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	SWEATSHOP FREE SCHOOL CAMPAIGNS
It's time for SUNY colleges to stop using sweatshops to manufacture campus apparel. See a May 2010 E-Justicing article about the Chancellor's anti-sweatshop policy resolution, the Dec. 18 Holiday Rally and more.

Public schools in New York state are national leaders in the fight against child labor and sweatshops. As of May 2008, 107 K-12 districts have adopted sweatfree apparel purchasing policies. Some added provisions for purchasing of sweatfree sports equipment after 2003.

Is your district sweatfree? Click here to see the list maintained by SweatFree Communities.

Background: K-12 legislation
Legislators in New York state granted public K-12 school boards the power to take a stand against sweatshop and child labor in purchasing decisions on Labor Day 2001.

By removing the requirement that schools ignore factory conditions in selecting the lowest responsible bidder, the law specifically allows districts to require that vendors provide information about the conditions under which apparel is manufactured. Information about labor standards the school boards can require include but are not limited to: employee compensation, working conditions, employee rights to form a union and child labor. This victory for the sweatfree movement grew out of the Sweatfree Schools Campaign of the statewide Labor-Religion Coalition which included a statewide poster contest on sweatshops and child labor for K-12 students.

Legislation extended to campuses
Based on this success, the law signed on August 6, 2002 removed a similar barrier affecting public higher education institutions (SUNY, CUNY and community colleges). Students at various SUNY campuses had been urging their campus administrators to affiliate with the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a monitoring organization created through student organizing on college campuses. In 2000, however, SUNY Albany and SUNY Central Administration ruled that state purchasing law prohibited the institutions from joining the WRC.

Based on that determination, SUNY New Paltz was not allowed to join the WRC by SUNY Central, despite then-President Bowen's intent. A change in the State Purchasing Law removed the barrier.

The WRC monitors labor conditions in apparel factories that produce clothing for member colleges and universities. It requires public disclosure of factory locations, as well as other information, and it sets minimum standards that prohibit sweatshop abuses while improving working conditions.

Modeled on 2001 Sweatfree Schools legislation, the law amended New York State Purchasing Law to allow SUNY and CUNY colleges and universities, as well as community colleges, to set standards to ensure that apparel is manufactured under applicable labor standards. It does not require individual campuses to join, but removed prohibitions.

Since 2002 four SUNY campuses have affiliated with the Worker Rights Consortium: State University of New York College at Cortland, the State University of New York at New Paltz, the University at Albany and the University at Buffalo. For more information about implementation, click here.

Push for a sweatfree SUNY
Students and labor rights organizations have been asking SUNY to go sweat-free for the last 10 years. But as of May 2010, only four of SUNY’s 64 campuses have made a real commitment by joining the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights monitoring organization. The SUNY Chancellor and the SUNY Board of Trustees have already resolved to establish guidelines for implementation of a system-wide sweatfree policy. Yet, the only way SUNY will follow through and commit to ending their relationship with sweatshops is if students, labor leaders, and community members apply grassroots pressure. A Dec. 2009 rally outside SUNY headquarters in Albany called for SUNY to STOP using sweatshops to produce campus apparel.

In April 2009, NYS Assemblymember Peter M. Rivera introduced the Ethical Business Conduct in Higher Education Act to a crowd of supporters at the University of Albany.

"The apparel industry continues to operate under a paradign of cost-cutting without respect to human consequences--the tragic results of which are the sweatshop conditions that plague the supply chains of university licensed apparel," said LRC Sweatfree Schools coordinator Jordan Wells. "We support the lawmaker's call for campuses statewide both to adopt sweatfree codes of conduct to which apparel manufacturers producing university apparel must adhere, and also to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium to effectively enforce those codes."

Last Updated:04/27/2010
© Labor-Religion Coalition of New York State