So the USC students staged a sit-in USC President Sample’s office (watch video above) to get him to talk about the sweatshop labor that goes into making USC apparel — then got threatened with suspension and their parents called by the school administrators. Now, after much embarassing publicity over the administration’s actions, Prez Sample’s agreed to meet with students.
That means Thursday, April 26 at 10 am, 4 administrators, 3 reps from the student government, and 3 SCALE members (Student Coalition Against Labor Expolitation — the kids who did the sit in) are gonna chat ’bout a very sexy topic: Joining the Worker Rights Consortium, a national organization advocating better factory labor condition.
Students asked Prez Sample to make the meeting open to the public. That request was turned down. So now, a silent rally’s planned outside Bovard Auditorium at USC while the meeting takes place.
Even LA City Council President Eric Garcetti’s sent in a letter of support to the students:
Our mutual friend, Tom Hayden, passed on your information to me and I wanted to reach out to thank you for all you are doing at USC to end the use of sweatshop labor in our world. What you are doing is brave and it does not go unnoticed. I am sorry that USC, an institution that I know and respect for much of what it has done and become, has not done the simple and right thing here to disavow and distance itself from basic human rights violations around us. When I taught at USC prior to being elected to City Council, I organized faculty against the cuts proposed to the dining hall and food preparation workers on campus who were threatened with losing their health care and their jobs. We prevailed, but only after many of us were arrested in an act of civil disobedience that put our jobs or our studies (in the case of the students) in jeopardy. Stay the course and know that you have a majority in this city and a majority of the city leadership with you.
My very best,
Eric Garcetti
If you’re on the USC campus on Thursday, be in front of Bovard at 10 am.
Glad to see that Sample was shamed into meeting with the students. Perhaps he can also be shamed into joining the Worker Rights Consortium. I have to say that things are already turning out a lot better than I would have expected, but there’s no guarantee that Sample will overreach again and be shamed into doing the right thing on the next step.
Comment by Don Hosek — April 25, 2007 @ 2:57 pm
I am a student at USC who participated in the protests outside while SCALE was having their sit-in and I find the most disheartening issue about this whole thing to be how the students were treated. Arrest was to be expected, but to power trip the students to leave by threatening suspension is so sad on the school’s part. I’m very glad to hear about the meeting tomorrow and hope that progress is made.
Comment by Jessica — April 25, 2007 @ 9:53 pm