Professor Peter Dreier told a scattered EMU Amphitheater crowd a “tale of two T-shirts” Monday.
Dreier, a visiting political science professor from Occidental College in Los Angeles, held up two shirts. One displayed Occidental’s name, and one carried the University of Oregon logo.
“There’s a difference between these shirts,” he said.
Holding up the Occidental shirt, Dreier continued, “This one was made by workers who get paid $12 an hour, receive health benefits and work in good conditions … In other words, they don’t work in a sweatshop.”
He explained that Occidental’s bookstore has a designated no-sweat zone, which carries only merchandise made by union manufacturers — a goal some students at the University of Oregon also hope to accomplish.
Dreier spoke at a no-sweat zone rally held by more than half of Professor Michael Dreiling’s sociology class called Workers, Consumers and the Global Economy.
Lara Skinner, a senior sociology major working on the project, said the campaign’s main goal is to give students the choice to buy apparel they will know for certain was not made in a sweatshop. Twenty-nine students from the class have worked to bring about 200 “no-sweat” shirts to the bookstore, which were made by Frank Dolittle Manufacturing in Seattle.
The shirts should be in the store by June 14, and in the long term students said they hope to create a separate no-sweat zone in the store, Skinner said.
Members of the class said they held the rally to make other students aware of the cause and to encourage them to buy the shirts.
Jim Williams, the bookstore’s general manager, said he could not make a designated “no-sweat zone” section, but the students will put visible “union-made” tags on the shirts. He said making a separate section would imply that everything else in the store was made in a sweatshop.
A few musical groups, including punk band Under the Stairs, performed at the rally, showing their support for the students’ cause. One student also sat at a sewing machine inside a mock sweatshop made of chicken wire and covered with University Bookstore merchandise. Alongside the “sweatshop” sat a sign that read, “Where was your UO shirt made?”
Dreiling said some of his students designed the class project after hearing about Occidental’s campaign, and they formed a group called the Campus Coalition for Fair Labor. The students have gathered signatures for support of the no-sweat zone. He said the project is in line with the University’s mission statement, which is dedicated to making students “think critically, act creatively, and live ethically.”
He said it is hard for students to live by the University’s mission when they do not even know where the bookstore’s products are made. The no-sweat zone will make students think about the issue when purchasing merchandise, he said.
“Consumers can begin to understand that some products are made under certain conditions and some are not,” Dreiling said.
Dreiling also expressed concern about the State Board of Higher Education’s decision to pass a policy governing business agreements last February. The “business practice policy” says the seven Oregon University System institutions cannot “adopt limits” on business agreements unless based on the “ability to perform, evidence of illegal activities” or other criteria. This prevents universities from being members of labor monitoring groups such as the Worker Rights Consortium and Fair Labor Association.
“That policy made it difficult for the University to uphold its mission,” he said. “Which ethic do we stand by … The free flow of commerce or the right of humanity?”
Erik Amos, a senior sociology major working on the campaign, said he is excited for the no-sweat clothing to be available.
“Most of the clothing we’re wearing was made under sweatshop conditions,” he said. “The no-sweat zone is a place where all products are union-made so we know conditions are decent.”