NoSweat! working for living wage

Members of No Sweat!, a student-led labor solidarity organization, want to start a Bloomington living wage to help members of the community. However, city council members said the proposal has issues that need to be ironed out. \nNo Sweat! held a teach-in Thursday to educate the IU community about living wage issues. Members said the main goal of the teach-in was to raise awareness among students and the community.\nThe living wage proposal would grant city workers a minimum wage of $10.50 per hour with benefits or $11.50 per hour without benefits. \nThe city council will address the proposal before the end of the calendar year, No Sweat! member Ursula McTaggart said.\n"This is a very important piece of legislation," No Sweat! member David Woken said. "We're hoping to encourage more discussion."\nCity council member Timothy Mayer said he agrees workers should earn a living wage. However, he said the proposal does not solve the Bloomington poverty issue and the council must examine the matter further.\n"It doesn't affect the lady who works at the dry cleaner, it doesn't affect the man who delivers the IDS," Mayer said. "If a living wage is passed, then people may (incorrectly) feel we've addressed the issue of poverty. I think it'd be unfortunate if that would occur."\nThe proposal only mandates that businesses affiliated with the city pay their employees a living wage. It will not apply to smaller, family-owned businesses, City council member Anthony Pizzo said. He said the proposal will begin to address the issue of poverty, not solve it.\n"It's setting a philosophy that we do recognize that poverty is a serious issue for people in Bloomington," Pizzo said. "It's simply a start."\nNo Sweat! members also said they hope to establish minimum living wages on a national level. \n"We hoped to give people a perspective that living wage is an issue that's felt both nationally and globally," No Sweat! member Judi Nitsch said. "That knowledge is power, and that knowledge is tied to serious movements for economic justice."\nThe group continues its work nationally in conjunction with United Students Against Sweatshops, an organization of students and community members at over 200 college campuses, to combat sweatshop labor.\n"(Sweatshops are) a horrible world that, case by case, we're helping change," Nitsch said.\nNo Sweat! uses the IU Licensee Code of Conduct as a vehicle for its campaign against poor working conditions. The code prohibits manufacturers to sell IU apparel in a worker-unfriendly environment.\n"At the moment, our fight is limited to things that have the IU logo on them," Nitsch said.\nBut the group works indirectly to stop sweat shops through its collaboration with the USAS and the Workers Rights Consortium, another labor rights group, in order to make as large an impact as possible, Nitsch said.\n"(Economic justice) is a very big deal and we don't expect to be able to actually win," Woken said. "But we try to provide what support we can."\n-- Contact staff writer Mike McElroy at mmcelroy@indiana.edu.