A group of conservative ASUO senators killed a second resolution condemning sweatshop labor at the Senate’s Wednesday night meeting, its last of the year.
The resolution was a slightly modified version of the bill the Senate rejected at its May 13 meeting.
That measure would have declared the Senate’s support for the Sweat-Free Coalition, an alliance of student groups that support sweatshop workers. The revised version before the Senate on Wednesday would only have professed Senate support for the students in the coalition.
Senators voted down the first resolution amidst controversy surrounding the resolution’s author Mariah Thompson, who was seeking to end the University’s association with garment manufacturer Russell Athletic. Russell is accused of closing a Honduran factory to quash a labor union, an allegation the company denies.
At the May 13 meeting, senators said they were concerned with the prospect of involving themselves in a contentious on-campus issue and sent the resolution back to the body’s rule committee for modifications. Senators were skeptical, however, that the message of the resolution had changed materially after the modifications.
“It’s skirting around the issue,” said Sen. Nick Gower, who opposed the resolution. “It’s saying the exact same thing.”
The Senate requires a 2/3 majority to approve any resolution, which meant the measure required 12 votes to pass. It got nine Wednesday night.
At their May 13 meeting, senators discussed the issue extensively, prolonging their meeting past midnight. On Wednesday, wary of doing so again, they set a 10-minute time limit for discussion of the new resolution. No member of the group pushing the resolution arrived at the meeting until after the vote.
Next Wednesday, 12 senators will leave office, including President-elect Emma Kallaway, to be replaced by students elected last month.
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Anti-sweatshop resolution shot down
Daily Emerald
May 21, 2009
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