Fight Back!: What are the achievements of the sit-in?

Hirsch: It is possible that Chancellor Moeser will not adopt the Designated Suppliers Program [DSP] before he leaves his post at the end of June. We have made it clear to the incoming Chancellor that we are serious about workers’ rights at Carolina and we have shown how much public support there is in the community for the DSP. The Chancellor was forced to call an emergency meeting of the Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee and the DSP is back on the table.

Our sit-in empowered students and strengthened our group, Student Action with Workers. We built relationships with campus workers and student groups, and made important connections with community members. Next year we will have a strong group and are in a better position than ever to act in solidarity with workers. The sit-in is over but the fight for the DSP will go on and we will continue to work for justice for all workers.

Fight Back!: Did you receive support from other groups? What impact did this have in the struggle?

Hirsch: By the end of the sit-in we had endorsements from 18 different student groups. Students from many of these groups joined our sit-in or did support work for us during the sit-in. We were endorsed by the Progressive Faculty Network, the university Employee Forum and several local unions. Our local state senator supported us and came to our rallies and many people from the community were behind us.

Support ranged anywhere from bringing us food and sending us encouraging messages to spending the weekend inside of the building. Groups at other schools around the country that are affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops sent messages out about our sit-in and did solidarity actions at their own universities. Having four sit-ins for the DSP around the country take place within a week and a half of each other strengthened us. Having students and faculty behind the sit-in was most important to us because the administration needed to see how much support for workers rights there is at Carolina.

Fight Back!: Chancellor Moeser does not seem interested in negotiating. What are your next steps?

Hirsch: The Chancellor would rather arrest students than take a stand for human rights. Chancellor Moeser was never willing to have an honest discussion about the DSP, and consistently misrepresented the policy to the media. He did not respond to the ten-page letter we sent him during the sit-in that corrected many of the untrue things he had said and asked him to meet with us. The Chancellor’s refusal to respect basic human rights forced us into occupying South Building. He has tarnished his legacy and UNC’s reputation, but the administration has been reminded once again that students will make sacrifices to stand in solidarity with workers.

#ChapelHillNC #ChapellHillNC #Interview #Interviews #WorkersAndGlobalization #CarolinaSweatfreeCoalition #DesignatedSuppliersProgram #ChancellorMoeser

Chapel Hill, NC – A 16-day sit-in at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) administration building came to a dramatic close on Friday May 2, when Chancellor Moeser ordered UNC police to arrest five of the protesters. It was the longest sit-in protest in UNC’s history. Dozens of students had occupied the lobby of South Building, the administrative headquarters at UNC, in a protest against the university’s use of sweatshops for the manufacture of UNC apparel (Sit-in at administration building demands end to UNC sweatshop clothing, Fight Back!, April 2008).

The students, members of the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition, had demanded that Chancellor Moeser and the UNC Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee sign on to the Designated Suppliers Program, which would ensure that university apparel is manufactured in factories where workers earn a living wage and have the right to organize. In contrast, most UNC apparel is currently manufactured in Central American and South Asian sweatshops, where workers are routinely harassed on the job, denied the right to organize and earn pitiful wages that fall short of what is needed to support a family.

After 16 days of sitting in, members of the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition were granted a meeting with the licensing committee and the Chancellor. Commenting on what took place at the meeting, Student Action with Workers member Salma Mirza said, “Chancellor Moeser demonstrated at that committee meeting that he had no intention of taking any moral leadership on the fact that our apparel is manufactured under sweatshop conditions.”

After the meeting, the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition held a press conference in South Building. A dozen students then entered Chancellor Moeser’s office to inform him that they would continue to occupy the administration building until he entered into a genuine dialog with the Coalition. In response, Moeser ordered the students arrested. The police arrested one student without warning, and then told the others to leave if they did not want to be arrested. Four remained and were arrested on charges of failure to disperse, while one student was charged with resisting arrest.

“We knew our arrests would join with the 46 others that have taken place across the U.S. around this campaign, and that we would be contributing to the deep history of struggle at UNC,” said Tim Stallmann, a graduate student at UNC and a member of Student Action with Workers. “This was an anti-sweatshop fight, but we were putting our bodies on the line for all workers involved at UNC: the clerical and campus workers, the student workers and the workers manufacturing UNC apparel in sweatshops around the world.”

The statement from the Coalition on the arrests said, “The Chancellor stated that he was disappointed by our actions. We cannot begin to express our disappointment in the Chancellor of a university that calls itself the ‘university of the people,’ who would prefer to arrest peaceful student protesters instead of ensuring that there is justice for the workers who make this university run.”

Members of the Coalition and Student Action with Workers, the group that led the protests, promise to continue the struggle the next year. “The campaign for justice for all workers in the Carolina community will not end with the arrests of peaceful student protesters,” explained Salma Mirza. “Though we were the ones arrested, we must ask -which is more criminal, our act of peacefully occupying an office of a public institution that our tuition pays for, or Chancellor Moeser allowing our Carolina apparel to be made under sweatshop conditions that violate international and domestic law?”

For more information, and to support the campaign, please visit: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/uncsitin

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Chapel Hill, NC – Eight students are risking arrest by sitting in at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) administration headquarters, April 17, demanding that Chancellor Moeser take a stand in opposing the production of UNC clothing by sweatshop labor. Earlier, 50 students, faculty and staff rallied outside to show their solidarity with the sit-in. The protesters, members of the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition – a coalition of 20 student groups at UNC – are demanding that UNC cut ties with sweatshops and adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP).

Large amounts of UNC apparel are produced in Central American and South Asian sweatshops, where workers labor under degrading conditions, without union representation and struggle to survive on extremely low wages. Adopting the Designated Suppliers Program would ensure that university logoed apparel – UNC jerseys, sweatshirts, tee shirts and other clothing – is produced in factories where workers earn a living wage and have the right to collectively bargain with their employer.

The protests are part of a wave of student sit-ins that have swept across the country, as hundreds students from Appalachian State to Pennsylvania State to the University of Montana have held rallies and occupied administration buildings to demand their universities cut ties with sweatshops. The campaign is being organized by United Students Against Sweatshops. So far, over 42 universities have signed on to the Designated Suppliers Program.

For three years, students at UNC have been trying to convince university officials to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. Their arguments have largely fallen on deaf ears. Organizers with the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition aim to increase the pressure on Chancellor Moesor with the sit-in and bring more attention to the ugly reality behind UNC’s apparel. “As UNC students we would like to wear our Carolina gear with pride,” said Salma Mirza, a senior history major at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Instead, due to Chancellor Moeser’s inaction, our clothes continue to be made in factories where workers don’t earn enough to support themselves, let alone their families.”

Yesterday Chancellor Moesor met with a delegation from the Coalition and rejected their proposal to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program. He argued that adopting the DSP would jeopardize the existence of the Carolina Covenant, the university’s scholarship program for low-income students, because the scholarship is funded by sales from licensed apparel. Today, Eva Panjwani, a sit-in participant and recipient of the Carolina Covenant scholarship, responded by saying, “As a Carolina Covenant Scholar, I feel that compromising the living and working conditions of others in order to fund my college education is unacceptable, especially from an institution that touts itself as ‘the university of the people.’”

The sit-in is set to continue until Chancellor Moesor commits to the Designated Suppliers Program. Another rally is also planned for tomorrow afternoon to continue to raise pressure.

#ChapelHillNC #WorkersAndGlobalization #CarolinaSweatfreeCoalition #UniversityOfNorthCarolinaAtChapelHill #UnitedStudentsAgainstSweatshops #DesignatedSuppliersProgram