Redress Education: Time for Action
We are calling for universities, colleges and schools to adopt the following three demands:
All university, college and school merchandise to be produced under sweat-free conditions at all stages of the supply chain.
All staff to paid a minimum of a living wage.
Education institutions work together to form a sweat-free buying consortium.
An institution’s links to sweat labour are complex and organisations often don’t want to hear about the exploitation their own workers face. Redress Education has lots to learn from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). Their campaign has helped ensure uni merchandise in the US is produced under fair and ethical conditions. Below we explore the campaign demands in more detail and outline the model USAS used to achieve sweat-free campuses.
1. University, college and school merchandise is produced under sweat-free conditions at all stages of the supply chain.
Sounds simple enough but how do you get your institution to make a sweat-free commitment and then stick to it? Five important steps are outlined below:
a) Start asking the difficult questions:
The majority of students don’t think about where their university, college or school merchandise is made and certainly don’t question the conditions that their cleaning staff work under. A great start to the campaign is simply to get people thinking — poster campaigns, petitions and on campus actions like setting up your own sweat-shop are great ways to raise awareness and to demonstrate to the institution that students expect change. Getting the message out is an important first step in instigating change
b) Set up a sweat-free steering group:
A sweat-free steering group is essential in achieving change and ensuring standards don’t slip once that change has taken place. It should oversee exactly which products the uni buys and should check all staff are being paid a living wage.
The group should include representatives from all unions with members at the institution; residential/catering organisations; the university, college or school authority; the SU executive; an appropriate SU society (such as a P&P group!).
The steering group should meet at least once a term to consider progress on the three demands of Redress Education and decide how to continually improve in each area.
c) Ensure your university, college or school has Fairtrade status:
If your insititution has not already gained Fairtrade status it should implement the five fairtrade goals and apply to the Fairtrade Foundation for Fairtrade Status immediately.
Gaining Fairtrade is an important first step on the road to economic justice and it delivers real benefits for producers. However, more is needed to protect workers throughout the entire supply chain.
d) Pass a student motion:
Your student union buys clothing for union officers and societies and may also be responsible for university or college merchandise. Getting the Student Union to buy ethical clothing is a significant start to achieving a sweat-free institution. The student union executive are bound by student union policy, so you can pass a motion committing the union to use suppliers who can guarantee that workers’ rights have been respected at every stage of production. You can also use the motion to make the Student Union commit to research the production conditions for general university merchandise, and campaign for this to be sweatshop-free. Unsure about how student motions work? Our Passing a Student Motion page explains all.
e) Get your institution to commit to no sweat:
So you’ve finally got your institution to agree to stopping using sweat-labour in the production of their merchandise. What exactly should you ask your uni to commit to?
Redress Education asks that universities, colleges and schools commit to:
Purchasing sweat-free merchandise whenever possible.
Purchasing from Fairtrade Companies whenever possible.
Purchasing Fairtrade whenever possible.
Sweat-free merchandise is produced under the ethical employment conventions of the International Labour Organisation. The ethical employment conventions ensure that basic human rights are upheld such as:
- Employment is freely chosen - e.g. no forced labour
- Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected
- Health & Safety conditions are safe and hygienic
- Child labour shall not be used
- Living wages are paid
- Working hours are not excessive
- No discrimination is practised
- Regular employment is provided
- No harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed.
2. All staff are paid a minimum of a living wage.
Redress Education’s second demand ensures that workers’ rights are protected from seed to shop and that no one in chain of production is exploited - not those in field where the cotton is picked, not those in the factory where the garments are sowed and not those in the shop where the clothing is sold.
Many workers at UK universities, colleges and schools are paid the minimum wage, which when applied to many parts of the country amounts to poverty pay. A core principal of Redress Education is the belief that we must fight against exploitation and for social justice throughout the entire supply chain; this means campaigning in solidarity with workers at our own institutions.
This demand takes inspiration from successful living wage campaigns at Queen Mary’s University, the London School of Economics, numerous London banks and universities and schools across the United States. Based on these campaigns Redress Education suggests three steps to ensuring a living wage is paid to all staff at your institution.
a) Calculate a living wage for your university:
A Living Wage is defined by the Greater London Authority (GLA) as one which: provides a minimum acceptable quality of life. This is based upon wages which ensure that the worker is able to live above the poverty line and that there is enough of a margin to meet day-to-day challenges. The GLA puts a London Living Wage at £7.45 more details here of how the GLA calculates a Living Wage
Students at Oxford University used a method of comparing living costs with that of London to determine that a Living Wage in Oxford is £7.20 more details of how Oxford Students calculated a Living Wage.
If you decide that a living wage is higher than the current minimum wage then its time to start demanding your institution provides one
b) Campaign in Solidarity:
Redress Education strives to be responsive to the views of workers — it is therefore important to make sure you talk to staff about your campaign. There are likely to be several trade unions on your campus and contacting them is a good way to find out workers views. The University and College Union (UCU) represents academic staff, Unite represents the university’s technical staff and Unison represents the university’s cleaners, caterers and administrators. Get in touch with local union reps through the unions’ websites and talk to them about Redress Education. They should be able to tell you about staff concerns and suggest appropriate ways to talk to workers about your campaign.
c) Enable Student Unions to pay their staff a minimum of a living wage by increasing the block grant to cover any costs incurred by paying a Living Wage:
Redress Education believes that Student Unions as part of an educational institution should be paying their staff a minimum of a Living Wage, however students should not bare the brunt of these costs through the cutting of services at their Union. Therefore, when campaigning for a living wage it is important to specify that you want this to be paid for by the increasing of the block grant your university / college gives to fund the student union. This increase should be specifically used to make through increasing the available the necessary funds for Students’ Unions to pay their staff a Living Wage.
3) Educational institutions work together to form a sweat-free buying consortium
Evidence from the USAS campaign in the US suggests that the best way to ensure sweat-free merchandise in our universities, colleges and schools is to create a Worker’s Rights Consortium (WRC).
USAS explain on their website that a WRC is a
“non-profit organisation created by students, labour rights experts, and workers from across the globe with participation from college and university administrators”.
The WRC’s purpose is to:
“enforce manufacturing codes of conduct adopted by colleges, universities, high schools, and school districts; these codes are designed to ensure that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing school logos respect the basic rights of workers, such as the freedom of association and overtime pay”.
In the US there are now more than 140 colleges and universities affiliated with the WRC, using their leverage in the $4 billion collegiate apparel market to support workers’ rights in the global economy. The WRC has been enormously successful in its support for worker organising in locations from the Kukdong factory in Puebla, Mexico to the New Era factory in upstate New York, as well as the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, and elsewhere.
Now you’re starting to work to ensure your institution is sweat-free why not contact other People & Planet groups campaigning to Redress Education. Collectively our universities have the power to drive standards up in the garment industry — its time they started using their power to lead the way to a no sweat Britain.
