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Students Activists Change Clothing Standards at Pitt

Sporting a pair of Toms will sometimes make you feel like you’re helping out those who are less fortunate, and the clothing sold by the University of Pittsburgh could be headed in that same wholesome clothing direction. Pitt has given its apparel licensees an ultimatum that many hope will make safety a priority in factories where the clothing is made.

Since the fall of 2012 students with the Pitt chapter of Americans for Informed Democracy have been advocating for the University to make changes to its licensee agreement through the #NoSweat Coalition.

“You don’t think much about where you buy your t-shirts and stuff, and you don’t think about where it’s produced and where it comes from, but most of these big companies they get their materials from [sweat shop] factories like this, and we’re really directly influencing their lives,” said Dolly Prabhu, President of Informed Democracy Pitt.

Students wrote letters, held protests, and had meetings encouraging the University to change its apparel licensees agreement from requiring holders to be registered with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to requiring that they be signed on to the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC). Students complained the FLA was funded by the same corporations that it monitored and that created a conflict of interest. The University switched during late summer of 2013.

Students renewed their push on the apparel issue after the April 2013 Rana Plaza Factory collapse that killed 1,129 workers and resulted in the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. The Accord requires regular building inspections, financial accountability by companies for repairs, protecting workers rights to form unions, and the right of workers not to enter a building they feel is unsafe. The Coalition collected 160 signatures to have the University align with the Accord.

On August 11th the university wrote to its licensees giving them two options either sign the Accord or face “the termination or non-renewal of your University license” by October 1st.

Prabhu wished it had not taken so long.

“It’s not very high up on the administrations priorities, you know it’s not an immediate concern and it’s not something that profits the university really. It’s costly. They have to spend money on it, and I don’t think it was clear to them, at least at the beginning, that students really felt strongly about it,” said Prabhu.

The University cited other reasons for the time.

“It’s really not unusual for decisions of this magnitude to take some time. I know the students wish we could do it instantaneously, but unfortunately we have to protect the institution and review all the legal aspects of a decision of that sort before we can go forward,” said Ken Service, Vice Chancellor for Communications at the University of Pittsburgh.

Jess was accepted as a WESA fellow in the news department in January 2014. The Erie, PA native attends Duquesne University where she has a double major--broadcast journalism and political science. Following her anticipated graduation in May 2015, she plans to enter law school or begin a career in broadcast journalism.