have a hard time getting concrete information from garment companies.
"I don't think it's the solution to the entire problem," Western Connecticut State University student Colin Cascia said. "That's going to have to come from the people, not from the top down."
Still, they said the bill would be a leap forward for workers in the multibillion-dollar university garment industry.
"Taking it to this level is definitely a step in the right direction," said Scott Novakowski of Vernon, a graduate student at the University of Connecticut's School of Social Work.
Although the bill would only affect public institutions, students from private universities such as Yale and Wesleyan also spoke at the Capitol, along with students from UConn, the Connecticut State University system's schools, and some community colleges.