The University of Washington recently signed on to the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP) under which UW apparel will be sweatshop free. The UW President Mark Emmert, along with the University of Washington Sweat Free Coalition and the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), announced that UW apparel will be produced only in pre-approved factories that pay a living wage, allow freedom of association, and prohibit sexual harassment (a widespread problem in the garment industry).

“The program hasn’t been implemented yet, but UW issued an adoption statement,” explains Rod Palmquist of SLAP which has sponsored a year-long educational campaign. “The statement wasn’t everything we wanted, but the school has made the commitment. As long as groups like SLAP are around, I think they’ll honor the commitment.”

Currently, the manufacturing of UW apparel takes place in 8,000 different factories, many in Latin America, under sub-standard sweatshop conditions. In these sweatshops, workers put in 12-hour to 13-hour days for less than $5 a day. The UW is one of three dozen schools to make a commitment to the DSP. Palmquist feels the DSP could be implemented in the next couple of years once major university sports programs like Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame and Southern California sign on. Syracuse, Duke, Indiana and the University of California at Berkeley are among major universities that have already made a commitment to the program.

Leading up to the UW’s decision, SLAP held informational protests at the university including one where its members hand-delivered flyers to the president’s office wearing nothing but trashbags.

—R.V. Murphy