Spring Break
The Daily OrangeSU's fight for workers' rights continues despite recent setbacks
By Lauren Bertolini
Posted: 4/1/08, 11:04 PM EST Section: News
A student-driven crusade for workers' rights had all but disappeared when Nick Cavanaugh's roommate asked for help to revive the group in 2004 - something he did without hesitation.
"I heard about it in the years prior and had picked up in some of the lore of the organization," he said.
Cavanaugh became a driving force in the second wave of the Student Coalition on Organized Labor (SCOOL), a group known for pressuring Syracuse University to join the anti-sweatshop movement in the late 1990s.
SCOOL drew the attention of the administration in its early years by staging teach-ins and organizing informational sessions, said Fran Clarke, the program director of the SU branch of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
As time passed, the group organized sleep-outs on the Quad and other vocal protests, "to raise awareness right about the time that the administration was deciding whether or not to sign on," Clarke said.
The efforts by SCOOL paid off when SU became one of 176 schools to affiliate with the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC), a watchdog organization that works to ensure higher wages and better working conditions in factories where college and university apparel is produced.
But most of the groups dropped out of the fight for the cause. The events of Sept. 11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq shifted the focus of student activists from the effects of globalization to the anti-war movement, Clarke said.
Cavanaugh and a small group of students decided to jumpstart SCOOL in 2004. The group saw further success when SU agreed to publicly support a WRC program, which limited the production of university apparel to select factories, allowing them to maintain a closer eye on worker conditions.
"I was hoping that by joining up with this national campaign (we would) really make a change in the industry, and that the power dynamic in the industry would shift to the needs and desires of the clothing workers," Cavanaugh said.
"I heard about it in the years prior and had picked up in some of the lore of the organization," he said.
Cavanaugh became a driving force in the second wave of the Student Coalition on Organized Labor (SCOOL), a group known for pressuring Syracuse University to join the anti-sweatshop movement in the late 1990s.
SCOOL drew the attention of the administration in its early years by staging teach-ins and organizing informational sessions, said Fran Clarke, the program director of the SU branch of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
As time passed, the group organized sleep-outs on the Quad and other vocal protests, "to raise awareness right about the time that the administration was deciding whether or not to sign on," Clarke said.
The efforts by SCOOL paid off when SU became one of 176 schools to affiliate with the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC), a watchdog organization that works to ensure higher wages and better working conditions in factories where college and university apparel is produced.
But most of the groups dropped out of the fight for the cause. The events of Sept. 11 and the beginning of the war in Iraq shifted the focus of student activists from the effects of globalization to the anti-war movement, Clarke said.
Cavanaugh and a small group of students decided to jumpstart SCOOL in 2004. The group saw further success when SU agreed to publicly support a WRC program, which limited the production of university apparel to select factories, allowing them to maintain a closer eye on worker conditions.
"I was hoping that by joining up with this national campaign (we would) really make a change in the industry, and that the power dynamic in the industry would shift to the needs and desires of the clothing workers," Cavanaugh said.
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