Grand Rapids, MI – 30 union bus drivers and their supporters rallied outside the meeting of the Interurban Transit Partnership – also known as the Rapids Board – the afternoon of Aug. 31, demanding a decent contract in negotiations. The board spent the past year attacking the bus drivers’ union and its leaders instead of dealing fairly with them.

As politicians from Grand Rapids and surrounding towns entered the meeting the pro-union crowd chanted, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!”

The politicians fake-smiled and scurried into the building, with one bus driver yelling “Shame! Shame! Shame!” after them.

International Executive Vice President Javier Perez Jr., of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), spoke, “Why the struggle for a pension and health care is so critical? It’s not just about us. It’s about what happens to everybody that’s working in the city of Grand Rapids. Everybody should have a decent pension plan.”

Perez explained, “Our pension proposal will not cost the employer one penny more. It is that they want to break the pension plan. It is an ideological argument. It is a philosophical argument, that need not happen.”

In front of the transit board there was public commentary by ten or more bus drivers and their supporters. Grand Rapids ATU Recording Secretary Jodie Burns remarked, “I spent my day at negotiations with the Rapid. It was my first time doing this, and I was surprised by how little they wanted to talk to us.”

Burns continued, “We switched our health care plan in the last negotiations, giving them half a million in health care savings. Now they are proposing a plan that will cost drivers with families almost $800 per month!”

Student activists from United Students Against Sweatshops at Grand Valley State University spoke in solidarity. Months after a protest at a previous board meeting, Grand Rapids police were sent to intimidate and harass students and one worker at their homes.

Later in the meeting, the Rapids Board voted to give a 2% raise to administrators while refusing to budge in negotiations with its blue-collar work force.

#GrandRapidsMI #UnitedStudentsAgainstSweatshops #AmalgamatedTransitUnion #InterurbanTransitPartnership #RapidsBoard #ATU

Tallahassee, FL – 25 students at Florida State University (FSU) picked up their picket signs to protest a pro-sweatshop economist who spoke on campus here, Feb. 7. The FSU Economics Department brought Ben Powell, a right-wing libertarian economist, to speak in favor of sweatshops and exploitative working conditions.

Before the event, student activists handed out flyers about workers’ rights abuses in sweatshops to about 75 students who showed up to the event. Many held signs reading, “Unions for sweatshop workers!” and “Fund public education, not exploitation!”

When the event began, the protesters packed the room with their signs and challenged Powell’s claims. The tension was palpable as many students vocally contradicted Powell during his hour-long presentation.

When Powell’s presentation concluded, students peppered him with pointed questions and rebuttals. Activists pointed out that U.S. corporations make tremendous profits off sweatshops with low wages and horrible working conditions. One student spoke about how sweatshops exploited workers and left countries, like Haiti, underdeveloped. Another held a sign about the November garment factory fire in Bangladesh that killed 112 workers and left another 200 injured, mostly women.

Student leaders spoke about the U.S. violently overthrowing independent governments. Some students learned of this earlier in November while protesting outside the School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia. The SOA is where the U.S. trains Latin American military death squads that kill trade unionists in Colombia and suppress progressive movements in other countries. These actions, argued one student, are carried out in some cases to benefit corporations that want sweatshop labor.

Powell was visibly frustrated and uncomfortable.

“Powell did not seem to understand how colonialism created poverty in most of these countries that rely on sweatshops for employment,” said Jessica Schwartz, an FSU student and organizer of the event. “More economic liberalization isn't going to fix the problems that neo-liberalism has created.”

FSU has a long history of fighting sweatshops. In 2002, United Students Against Sweatshops held a series of protests, culminating in a tent city on campus. The campaign succeeded in getting FSU administration to sign up with the Workers Rights Consortium, an anti-sweatshop watchdog group. Several former students involved in the 2002 United Students Against Sweatshops campaign attended the protest to confront the ugly reality of sweatshops once again.

#TallahasseeFL #UnitedStudentsAgainstSweatshops #AntiSweatshop #workersRights #BenPowell

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