Currently Spartan Shops was bought out by Barnes and Noble. Barnes and Noble uses the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to monitor conditions in factories where we receive our spartan apparel from. However, the FLA cannot be trusted becasue half of their board members are associated with large businesses like Nike and Wal-Mart. SJSU was affiliated with the WRC before but the contract was not re-newed. That's why USAS wants SJSU to re-affiliate with the Workers Rights Consortion, who is committed to making sure people who are making our SJSU apparel are not working in poor workplace conditions and are being paid and treated fairly.
USAS is a national student labor organization fighting for workers' rights with locals on over 150 campuses. http://usas.org/
Two decades after overseas sweatshop conditions first hit national headlines, garment factory conditions have become worse than ever. In Indonesia, workers are falling deeper and deeper into debt as greedy companies like Adidas refuse to pay them what they’re owed after cutting and running from their factories.
Using our unique leverage as students attending universities with multi-million dollar apparel programs, USAS holds apparel brands like Adidas responsible for their subcontracted workers, forcing them to respect workers' basic rights to fair wages, decent working conditions, and a union.
Alongside garment worker unions in the Global South, USAS has achieved some of the anti-sweatshop movement’s landmark victories.
