USC Students to Put on Mock Award Show in Protest of Sweatshop Conditions in USC Apparel Factories

Wed. 3/12 Hahn Plaza/ Tommy Trojan. UPC. Los Angeles, CA 90007

Contact: Eric Zuniga, Senior, Biochemicial Engineering ericzuni@usc.edu (323)384-2785

Michael Wagner, Freshman, Undeclared dmwagner@usc.edu (218)368-6682

The USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation will be protesting as part of a United Students Against Sweatshops national day of action, during which students across the country will compel their universities to demand fair labor practices from the brands that make the university apparel. This action will take the form of a mock award show, in which USC students will be presenting USC with a "College with a Conscience Award' reflecting the image that USC tries to create for itself in its public relations. We will bring this image into question through humor and education.

Violations of USC's Workplace Code of Conduct are occurring every day in factories that make USC apparel. Currently, when workers organize and win victories with student support, any rights that they win in their workplaces are undermined, when the brands pull all their orders out of these factories, resulting in factories shutting down and firing all of their workers. The Designated Suppliers Program (DSP) addresses this problem by requiring USC contractors to commit to long term contracts with factories that pay their workers a wage sufficient to support their families and respect workers' right to organize. The Designated Suppliers Program is the most effective, comprehensive and widely supported means of addressing these issues. Brown University and Regis University both recently signed on to the DSP, bringing the total to forty colleges and universities committed to implementing the program.

Representatives from SCALE have been meeting with the administration consistently to seriously discuss improvements that must be made to USC's licensing policy. One of the most critical steps that must be taken is USC must adopt the DSP. It is important that we continue to work constructively together to ensure that Trojan apparel is made under humane working conditions and to make enforcement of USC's Workplace Code of Conduct a reality.