University of Kentucky's United Students Against Sweatshops
https://www.facebook.com/UKUnitedStudentsAgainstSweatshops/
Contact: ukyagainstsweatshops@yahoo.com
USAS is a social justice organization, focused on labor-related issues. We are an intersectional organization working on a number of campaigns and justice issues. Our community is diverse and inclusive as we fight for what we believe is right!It may come as a surprise that sweatshop labor still exists, and can be found everywhere, even in the United States. Sweatshops are defined as "any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous." Sweatshop industries also have a tragic history of wage theft, child labor, and exposure to chronic health issues. Here at UK, we work with the surrounding community to ensure that UK is not involved or creating sweatshop-like conditions. In the past, we have worked with the UK Bookstore, the UK Board of Trustees and President Eli Capilouto to cut ties with corporations that affiliate with sweatshops abroad. We have also fought to end the privatization of UK's dining services since this move would dislocate the rights of many UK workers. We also implemented a protocol in the current Nike-UK contract which will legally bind our university and Nike to provide basic workers rights to those workers who are making the Nike apparel we see everywhere on campus (athletics department, bookstores). We are currently working on UK employee rights and wages--this includes student employees, both undergraduate and graduate. We also have an ongoing campaign about Alta Gracia, a living wage brand, that can be found in our brand new bookstore. United Students Against Sweatshops Organizing for Student and Worker Power on the University of Kentucky Campus. As a result of more than a decade of direct action taken, United Students Against Sweatshops, or USAS, has had a direct role in social justice successes such as the formation of the Alta Gracia Factory and the implementation of the Worker's Rights Consortium. This page has been created to help foster direct action in solidarity with USAS and those with whom it fights. Together, we unite behind the common goal of ending exploitation in the workplace.
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