CLEA, the anti-sweatshop group at BUHS needs your support.
We have proposed that our school adopt a "sweatfree" apparel purchasing policy. Conservative members of the board are opposed to this proposal... its "communistic", it supports.... "labor unions", it....sounds" socialistic".
We are asking to affiliate with the Worker's Rights Coalition, a labor monitoring organization that strives to protect worker rights worldwide. There are over 150 public and private colleges that are members of the WRC.
For more details on our proposal, see the attachment below.
The board meeting is Monday May 15 at 7:00 p.m. in the new "multi purpose room" near the gym. Thanks for your support.
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Summary of Proposal for BUHS to Affiliate with the Worker’s Rights Consortium
CLEA (Child Labor Education and Action), a student club at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) is proposing that BUHS affiliate with the Worker’s Rights Consortium (WRC) in order to pursue the goal of having apparel purchased by the school not be produced in sweatshops.
In order to affiliate with the WRC -- and BUHS would be the first high school in the country to do so -- the school will:
1) Draw up its own labor rights codes of conduct, based on models provided by the WRC if needed. While the WRC encourages affiliates to adopt a code that is as strong in all respects as its model policies, schools are not required to adopt any specific code. The only requirement is that the code provides basic protection for workers in each of the following areas: wages, hours of work and overtime compensation, freedom of association, workplace safety and health, women’s rights, child labor and forced labor, harassment and abuse in the workplace, non-discrimination and compliance with local law. Many affiliates choose to write their own codes based on these guidelines.
2) Request from manufacturers or distributors the names of factories where apparel is produced. This is becoming a common practice for universities and municipalities. Given the demonstrated ability of hundreds of large and small companies to submit factory disclosure lists when requested by their university partners, the WRC has no reason to believe that BUHS would be unable to obtain this information from its vendors.
3) Pay an annual $500 affiliation fee. The CLEA students have raised the first $500 for the first year, the Trust Company of Vermont has agreed to pay 3 years of the fee ($1500) and if the affiliation is successful, CLEA is committed to fundraise the money annually (CLEA is not asking the School Board for taxpayer money to fund this affiliation!).
Background
The WRC was founded in April 2000 by colleges and universities, labor rights experts, and students to assist institutions with enforcement of their labor rights codes of conduct. There are currently 154 colleges and universities affiliated with the WRC. These include a mix of both public and private schools.
The WRC assesses working conditions at factories where university goods are produced. When violations of the codes of conduct are found, they identify remedial steps for the factory to take and then work with the factory and workers as well as the U.S.-based apparel companies and universities to correct the violations. As a result, over the past six years, colleges and universities have been able to see substantial, often unprecedented improvements in working conditions at factories manufacturing their products.
In 2004, the WRC Governing Board concluded that affiliation by individual high schools was consistent with the WRC’s structure and created an affiliation category for high schools. The affiliation requirements for high schools are the same as those for affiliated universities: schools must adopt a code of conduct, require public factory disclosure of their licensees or vendors, and pay annual affiliation fees. The annual fee for an individual high school is $500. There are not currently any high schools affiliated with the WRC.
At present, virtually every major college and university in the country has adopted a manufacturing code of conduct. During the six years of the WRC’s existence, to our knowledge in not a single case has the legality of a college or university’s code of conduct or affiliation with the WRC been challenged.