UNITED STUDENT LABOR ACTION COALITION, WESLEYAN COLLEGE: At 9:30 last night - after 33 hours of occupying our school's admissions office - Wesleyan students declared victory in our fight for workers' rights on campus. We had been concerned that Initial, the contractor that employs our school's janitors, wouldn't agree to better wages and benefits unless Wesleyan agreed to pay for them. Last night, our president called Initial and told them he would foot the bill for the janitors' proposed contract. Within hours, the contract was signed. In addition, President Bennet signed a statement saying that all contracted campus workers would retain their jobs, wages and benefits if the university switched contractors. This means that Wesleyan can't simply drop Initial and hire a nonunion contractor. Bennet also agreed to pay for a similar contract for another group of janitors that cleans our gym, and we set up a committee to write a comprehensive labor code of conduct for the school by April 23. So far, we have faced no legal or disciplinary action.
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: After a year of organizing, rallying and attempting to negotiate, the UK anti-sweatshop campaign came to a boiling point Tuesday at 5:15pm when 18 students took over the basement of the Administration Building. The students entered with two demands- UK would withdraw its membership in the Fair Labor Association and UK would join the Workers' Rights Consortium. The students, who had locked down with chains, PVC pipe, and bike locks, attempted to negotiate with the administration for eight hours. Over the course of that eight hours, students inside the building were subjected to intimidation and threats from the UK administration. "They were experts at singling us out one by one and intimidating us. They told us we wouldn't graduate. They told us we couldn't get accepted to the bar. They told us we would lose scholarships. They were very skilled at harassment. They've obviously had practice. Additionally, there were indirect threats of injury when the arrest process began," said Lindsey Clouse, one of the students arrested at 1:45am Wednesday morning . . . As for the 100 supporters waiting outside the building, intimidation was also a factor, this time from the police. "Towards the end, people were getting shoved to the ground and grabbed by the neck. The police tried to herd the crowd over top of people that had already fallen down. One student was hospitalized for a neck injury when she was assaulted by an officer," stated Amy Shelton, a supporter who had been outside the building all night.
LUKE BOYETT mailto:lfboye0 at pop.uky.edu
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA STUDENTS AGAINST SWEATSHOPS: We just had the most rocking rally that this campus has seen in years. At the end of day four of our occupation of our administration building, a bus load of steel workers from Des Moines came in to rally with students and completely kick our sit-in back into high gear. Along with USWA, we had folks from UE, SEIU, AFSCME, and IBEW locals in our crowd of over 200 people. And the great thing is that they were as thrilled to be here as we were to have them come out and support us . . . SAS members have also been keeping up the teach ins inside the building all day long. We estimate that close to 1000 students have come through the building this week and had their eyes opened to issues of global economics and sweatshop labor in the past three days.
UI STUDENTS AGAINST SWEATSHOPS Matthew Killmeier, 338-0781 Michael Rach, 339-8485 Jen Sherer, 337-9986, 337-5074 Scott Delgado, 338-5743
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: Things are looking good at Northwestern (finally!).
Our coalition of students, faculty, and staff members, in coordination with almost 20 student groups, will have a day of solidarity Friday with the hunger striking Purdue students, and the other students currently fighting around the country . . . Several students will also be fasting for the day.
PURDUE UNIVERSITY: As six Purdue students continued a hunger strike against his administration, President Steven Beering was busy preparing a graduation speech in which he said that the educational experience being celebrated is the ultimate expression of the spirit of liberty: "By investing of yourselves in this unique way, you and all the people who have supported you along the way are affirming your faith in the possibility of a better world, created through individual initiative." He told the students that "among the vanguard of leaders who will shape our world in the 21st century."
PURDUE PROTEST GROUP: mailto:Marikah_Mancini at mgmt.purdue.edu PRESIDENT STEVEN BEERING room206 at purdue.edu
ALISON KEPNER & TRACY WILSON, PENN STATE COLLEGIAN: Nathan Strange, a graduate student in aerospace engineering at Purdue, was one of the five students in his ninth day on the hunger strike. The first few days you're just really hungry, then the pain dulls away, said Strange, adding he was prepared to continue the hunger strike until sent to the hospital. "I do feel very weak," he said. "It's real hard to go to class." Strange was a student member of the committee that helped Purdue administrators develop its code of conduct. However, he said although the administration has adopted the code of conduct, they are not abiding by its criteria. Yesterday afternoon, student protesters met with Joseph Bennett, vice president of university relations. Bennett could not be reached for comment yesterday . . . However, university president Steven Beering still refuses to meet with the hunger strikers.
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: About 70 protesters, including students from Penn, Bryn Mawr College and Temple and St. Joseph's universities, along with factory workers and union organizers, gathered at noon across the street from Domestic Uniform Supply Co., on Frankford Avenue near Adams, to protest poor working conditions, low pay and lack of benefits at the factory. Domestic Uniform counts the University of Pennsylvania as one of its biggest customers, supplying the school's linens and tablecloths. After complaints from workers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration found several workplace violations at the factory, said a member of Penn Students Against Sweatshops, which comprised the biggest group at the protest.
CARA, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Here at the University of Chicago, the anti-sweatshop coalition faces not only administrative walls and excuses, but also the label of "fringe group," "minority of students," and "radical activists" from our student peers. The Chicago Weekly News [has] criticized us for asking for too much.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA: Today, students in California received some incredible news: all 10 UC schools are signed on to the WRC (a representative from the UC is on his way to attend the WRC conference)! We were actually having a meeting to plan a sit-in at Berkeley when one of the UC representatives came to our meeting with the signed letter to make sure that we wouldn't sit-in. This is how scared they are of student action on this issue. This makes the UC system the first system to sign on to the WRC and adds ten more schools to the quickly growing list of schools on the WRC. 45 schools today, 100 tomorrow!
ST. JOSEPH'S UNIVERSITY: Students involved with the St. Joseph's University Students Against Sweatshops group will commence a 24 hour fast April 7, 2000 with a prayer vigil on Campion Lawn at 9:45 AM . . . According to Melanie Tambolas, a freshman at SJU, "This isn't about pretending to be an 'activist' or to cause a scene. Rather, we want to make sure that our university actively uses the moral guidelines in their business transactions that they teach during orientation, through our theology classes, and at Sunday mass."