FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, March 6, 2004
Contacts:
Elliott Mallen - The University of Michigan
#: 734.657.6813
David - Indiana University
#: 812.323.1235
Emil - Georgetown University
#:
Liana - University of Wisconsin-Madison
#: 608.264.0351
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ESTABLISH NATIONAL COALITION FOR WAGE JUSTICE
THEIR DEMAND: "OPEN THE BOOKS!" - AN APPEAL FOR WAGE DISCLOSURE IN THE COLLEGIATE APPAREL INDUSTRY
(Pictures from "Open the Books" on March 11, 2004 are on the SLAC pictures page.)
March 7, 2004 - For the first time since February 2000, students of major universities across the nation are coming together to fight against injustices around the world. Students at the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duke University, Georgetown University, Columbia University, and Indiana University have established a new, national coalition devoted to the enforcement of fair wages in the collegiate apparel industry. This Coalition for Wage Justice, a part of United Students against Sweatshops (USAS), has issued an ultimatum to multinational corporations: Open the books! The coalition is fighting to enforce the Collegiate Licensing Corporation's code of conduct and the additions to the code that students have fought for. The code of conduct states that the universities will only do business with corporations that pay their workers a wage on which they can live. The coalition is asking for the corporations to disclose to the universities the wages that the workers are paid in order to enforce the already existing code. Ronald Dworkin from the University of Johnsonville says, "Wage disclosure is an important step in enforcing already set laws. We aren't asking for much, only that the companies follow through on what they promised our universities they would do. There is no way to make sure workers are being paid fair wages if the companies won't tell us what the workers are earning." Wage disclosure will make industrial monitoring better, more precise, more stringent. Full wage disclosure is a small but significant step in the fight against oppression.
The Coalition for Wage Justice will initiate its Open the Books! campaign on Thursday, March 11, 2004 with simultaneous actions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Michigan, and the Indiana University campuses. Throughout the day, students will flood the offices of their administration and the offices of the administration of the other schools in the coalition with phone calls supporting the addition of wage disclosure language to the existing code of conduct. The day will culminate at 4:00pm eastern/3:00pm central time when the three schools will symbolically pry open the ledgers of the companies producing collegiate apparel. A worker from the Kolon Langgeng factory that produces Nike apparel in Indonesia believes wage disclosure will ultimately lead to a better quality of life for workers. "I think it would be good for everyone to see information about how little we make for how hard we work.... we work until we are tired to the bone, but it's not enough to cover even our basic needs. Perhaps if others knew the reality of our wages it would help us in raising our wages to a more humane level... Without working overtime there's simply no way we could survive; our minimum monthly wage is not enoughŠThe prices of things keep going up and up, while our wages don't increase accordingly. Therefore, whether we like it or not we have to work extra hours and extra hard to reach the increasingly high targets."
The print, broadcast, and electronic media are invited and encouraged to contact the Coalition for further information.
see also: Some pictures from "Open the Books" March 11, 2004
Ralliers seek proof of disclosure - The Daily Cardinal - 3/22/04