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{{Short description|United States student organization for worker rights}}
⚫ ]
{{more citations needed|date=May 2015}}
''United Students Against Sweatshops'' (USAS) is a national (US) student organization with chapters at over 200 colleges and universities. In April of ] USAS helped to found the ], an independent ] monitoring organization that, in order to participate, universities pay an annual membership fee. The WRC works with ]'s and ] groups in countries where collegiate apparel is produced. At present over 130 universities and colleges have signed on to join the WRC.
{{Infobox organization
|name = '''United Students Against Sweatshops'''
|image = StudentsMarchOnRussellHQ.jpg
|caption = Members of United Students Against Sweatshops march outside the offices of Russell Corporation in Atlanta GA, during a protest against Russell's worker rights violations at its Honduras factories.
|formation=1998<ref name="Kimura-Walsh2008">{{cite book|last=Kimura-Walsh|first=Erin|author2=Walter R. Allen |title=Power, Voice and the Public Good: Schooling and Education in Global Societies |year=2008|chapter=Globalization from above, globalization from below: Mechanisms for social disparity and social justice in higher education|series=Advances in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy and Praxis |volume=6|pages=201–230|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yH98dpkdM84C&pg=PA215|issn=1479-358X|doi=10.1016/S1479-358X(08)06008-7|isbn=978-1-84855-184-8 }}</ref>
|abbreviation=USAS (pronounced "you-sass")
|type=Student activist organization
|location=North America
|membership =
|website={{URL|http://usas.org}}
}}


'''United Students Against Sweatshops''' ('''USAS''') is a student organization founded in 1998 with chapters at over 250 colleges and universities in the ] and ]. In April 2000, USAS founded the ] (WRC), an independent monitoring organization that investigates labor conditions in factories that produce collegiate apparel all over the world. The WRC exacts an annual membership fee from participating universities, which is used to fund its monitoring work.
In ], ] and other major clothing corporations founded, in direct competition with the WRC, the ] (FLA).


The WRC works with ]s, ] groups, and local labor unions or federations, in countries where collegiate apparel is produced. At present over 180 universities and colleges have affiliated with the WRC. USAS is also proposing that universities sign on to the ] (DSP), which would act to source collegiate apparel from factories that respect workers' rights to form unions and be paid living wages.
United Students Against Sweathops is widely viewed as the largest anti-sweatshop community group in the nation. It formed in ] as part of a broader anti-sweatshop movement increasingly popular in America. This movement exhibited a great degree of skepticism of dominant ] practices including the ] (]) and later the ] (]). Focusing on domestic as well as international ], the group has built increasingly larger coalitions focusing on a broad range of campaigns, including working against ]'s wages to farmlaborers ("Boot the Bell"), protesting ]'s policy towards union organizers in Columbia, sweatshop conditions at ] in New York as well as ] in San Fransisco, living wage campaigns for campus workers as well as sweatshop workers, and organizing anti-sweatshop groups in highschools.


In 2000, ] and other major clothing corporations renamed the Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP) the ] (FLA), in large part to compete with the WRC. The AIP, an initiative of the Clinton Administration, had become a discredited organization, because all non-profit organizations and unions that had initially supported it, withdrew from it, with the exception of the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), who subsequently withdrew their institutional membership on the FLA Board soon afterwards.
The group is based off the idea that students and community members should have control over the conditions their clothes are made in. Because Universities license their logo (for instance, ] licenses its name or insignia) to a shirt manufacturer, say ], who then ]s labor, the most efficient way to control production is at the licensing stage.

Focusing on domestic as well as international ], the group has built coalitions of students, labor groups, workers, and community members that focus on a range of campaigns:

*requesting that ] Athletic Brand significantly alter its labor policies in Central America<ref> 2004-2012.0.84 cubic feet (2 boxes) of textual materials plus 83.8 GB of digital files.</ref>
*campaigning to get ] to pay severance pay to workers in Honduras laid off by subcontractors<ref>{{Cite news|last=Greenhouse|first=Steven|date=2010-07-26|title=Pressured, Nike to Help Workers in Honduras|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/business/global/27nike.html|access-date=2020-06-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
*protesting against ], board member of ] and president of the ], in relation to sweatshop conditions for Hanes workers in the ].<ref name="georgetown_JMatthews">{{cite web|last=Mahoney |first=Jack |title=TOS Workers' Protest Hanes Boardmember Jessica Matthews |publisher=Georgetown Solidarity Committee |date=2008-03-13 |url=http://www.georgetownsolidarity.org/node/109 |access-date=2008-03-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820000221/http://georgetownsolidarity.org/node/109 |archive-date=August 20, 2008 }}</ref>

==See also==
*]
*]
*]


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
⚫ *
⚫ *
⚫ * Book by journalist Liza Featherstone about USAS ({{ISBN|1-85984-302-6}})
* in '']'' magazine

{{Authority control}}


]
* United Students Against Sweatshops Homepage
]
⚫ * Worker Rights Consortium
]
* Fair Labor Association
]
⚫ * Book by journalist Liza Featherstone about USAS
]
]

Latest revision as of 02:04, 23 October 2023

United States student organization for worker rights
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United Students Against Sweatshops
Members of United Students Against Sweatshops march outside the offices of Russell Corporation in Atlanta GA, during a protest against Russell's worker rights violations at its Honduras factories.
AbbreviationUSAS (pronounced "you-sass")
Formation1998
TypeStudent activist organization
Location
  • North America
Websiteusas.org

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is a student organization founded in 1998 with chapters at over 250 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In April 2000, USAS founded the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring organization that investigates labor conditions in factories that produce collegiate apparel all over the world. The WRC exacts an annual membership fee from participating universities, which is used to fund its monitoring work.

The WRC works with NGOs, human rights groups, and local labor unions or federations, in countries where collegiate apparel is produced. At present over 180 universities and colleges have affiliated with the WRC. USAS is also proposing that universities sign on to the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP), which would act to source collegiate apparel from factories that respect workers' rights to form unions and be paid living wages.

In 2000, Nike and other major clothing corporations renamed the Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP) the Fair Labor Association (FLA), in large part to compete with the WRC. The AIP, an initiative of the Clinton Administration, had become a discredited organization, because all non-profit organizations and unions that had initially supported it, withdrew from it, with the exception of the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), who subsequently withdrew their institutional membership on the FLA Board soon afterwards.

Focusing on domestic as well as international sweatshops, the group has built coalitions of students, labor groups, workers, and community members that focus on a range of campaigns:

See also

References

  1. Kimura-Walsh, Erin; Walter R. Allen (2008). "Globalization from above, globalization from below: Mechanisms for social disparity and social justice in higher education". Power, Voice and the Public Good: Schooling and Education in Global Societies. Advances in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy and Praxis. Vol. 6. pp. 201–230. doi:10.1016/S1479-358X(08)06008-7. ISBN 978-1-84855-184-8. ISSN 1479-358X.
  2. Brand Responsibility Project Records 2004-2012.0.84 cubic feet (2 boxes) of textual materials plus 83.8 GB of digital files.
  3. Greenhouse, Steven (2010-07-26). "Pressured, Nike to Help Workers in Honduras". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  4. Mahoney, Jack (2008-03-13). "TOS Workers' Protest Hanes Boardmember Jessica Matthews". Georgetown Solidarity Committee. Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-15.

External links

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