Manuel Pujols, who said he works grueling 12-hour shifts at a factory in the Dominican Republic, might have made the university T-shirt you are wearing right now.
Feminism Without Borders’ efforts to convince the university to support the Designated Suppliers Program, which puts demands on clothing suppliers and factories to enforce humane working conditions, continued yesterday evening with a sweatshop workers panel featuring Pujols and another speaker.
The two factory workers informed about 100 people at the Art-Sociology building’s main lecture hall about their harsh working conditions while making T-shirts that universities, including this one, brand with their logos and sell to students.
Pujols opened the panel by describing exhausting 12-hour shifts, which include two 15-minute breaks and one 30-minute break. Pujols said employees get paid $200 every 32 days and frequently suffer injuries. But when workers try to complain about the conditions or organize, they are sometimes threatened, terrorized or fired, he said.
Pujols, along with his Hanes coworker Julio Castillo, is going on a seven-state tour speaking on college campuses. Pujols said he would like students to not only boycott the university apparel, but align with him in his efforts to change the conditions at the factory.
“We ask you to help in our struggle because you are the consumers of the products we produce,” Pujols told the crowd through a translator.
Feminism Without Borders is asking students to urge the university, particularly Joe Ebaugh, director of trademark licensing, to support the Designated Suppliers Program. The program calls for brands such as Nike or Adidas to order a portion of their university apparel from factories that treat workers humanely and to pay the factories enough money to adequately pay their employees.
Ebaugh, who attended the panel, responded to the campus feminist group’s written request that the university adopt the Designated Suppliers Program with a formal letter of his own last month. Ebaugh said the letter told the group that the university cannot support the Designated Suppliers Program, in part because of legal issues.
Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, said the program cannot be implemented until it receives legal approval from the Department of Justice, something not expected to happen before 2011. However, he encourages all colleges to voice support for the Designated Suppliers Program.
“There’s nothing to stop universities from supporting [the Designated Suppliers Program] on a provisional basis, and it’s important for universities to demonstrate that they recognize that the DSP addresses critical issues,” Nova said.
Forty colleges and universities, including Duke, Georgetown and Syracuse, have already issued statements in support of the Designated Suppliers Program, something that Feminism Without Borders member Daniela Vann will use to continue applying pressure on the university.
“Our ultimate goal is for the university to adopt DSP, and that’s basically the only thing we’re going to be accepting because that’s the only solution,” said Vann, a senior government and politics major.
Ebaugh supports Feminism Without Borders’ goal to increase awareness through the sweatshop workers panel and said the university is involved with the Worker Rights Consortium and also supports the Fair Labor Association.
“The fact that we don’t endorse the DSP does not mean that we don’t endorse workers’ rights,” Ebaugh said. “The DSP and the university both have the same goals. It’s just the tactics we differ on.”
Freshman philosophy major and Feminism Without Borders member Josef Parker, while encouraging the Designated Suppliers Program’s adoption, said informing more students about the sweatshop injustices is a more attainable short-term goal.
“We want to give people an idea of what work conditions are like in isolated places around the world,” Parker said. “We want people to be a little more aware about their own clothes.”
The group’s mission affected panel attendant Matthew Wynter, a sophomore criminal justice and communication major.
“People place a high value on clothing. People take pride in Maryland gear,” said Wynter, who insisted he will no longer purchase university apparel.
Not only is the sweatshop workers’ tour impacting college students, but word has already reached Hanes. After two days speaking on the tour, Pujols said the Hanes vice president has already asked to speak with him and Castillo.
“We’ve been campaigning for workers’ rights at Hanes for over a year, but it wasn’t until we started this campus tour that Hanes was willing to meet with us,” Pujols said.
Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Hanesbrands Inc. issued a statement Dec. 14, 2007, in which it denied nearly all allegations of inhumane work conditions. The statement acknowledged that an internal investigation uncovered “several managerial issues.”
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