In a consumer market system where many items are made in sweatshops by cheap labor, concern for social justice has become pressing and prominent for many on Boston College's campus. Several BC clubs and organizations gathered last night in a coalition to convince the BC administration to prevent the sale of sweatshop manufactured goods by signing onto the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP).
The coalition consisted of several student groups, including the Global Justice Project (GJP), the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC), UNICEF, Amnesty International, the Organization of Latin American Affairs (OLAA), the Society of Native American Peoples (SNAP), 4Boston, the Philippine Society of Boston College (PBSC), Asian Christian Fellowship, the Chinese Student Association (CSA), Pulse Council, and the Brazilian Club of BC (BCBC). The groups gathered together to sponsor the Designated Suppliers Program information night in an effort to increase awareness and advocate for the signing of the DSP by the BC administration.
Alex Heinz, a member of the Brazilian Club and A&S '10, said, "I think that social responsibility is a big deal. A lot of these sweatshop factories are in Brazil. That's why many of the cultural clubs support this, because many of the factories are in those countries."
While all of these organizations sponsored the event, the chief organizing group was the GJP, which gave a few short presentations about the Designated Suppliers Program and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). The event also featured videos highlighting the importance of paying all workers a living wage.
According to the DSP Web site, "The DSP is a system for protecting the rights of workers who sew university apparel, under which university licensees are required to source most university logo apparel from supplier factories … [that] respect the rights of their employees - including the right to organize and bargain collectively and the right to be paid a living wage."
BC currently is an affiliate of the WRC, and so is in agreement to protect the rights of workers in factories that produce goods bearing the University logo. Though BC is in a good faith agreement, it still uses Reebok and Champion as main suppliers for the apparel it sells.
"All of the factories that Reebok and Champion currently use are sweatshops," said Ben Fuller-Googins, A&S '09. "Normally we equate a sweatshop with working long days in bad conditions, but it is also basically any workplace that denies worker representation or a living wage."
Once a school joins the DSP, it makes a commitment to certain requirements. One stipulation of the DSP is that for colleges that sign the agreement, 25 percent of the college's licensed apparel must come from DSP factories within a year of signing the agreement, 50 percent by the second year, and 75 percent by the third year; this clause was designed to allow schools time to adjust to the new requirements, thus making signing on to the DSP a more feasible option.
The WRC, the parent organization of the DSP, was founded in 2001 as a monitoring organization. It has the capabilities in place to investigate factories to ensure that its workers are being afforded basic human rights. The WRC decided to found the DSP as a more proactive measure to prevent these human rights abuses before they begin. The DSP is an agreement that schools sign to have apparel with the school logo produced only by factories that are "sweat-free," or, in other words, treat their laborers humanely. A factory that is verified by the WRC to be "sweat-free" is then placed on the Designated Suppliers List (DSL).
"The WRC sees which factories are paying a living wage, and only those factories get on the DSL. The licensee [a supplier such as Reebok or Nike] can only use factories on the DSL to produce goods for the licensor [the school]," said Tim Dingman, A&S '11. "If the licensee starts using a factory that is not on the DSL, then the university licensor can stop using that factory or even the licensee."
If BC signed the DSP, it would be required to discontinue use of Reebok or Champion if these companies continued to use factories with conditions abusive to human rights. The DSP, however, would permit BC to use these same licensees if Reebok or Champion were to switch to DSL factories.
Fuller-Googins said that BC does currently have an anti-sweatshop policy. "The right rhetoric is there, but it is not translating into actions," he said. "We're trying to help BC live up to their rhetoric, as a Jesuit institution, and translate it into action."
Fuller-Googins said that future goals of the GJP include having a sweat-free fashion show, a mock sweatshop, and other informational activities. "Initially, we are trying to have more educational events. Depending on what people think, it could lead to more confrontational things in the future," Fuller-Googins said.
The first official meeting of the coalition will take place next Monday night, where the leaders of the GJP said they hope that the coalition of groups can organize and take a more active role in promoting the DSP.
"The administration isn't going to wake up one morning and change something. There has to be pressure from the student body for anything to get done," Fuller-Googins said.
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