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BY KATHRYN RICHERT | COLORADO DAILY (U. COLORADO)

In print | Published April 20, 2006

(U-WIRE) BOULDER, Co. -Some University of Colorado-Boulder students announced that they had stopped eating Thursday morning to support workers rights. Eight members of the Coalition Against Sweatshop Abuses (CASA) - a grass roots student group that supports workers’ rights — began a hunger strike Thursday morning at 10 a.m., after a meeting an hour earlier in which CU administrators failed to adopt the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP). DSP would require that the university sell collegiate apparel from brands that produce at least 25 percent of their university apparel in factories where workers have a democratic representation and can negotiate a living wage.

The DSP is a program designed by the Sweat-Free Campus Campaign, an international student movement.

The hunger strike was announced at a press conference at Regent Hall at 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

CU currently sells apparel produced by such brands as Nike and Champion, which don’t adhere to the proposed DSP program, according to Tim Hillman, CASA member and engineering graduate student.

CU does currently have a licensing policy that addresses eliminating worker abuse around the world.

CASA members have been discussing the DSP with university administration since September, said Hillman. He said he is disappointed with the administration’s reaction.

“We’ve been going around and around on a merry-go-round,” Hillman said in regard to the negotiations that have taken place between CASA and administrators in months past. Hillman said CASA members have addressed every reservation the university has about the program and the administration still won’t accept the DSP program.

Barrie Hartman, interim CU spokesperson, called the DSP program “vague” and said administrators need more time to ask questions and discuss the DSP before they make a final decision.

“This could impact a lot of people around the world,” Hartman said. “We are making sure we are doing the humane thing.” He also added that university administrators at other colleges are handling the negotiations in a similar fashion.

CASA students at CU-Boulder joined with almost 50 campuses nationwide in support of the DSP in September. Universities including Duke, Georgetown and Indiana University are among the 13 universities nationwide that have adopted the program Hillman said.

If CU-Boulder decides not to accept the DSP program, then CASA members will reconvene to plan further action, said Hillman.

Vice Chancellor Paul Tabolt wrote in an e-mail that administrators are "committed to listening with an open mind to facts about the impact of the DSP.

“We are concerned about the prospect of the DSP Program inadvertently resulting in the loss of job opportunities in local communities throughout the globe,” Tabolt wrote in regard to factories that might close because they don’t meet the DSP standard.

In the meantime, Hillman said, “We’re putting our bodies on the line to make sure that workers anywhere have the right to make a living wage.”

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