On the steps of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, members of the student group Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality held up large banners with phrases such as “U of M uses SWEATSHOPS” and “We Support a SWEAT-FREE Community!”

Through a megaphone, Kristen McRay, a member of SOLE, announced, “Our University uses sweatshops to make our clothing.This needs to stop and we can stop this!”

SOLE demonstrated on the Diag yesterday to accuse the University of not adhering to the Code of Conduct for University of Michigan Licensees. The code protects employees of companies that make products carrying the University logo from harassment and abuse and provides them with the freedom of association and collective bargaining. The University has contracts with companies that violate the code, said Engineering senior Michael Lear, a member of SOLE.

“After six years of organizing solidarity, we have the Code of Conduct, but it remains merely a piece of paper. The University hasn’t enforced it.”

Students came to the steps of the library to sign a banner that will serve as a petition that will be given to the administration to show that students do care whether the products carrying the University’s logo are made under proper conditions.

At the rally, McRay said, “I don’t want to worry about the women who made my sweatshirt being sexually harassed. I don’t want to worry about her not making an efficient living wage.”

Julie Peterson, the University spokeswoman, responded to the accusations made by SOLE by saying the University has procedures in place to address labor violations.

“There is a structure in place to deal with concerns such as these,” Peterson said. “The Standing Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights, headed by (Epidemiology Prof.) Sioban Harlow, was created to address human rights and labor issues and recommend the next steps to be taken with companies violating the Code, whether that be terminating a contract or writing a letter of concern.”

Companies the University is associated with, such as BJ&B which has a plant in the Dominican Republic, and Gildan, which has a plant in Honduras, have been violating the Code of Conduct, SOLE said. According to SOLE, BJ&B will not follow the code or fairly bargain with their employees, and Gildan decided to close down its El Progreso facility instead of amending their labor violations after an audit by the Fair Labor Association, a labor rights monitoring organization.

The University has enforced the Code of Conduct in the past. For example, the University’s contract with Land’s End was cut last year when their factories were discovered to be blacklisting employees who organized unions. However, the code does not punish companies that close their factories instead of preventing human rights violations, as SOLE claims Gildan has done.

In a July press release, Gildan said while it would close its cited facility in Honduras, it had already complied with several of the actions proposed by the Fair Labor Association.

According to members of SOLE, the University has not done enough to end the use of sweatshop labor. “A framework has been set up already, but parts of it can be easily stalled by the administration,” Lear said. “Because of this, students need to make their voices heard; students need to be a presence, a unified voice for the enforcement of the code.”