To the Editor:
Hunter Fast's '12 column ("Sweatshops and you: a practical analysis," Sept. 7) misrepresents the position advocated by the global anti-sweatshop movement, of which the Brown Student Labor Alliance is a part. Workers in factories throughout the "developing" world are organizing and fighting for fairer treatment from corporations. As anti-sweatshop activists, our goal is to stand with them in their fight. Brown SLA has never advocated contract cuts from companies that engage in unfair labor practices solely to distance our University from these practices, but rather as a tool to hold corporations accountable for global abuses.
This targeted and strategic leveraging of university apparel contracts has led to tangible victories in the past two years. When Russell Athletic illegally shuttered two garment factories in Honduras in response to unionization there, a campaign of contract cuts at U.S. universities forced the company to reopen those factories and respect workers' rights to organize. When Nike refused to pay 1,700 displaced Honduran garment workers their legally-mandated severance pay, Brown's contract cut, along with Cornell's and the University of Wisconsin's, motivated Nike to settle with the workers' union. Nike conceded wholly to the workers' demands in an unprecedented recognition of responsibility for labor rights abuses in its global supply chain. These examples show that, despite Fast's claims, alternatives to labor abuses do exist, and an alliance between students and workers globally has power to enact those alternatives.
Furthermore, we fundamentally take issue with the assertion that sweatshops are beneficial to "developing" countries in general. Contrary to the false binary guiding this column, the existing debate is not between sweatshop jobs and no jobs, but between sweatshop jobs and jobs at which human rights are respected. Such jobs do exist, such as at the new Knights Alta Gracia unionized garment factory in the Dominican Republic, where workers are paid a living wage. Providing University business for such factories can uplift labor standards globally. These examples show that students acting in solidarity with workers organizing globally can transform current sweatshop jobs. Our goal is not to close sweatshops, but rather to ensure that workers there have a right to organize and fight for better conditions.
Kate Hadley '12.5, Haley Kossek '13, Julian Park '12, Ian Trupin '13, Becca Rast '13
Sept. 7
