Students flock to spring No Sweat! call-out meeting

About 50 students were told Monday to “check your shirt tags, tell us where it is from and cut it off.”\nThese students cut their tags at the spring call-out meeting for the student organization No Sweat!, a group working on a national campaign to stop the use of sweatshops.\nMembers of the group, which is affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops, focus on using their power as students to find solutions for issues of economic and social justice on the IU campus, in Bloomington and around the world. The group’s main goals include having students come together on more than 200 different campuses around the U.S. to influence corporate organizations such as Nike and Coca-Cola.\nJoining the club was something some members said they were interested in because they become aware of poor conditions in sweatshops around \nthe world.\n“I became aware of the fact that a lot of people are forced to work in harmful conditions and wanted to try and help the cause,” junior Evan \nCopelly said.\nOthers, such as sophomore Hanna Kovenock, became involved so they could have a voice on campus.\n“I wanted to spread awareness,” she said. “Some people never even think about that these kind of things that are going on.”\nCurrently, No Sweat! is focused on encouraging various companies, such as Coca-Cola, to meet workers’ demands, according to a No Sweat! Web site. The plan is to go after industry leaders and hope others follow. The group has also focused on local issues in Bloomington, such as the Living Wage campaign, which promotes the passage of an ordinance that presses city and county governments to pay their employees a living wage, according to the Web site. Members look to participate in group forums and weekly meetings to educate themselves about injustices committed within the community and around the country and world. \n“It is nice to feel like you are a part of something,” sophomore Nina Limbeck said. “It is a privilege to live in the U.S. and I have met some really great people.” \nWhile students are encouraged to come to meetings, the group functions by consensus and organizers pride themselves on having no hierarchy within the group, Kovenock said. Every member is equal and everyone is free to contribute as much or as little as they want. \n“We are really open to all ideas,” Kovenock said. “We are doing this because we care about what is going on"