Global PACT Blog

There is change in the air here at Rutgers. Spring is here, and everything is lovely. The Coats have been but away. Everybody is proudly showing off their pride by wearing the red Rutgers T-shirts and sweaters. But there is something that Most Rutgers students do not know. The shirts they are wearing were made in a Sweat shops. That is right Rutgers apparels are made in a sweat shop. The Oxfam student group on Campus petitioned against this issue. The Oxfam student group is made up of hard working ambitious youth who will not take no for an answer. They worked hard with the student body to bring awareness to the issue. They also went to the university’s administration to voice their opinion on the Rutgers’ apparels being made by sweatshops.

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The Campus newspaper The Daily Targum broke out the news that the University’s apparels will be 100% sweatshop free in the next few years. That is because the process will be gradual. But for the Oxfam students that is a step in the right direction. They feel that they have made a tremendous accomplishment and make Rutgers University the 44^th university to stand against the inhuman conditions in the Sweatshops.

Parisa Kharazi, the president of the Oxfam chapter explained “We’re a humanitarian group. We fight for human rights and [sweatshops are] a human rights violation.” She went on to say “We gave a letter to President McCormick and on it, it said, ‘Will you show support for sweatshop workers this Valentine’s Day?” Then every Wednesday a group of students went again with the same letter to the President to illustrate their determination. “I think if we really want something to happen, it’s important to be persistent and to push to reach our goal,” Parisa Kharazi said.

Eventually the President of the university said to Parisa “You and your fellow students have my admiration and my thanks for your efforts to promote worker rights and fair labor standards.” A meeting was set with Assistant Director of Trademark Licensing Marybeth Schmutz and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Delia Pitts and the Oxfam Students. According to The Daily Targum article, “I guess the DSP was a little bit off our radar,” Schmutz said. “To be honest, it sometimes takes students to step up and say, ‘You need to be paying attention to this,’ and we did.”

Schmutz said, “When a school signs on to the DSP, there is a six-month grace period…In the first year, 25 percent of the apparel has to be from factories under the DSP conditions. The second year is 50 percent and the third is 75 percent.” “It’s a gradual process but Rutgers signing onto this agreement is just one step further to making our campus sweatshop free,” Parisa Kharazi said.

A victory email was sent to all Oxfam Students to break the good news. I was indeed a glorious day when the President McCormick sent an email to Parisa Kharazi, informing her that he signed the agreement.

As you can see student groups can create change on step at a time. Parisa said, “And I think it’s a great way for students to know that if they believe strongly in something, it’s possible for it to be done. If you really believe in something, it can be possible as long as you never give up.” So, if you have a cause, come up with a plan, get organized, work with the people in your group, be persistent, and then you will go far.

The term “childhood” can be associated with fun and games. Children learn in schools, and discover the world around them, by playing on the swings with their friends. They eat cookies, candy, and a lot of junk foods, and doing anything as they pleased as long as their parents say it is ok. They watch Disney movies. In the case of the American girls they own Hannah Montana’s CD or a Barbie doll. For the boys, they probably spend their time on some video game or PSP, or exchanging Yugioh cards (or whatever they have these days) with their friends. They are well feed and tucked into bed around 8 pm.

However, that is not the case for millions of children. For the other kids, childhood has no meaning. For some of these children they have to worry about work, their bosses, and how they are going to provide food for their families. There is no time for fun and games. There is no time to waist. Some of them do not even have running water, not to mention electricity. There are no cookies to speak of, and in many situations there is not even a bed to be tucked in or even a roof over their head. In short, there is no childhood.  A child of the age of 6 has to worry about things that teenagers cannot cope with in the developed world.

Let’s not forget that the develop nations had child labor back in the late 1800’s. It took a lot of effort for the reform movements to take children out of the labor force and put them in schools to learn and be children. The developing world needs help, and provide guidance in order to reach the outcome which the children of the developed world enjoy today. That is why there is the ICCLE or the International Center on Child Labor and Education.

According to the ICCLE “There are more than 100 million children of primary school age deprived of basic education in the world today. Most of them (57 percent) are girls. Huge numbers of them are child laborers.” What ICCLE lobbies government leaders to fix the child labor problem, and the lack of education provided to these children.  Some of these children are sold and bought but factory owners. These children need the worlds help to be freed from bondage. They also voice their objectives to the UN and the World Bank.  They also aim to educate the citizens of the developed countries about the challenges these children face, since they are the consumers who buy the products these children make. They also lobby developed government officials to provide aid and assistance to the poverty stricken countries.

Drew University’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program and the International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE) are co-hosting a conference on Teaching about Global Child Labor and Human Trafficking at Drew on April 25-26. The end purpose will be for the participants to develop teaching ideas which can be used with narratives.  The educators will have the opportunity to meet and interview former child laborers and trafficking victims, and attend a film festival and lectures by top scholars and human rights activists working in the field.

So, If you  are considering to be a teacher, you might be interested of how you can incorporate these important issues in your teaching. Even if you are not planning to be a teacher, your will or may be are a brother , sister, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, aunt , uncle, or a cousin who should address these issues to the children you know, to  your friends and family. We need to bring awareness to the situation and try to come up with a solution. There is a fee in order to register and the program is kind of long. But remember you are not going to a party, for the golden arches you are going to educate yourself of the problems these children face every day. Moreover these kids can work for more than 11 hours a day without a break every day for less than a quarter a week, you can also have the guts to sit and hear their stories.

Below, I have come across Video of some of these children, their local news coverage of the situation, and one video about the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood).

In a previous post we addressed the issue of Fair Trade. We discussed that because of globalization products are cheaper. But with cheap prices, some on has to pay. In Sweatshops workers make products in very poor working conditions. This can include exposure to harmful materials, dangerous situations, extreme temperatures, or abuse from employers. Sweatshop workers often are forced to work extended overtime hours and paid less than minimum wage. Child labor laws may also be violated. Moreover, in some sweatshops the employees were the victims of human trafficking. Though often associated with third-world countries, sweatshops can exist in any country. Sweatshops have existed in several cultures, including Early American culture beginning in the 1850’s.

Sweatshops can produce many different goods, from clothing to furniture.But not all products are made in Sweatshops. There are products that you can buy that are made in fair, safe working conditions out lined the workers union guidelines. Some companies, and independent sellers are selling these products in stores and online. You can buy such products from No Sweat™.  If you look deeper in the site you will find an incredible story of the CEO Adam Neiman of No Sweat Apparel (Jewish-American), regarding producing a line of union-made T-Shirts in Bethlehem, Palestine.

The factory, which Nieman said employs about 70 workers, is owned by a Christian and organized under a Muslim union. Unlike other fair trade companies, Neiman works only with unionized factories, which means that the employees get paid at least minimum wage, receive health care benefits and get paid vacations.(See the story below) It is great to think that individuals are going that far to advocate these ethically made products.  It is also incredible to think that such products can be made in this fashion these days. If you want to read further in to the story you can read the article published by Haaretz (an Israeli based Newspaper).

Please note that we are not promoting any of these product, or affilated with No Sweat. No Sweat is just used as an example of an organization that is promting social change.