According to Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality, wearing certain maize-and-blue apparel is not just a fashion choice. It's a moral dilemma.

SOLE claims many of the millions of hats, t-shirts and other clothing bearing the University's logo are produced in sweatshops in countries with little or no enforcement of labor regulations.

About 10 students gathered in the Union on Wednesday night to launch a new anti-sweatshop initiative to change the standard to which the University holds big brands that produce Michigan attire.

"Universities have a monopoly over their logo," said LSA sophomore Art Reyes, a member of SOLE. "No one can produce a University shirt without the University's permission."

The campaign submitted to the University last fall a proposal to require brands to only use factories that meet the requirements of the Designated Suppliers Program - a program under the watchdog group United Students Against Sweatshops, which maintains a list of factories with good labor practices.

The proposal is still under consideration, said RC sophomore Adri Miller, a SOLE member.

Members of the Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights could not be reached for comment.

According to the USAS website, the factories that meet the requirements of the Designated Suppliers Program have been "determined by universities to have affirmatively demonstrated full and consistent respect for the rights of their employees." Two other main stipulations regard rights of association and livable wages.

This is not the first time SOLE has campaigned on Michigan apparel.

In March 2001, the University implemented a supplier code of conduct that required all factories producing licensed University attire to enforce a set of labor standards, including a limit on work hours and fair pay.

Members of SOLE agreed that the code was a step in the right direction, but said the measure did little to improve working conditions because it doesn't hold brands responsible for conditions in factories to which they outsource labor.

"Brands say that they can't force (their suppliers) to enact fair labor practices," Miller said.

She said brands can break with factories if they do not approve of a factory's labor methods.

University products constitute a considerable percentage of sales for big-name brands, so universities carry a lot of leverage, Miller said.

If standards are raised, people on the street probably won't notice a significant price increase, she said

"We can't be exact about these numbers, because brands aren't forced to disclose wages, but we do know for sure that they're low," she said.

SOLE plans to employ similar tactics as the campaign that forced the University and other colleges to cut their contracts with Coca-Cola, such as pressuring the administration and working as a coalition with other student groups.