Students form labor action coalition

Student Labor Action Coalition works to raise student awareness

The Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC) is undertaking a major project that members hope will eliminate sweatshop labor and the mistreatment of their workers.

Currently SLAC is divided into two subgroups. While one group is focused on the sweatshops, the other group is working to create visibility during local unions' campaigns.

In early March, SLAC will be hosting Kim Myoshi from Global Awareness in California. Her talk will address corporate accountability, with specific reference to Nike.

The Sweatshop campaign is also working with the Co-op Bookstore and with the College's Athletic department to ensure that Oberlin College athletic gear is not being produced in sweatshops.

First-year Katherine Cristiani, who is heading the campaign, said, "Oberlin has a responsibility to make sure that we are not benefiting from unfair labor."

Sophomore Gillian Russom said, "The group is planning to meet with the unions that represent college employees. We're going to talk about how we can support workers that have upcoming contract changes."

United Auto Workers (UAW) and OCOPE are the two major unions that are represented here at Oberlin. The contracts of OCOPE workers are up for renegotiation at the end of this year.

We're a new group that is just beginning to establish relationships between groups on campus. We hope to be able to raise support and awareness of the students," Russom said.

The Student Labor Action Coalition is a new group and is currently working on developing a charter. Its purpose is to provide a vehicle in which students can work for labor activism.

Last semester the group hosted a public meeting with the presidents of two unions. The group wants to educate and promote awareness about student-worker relationships.

SLAC also helped petition for the workers to be rehired at Philips Gym. "Students provided a lot of assistance as far as mobilizing and putting on public and internal pressure," junior Sara Marcus said.

"The group worked hard on making phone calls, writing letters, and sending e-mails to administration to make them do the right thing. The protest was covered in all of the local area newspapers," said Marcus. "The Board of Trustees is really conservative but still, that is no excuse. The College needs to take more responsibility for its actions."