US: Anti-Sweatshop Student Sit-Ins Continue

As students celebrated anti-sweatshop victories at
Wisconsin, Indiana, and other schools, sit-ins began at
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Macalester College
in Minneapolis.

The Johns Hopkins sit-in entered its tenth day today. In
addition to their sweatshop demands, students are demanding
a living wage for all campus workers, and justice for
workers fired for union organizing at a contractor that
works for the university.

Macalester students began their sit-in Monday morning to
protest their school's membership on the industry-led Fair
Labor Association (FLA).

"While President McPherson has agreed to sign Macalester on
to the Workers Rights Consortium, the monitoring group that
over 600 Macalester students, faculty and staff have
endorsed, this decision is meaningless if the administration
continues to support the FLA," said one of the sit-in
students.

To date 13 schools have joined the Workers Rights Consortium
(WRC), which is endorsed by United Students Against
Sweatshops, UNITE, and human rights groups.

Meanwhile, students across the country are protesting their
universities' membership in the Fair Labor Association.

Yale Students Against Sweatshops held a 500-person rally
against the FLA, while UNC students took advantage of the
warm weather to shed their clothes in a rally themed: "I'd
Rather Go Naked than Wear Clothes From a Sweatshop," also to
protest the FLA.

Links to student-run sites and articles:

• Johns Hopkins sit-in site.
  
  http://yukiok.soc.jhu.edu/neoslac/index221.html

• Macalester sit-in article from Twin Cities Pioneer
  Press.
  
  http://www.pioneerpress.com/news/mtc_docs/028447.htm

• Yale Daily News article: "Sweatshop Rally Protests Yale's Membership in FLA"
  
  http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/ArchivedArticle.asp?type=live&AID=4864

• UNC article: "Protestors Bare All in Labor Fight"
  
  http://www.unc.edu/dth/archives/2000/02/022800/fnt1.html

• 204 Manufacturing