York Uni People & Planet Sweatshops Campaign

Ethical Merchandise & Sweatshops
In 2004 most colleges used Fruit of the Loom for their merchandise. A known exploiter of workers (ala Gap, Nike and others) they sourced their goods from factories where workers were forced to work unfair working hours, in poorly kept and unsafe factories, denied access to unions, and paid a pitence. Conditions which are illegal in Europe.

So People and Planet mounted an Ethical Merchandise campaign to get colleges, clubs and societies to stand up and reject sweatshop labour. We've raised awareness with talks from prominent speakers, articles in the student papers, and we created an Ethical Merchandising Guide which we are currently in the proccess of updating.

One problem is that many suppliers have ethical blurbs or consider themselves to be ethically aware, but because there is no central branding scheme like there is with food (FairTrade) it's difficult to tell who's telling the truth and who isn't. There's nothing stopping a company saying "we love workers rights!" and then having union leaders shot. And it does happen.

We want York Uni to be a sweat-free campus. Come along to weekly meetings to find out how you can help.

The Campaign Against Sweat Shops



 * No Sweat
 * Students Against Sweat Shops
 * SU Under Pressure to Ban "Disgraceful" Fruit of the Loom - Nouse
 * Zanon Talk - March 2006
 * YUSU Ethical Merchandise Report
 * Fair Labour
 * International Labour Organisation

Ethical Clothing

 * Our Ethical Merchandise Guide for Societies and Clubs
 * Gossypium
 * Ethixgear
 * Footprint Clothing
 * CleanClothes
 * CEPAA
 * Gildan
 * Ethical Threads

York Uni People & Planet

 * York Uni People & Planet Wiki Home
 * York Uni People & Planet website