Saint Mary's reps to help shape fledgling WRC
By MOLLY McVOY
Saint Mary's Editor
As Saint Mary's College takes its first step in the fight against sweatshops, representatives from the College will travel to the Worker Rights Consortium founding conference this weekend.
The college joined the Consortium on March 29. Representatives from the investigative working group on sweatshops will attend the first meeting of the consortium this Friday in New York City.
"This weekend, the WRC will become a reality and will begin its task of empowering workers to improve conditions in factories around the world," said Katie Poynter, a junior attending the conference. "As a founding member and conference participant, Saint Mary's has the opportunity to help shape the way in which the WRC will operate."
To date, 28 colleges and universities have joined the consortium with Saint Mary's. This weekend's conference will serve a number of informational and administrative purposes. Current WRC members will elect the governing board. According to the bylaws of the WRC, the governing board will consist of three voting components. There will be three student representatives elected by the United Students Against Sweatshops, three college and university representatives elected by the participants and six representatives from the already existing Advisory Council. These three groups will serve as the governing body of the Consortium and will vote on future decisions for the WRC.
In addition to Poynter, students Maureen Capillo and Callie Kusto, along with the director of the bookstore, Sandy VanderWerven and Besty Station, the coordinator of the working group, will be attending.
VanderWerven hopes that, aside from learning about the functioning of the WRC, the group can gather some information on the manufacturers the college uses when producing collegiate apparel.
"My expectations are just [to] learn more about how I, as a buyer for the campus, will be made aware of what is occurring," she said.
Currently the College buys from the corporations Jansport and Gear. Both Station and VanderWerven hope that, eventually, the WRC will make it possible for colleges and universities to know all of the vendors various manufacturers use in order to assure they are treating their workers fairly.
"We hope to learn how [the WRC] is going to work when we have a question about a certain vender," Station said.
Because Saint Mary's is a small college, the amount of apparel sold by the college is not as substantial as some other members. Many representatives, however, feel that the educational benefits the student body will receive from the WRC are as important as information on apparel manufacturers.
"[Even though Saint Mary's is small], it's still important to take a stand," Station said. "[The WRC] has important symbolic and educational significance."
Poynter agreed that the Consortium has educational significance.
"We are also attending the conference so that we can become more informed about the WRC and can get plugged into the network of campuses that care about sweatshop issues," Poynter said. "We also hope to bring back information which we can use to educate the rest of the Saint Mary's College community about this issue."
Aside from electing the governing board, the weekend will provide informational sessions on both sweatshops and the WRC. Congressman George Miller will be addressing the participants, and there will be a panel discussion with representatives from universities and anti-sweatshop advocates.
After the initial conference this weekend, the WRC will meet three times a year.
All News Stories for Thursday, April 6, 2000
