[Peace] Today At UIUC--Honduran Factory Workers Speak & United Students Against Sweatshops

[Lori A. Serb]

I know this is last minute, but sounds like a good event to support if  
you can to put pressure on UIUC to enforce a vendor code of conduct,

Lori

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Antonia Darder <adarder at gmail.com>
> Date: April 27, 2009 5:29:20 PM CDT
> To: coalition at iresist.org, crc <CRC at listserv.uiuc.edu>, advisee at darder.org 
> , Public i <print at ucimc.org>, STOP <stop at iresist.org>
> Subject: [stop] Important Speaking Event At UIUC--United Students  
> Against Sweatshops
>
> United Students Against Sweatshops
> www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org
>
> Honduran Factory Workers Speak
> at University of Illinois on Tour of U.S. Universities;
> Calling for University to Sever Ties
> with Russell Athletic for Sweatshop Abuses
>
>
> WHO:	  Norma Estela Mejia Castellanos, garment worker leader
> United Students Against Sweatshops
>
>
> WHAT:	Speaking event/testimonial
>
> WHEN:	Tuesday, April 28th from 5:00 - 6:30pm
>
> WHERE: 	Wagner Education Center, Room 43
> 		University of Illinois - Urbana Champagne campus
> 		504 E. Armory Street
> 		Urbana, IL  61820
>
> In the wake of three major universities’ joining over 30 US colleges  
> in severing ties with logo apparel producer Russell Corporation over  
> worker’s rights abuses, Honduran factory workers formerly employed  
> by Russell are holding a speaking event at the University of  
> Illinois on Tuesday in conjunction with United Students Against  
> Sweatshops (USAS). The workers were fired after attempting to form a  
> union. Following the firings, Russell Corporation decided to close  
> their factory, in violation of Honduran and international law, as  
> well as university standards.
>
> Last week, students in Arizona, California and Oregon, along with  
> two of the Honduran workers who make collegiate apparel for  
> universities in the US, held events on campuses, calling on schools  
> to cut ties with Russell Corporation for a series of labor rights  
> violations. Recently, the University of California - Los Angeles,  
> University of Connecticut, and Villanova University join the ranks  
> of over 30 leading institutions of higher education in the US who  
> have decided to terminate their business relationships with Russell  
> Athletic over this corporation's serial abuse of labor and human  
> rights. Some of the schools that have already cut ties with Russell  
> include the University of Michigan, Penn State, Harvard, UNC-Chapel  
> Hill, Cornell, the entire University of Minnesota system,  
> Georgetown, University of Miami, NYU, University of Houston,  
> University of Washington, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia,  
> Rutgers, Villanova, and Purdue.
>
> The Russell Corporation fired over 140 workers for organizing a  
> union at an apparel factory it owns in Honduras, making statements  
> that attributed the plant’s closure to unionization. Investigators  
> for labor rights watchdog organizations with which the universities  
> are affiliated, found that the closure decision itself was made  
> because the plant’s workers had organized a union—a direct violation  
> of university codes of conduct for licensees.
>
> In response to these violations, a number of U.S. labor rights  
> advocacy organizations have filed a petition with the Inter-American  
> Commission on Human Rights, an agency of the Organization of  
> Americas States (OAS), to take proactive measures to assure these  
> worker leaders’ safety.
>
> ###
>
> rod palmquist | united students against sweatshops | international  
> campaigns coordinator | 1150 17th st nw, suite 300, washington dc  
> 20036 | cell 206 412 2014 | rod at usas.org
>
>

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