Demonstrators push for ND to join WRC
By JASON McFARLEY
Assistant News Editor
In the largest campus demonstration at the University in more than two years, about 100 students took part in a rally Thursday to urge Notre Dame's joining the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC).
The rally, organized by the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), was the group's most visible and well-attended effort to date in its anti-sweatshop endeavors. On the below-freezing afternoon on the Fieldhouse Mall, speakers called for the University to commit itself to fighting unfair labor practices by joining the watchdog WRC.
Coordinators timed the event around the University's March 11 decision of whether or not to join the organization.
Maureen Capillo, a Saint Mary's senior, said Notre Dame was once a leader in anti-sweatshop initiatives but has recently trailed other universities in championing the cause.
"The reason Notre Dame has fallen behind is because it hasn't joined the WRC," Capillo said.
The University has a history of taking an activist stance on the issue.
In 1997 it created a code of conduct regulating the production of Notre Dame apparel and goods and a year later formed the Task Force on Anti-sweatshop Initiatives.
In late 1999 the University requested that manufacturers of its school-logo merchandise disclose their factory locations and last August required disclosure of factory addresses by its licensees.
Notre Dame is currently a member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a corporate monitoring system, and continues to study living wage issues in the United States and abroad.
Speakers on Thursday raised several concerns about the University's membership in the FLA.
Sheila McCarthy, who described garment factory conditions she encountered while studying in Sri Lanka, said the WRC is better equipped to address labor issues.
While the WRC was formed by anti-sweatshop activists to empower workers, the FLA was created with the backing of corporations who want to protect their image, McCarthy said.
"There are problems like sexual harassment and forced overtime occurring in factories. The FLA doesn't address that like the WRC," she said.
Event organizers collected more than 100 signatures Thursday on a petition that encourages the University to join the WRC.
Saint Mary's already belongs to the organization. Purdue University and the University of Michigan also are members.
Aaron Kreider, a PSA member, said the group will likely forward the petition to the Notre Dame Task Force on Anti-sweatshop Initiatives early next week, before the body makes a recommendation involving WRC membership to University officials.
Kreider said meetings with members of the task force have yielded positive results.
The rally Thursday featured the biggest student turnout at a demonstration in at least two years. In fall 1998, students protested the University's decision to not add a non-discrimination clause to its spirit of inclusion statement.
Kreider said the PSA distributed more than 2,500 flyers, chalked sidewalks, and handed out leaflets in preparation for the rally.
He said he was pleased with the turnout Thursday.
"This is the result of about two weeks of organizing," Kreider said. "We were only expecting around 50 people, so to see more than 100 today is great."
All News Stories for Friday, February 23, 2001
