No Sweat! calls to 'open the books'

"Open the books, you corporate crooks!"\n"Labor Rights are human rights!"\n"IU-wear ain't made fair!"\nThose were the shouts that echoed down Seventh Street Thursday afternoon from members of No Sweat! and others who joined their cause. \nThe group of more than 20 supporters was calling upon administrators to "open the books" on wages paid to create IU apparel by marching from Woodburn to Dunn Meadow. There, they put on a small performance that ended by destroying a large makeshift lock to symbolically represent opening the books on administrators. \n"(The administration) has seen the language for wage disclosure which we gave them almost six months ago, and they all have expressed some verbal, informal agreement with it, yet no action has been taken," junior Brent Gutmann said. "It is starting to look as though they are stalling."\nThe protesters at IU weren't the only ones in the Big Ten calling for wage disclosure Wednesday, as other members of the United Students Against Sweatshops held similar functions in Madison, Wis., and Ann Arbor, Mich. Efforts were also being made at Columbia University, Duke University and Georgetown University. The day of action was planned at the USAS's national conference.\n"If wage disclosure is going to happen, it needs many universities to be asking companies to actually disclose their wages because they can easily ignore just one person doing it," said David Woken, a No Sweat! member and graduate student. \nWoken said many universities are holding off until they hear others are in on disclosing wages as well. The USAS is attempting to show many other universities are, in fact, moving in that direction, and IU should be among the schools to help shape things for the future.\nThe protesters also had those in attendance call the Office of Licensing and Trademarks, which has been delaying the implementation of the wage disclosures, Woken said. The script for the phone call asked the office to support wage disclosure citing it is going to happen anyway and IU should help in the construction process.\nA good portion of the rally members were a part of No Sweat!, but several of the protesters took it upon themselves to support the cause.\n"I thought it was a humane, good idea, so I decided to take some time before my next class and do it," graduate student Andrew Graff said. "It was well-organized, very professional, and it was exciting."\nNo Sweat! plans on meeting with the licensing committee in the week after spring break and conducting more educational meetings and street theater performances during National Student Labor Week, sponsored by the Student Action Labor Project from March 29 through April 4. The group hopes it can get a wage disclosure system implemented to stop minimum wage violations and keep companies in line with codes of conduct.\n"What ends up being a few cents increase when it comes to producing an individual shoe or something can make the difference between whether someone can actually afford to eat and pay for electricity in the same month," Woken said.\n-- Contact senior writer Brian Janosch at bjanosch@indiana.edu.