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Debate during this week’s meeting of the General Student Senate focused on an act to create a “Sweat-Free Advisory Committee.”
Sen. Sarah Bigney, who wrote the resolution, said that the committee would get the University of Maine involved in an agreement with something called the Worker’s Right Consortium.
“[This would ensure that] clothes that we sell here are made under fair working conditions,” Bigney said.
She said there are certain companies that purchase clothes from sweat-shop factories. The company that the university now works with, the Fair Labor Association, does not require disclosure of factory information, where they are, who they employ, and other aspects of working conditions. Alexander Amand, a member of this pre-committee group said the differences between the groups were important.
“The WRC is all about going to factories that supply a myriad of companies,” Amand said.
He said this means that, unlike the FLA, the WRC will actually go to these individual factories and decide whether or not the working conditions are considered fair.
This ignited several different debates. The first, brought up by Student Government President Kate O’Brien, was a conflict of interest for college students.
“No one wants to say it’s okay for little kids to be making this sweatshirt,” she said.
She said that college kids tend to be a little short on cash. She wanted to know how the change would effect pricing, especially at the Bookstore, where this committee will first start ensuring that the retail complies with WRC’s standards.
Aman said that this shouldn’t be an issue.
“Bill Hockensmith is confident they can find a clean way without drastically altering the price,” he said.
Bigney also explained how the issue will be introduced to the students.
“We will hold educational meetings, information sessions, and make videos getting word out to groups,” she said.
Just as they were getting ready to vote on this act, Sen. Michael Mack brought up a point that stimulated a lot of debate. He moved to hand this over to the Governmental Procedures committee and read an article from the constitution stating that something that is substantial to Student Government cannot be in any way a form of propaganda.
Bigney said this was not a valid argument .
“The university will be joining WRC, not the Student Government,” she said.
The last issue that was brought up was the vagueness of the act. Many people wanted to know what unfair working conditions were. Tracy Allen listed several different aspects such as unfair wages, pregnancy tests before hiring, locked bathrooms, forced abortions and other cruelties.
Sen. Carmen Tatis said that more information is still needed.
“It’s a great idea, but some things need to be qualified,” Tatis said.
Other senators wanted a list of companies that use sweatshops, and others wanted statistics such as how many people were actually employed at sweat-shops. The argument was finally dropped when it was deemed that statistics weren’t necessary to continue. It was also brought up that the university had already promised to supply $500 annually for this cause. After almost two hours of debate, the act passed.
Last night’s meeting also included the appointments of two new senators: Ryan Peters for the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture; and Derek Mitchell for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Another topic of the night was an act to have Veterans Day become acknowledged by the university. Sen. Jeff Bailey said he was surprised by the act, which soon was passed.
“I was shocked. No where have I worked or gone to school that they don’t celebrate Veterans Day,” he said.
Bumstock Director Elizabeth Hanson gave an update on the event. She said as there will not be a headliner this year; there won’t be a building up to one big band so people actually want to stay the whole day.
“We are trying to think of a way that if a student doesn’t want to see a band, there will be something there that makes them want to stay,” she said.
Bangor Daily News