California campus labor activism is heating up this week. Eleven students at Stanford University were arrested as they sat in at the university president’s office to demand that Stanford end the use of sweatshop labor to make university branded clothing.

Eleven students were taking part in the protest that occupied President John Hennessey’s office for roughly five hours on Tuesday. Students have been protesting for nearly three months to pressure the Stanford into making sure all University sanctioned clothing is produced sweat-shop free. As the students held their sit-in, more students gathered outside – some fully clothed, others topless, and a handful fully nude. Hennessy’s assistant Jeff Wechtel said the President had plans to meet with the students on May 29. The students were charged with trespassing which holds a $500 fine or three months in jail.

By Doug Cunningham

Students at Stanford University occupied the university president’s office on Tuesday, demanding that the school join the Designated Supplier Program designed to end the use of sweatshop labor to produce university branded clothing. The students vowed to stay in the president’s office until Stanford agrees to join the program. Mark Liu is one of the student protesters and we spoke with him by cell phone from the lobby of the Stanford President’s office.

[Mark Liu]: “There's eleven students from the Sweat-Free Stanford Campaign who are sitting in at the president's office because there has been no concrete commitments by Stanford to make sure that their clothing is not made in sweatshops. We want them to join the Workers Rights Consortium, which is an independent monitoring agency, and the Designated Suppliers Program - which gives the university the power to enforce a code of conduct to ensure that there is a living wage for workers, that there's not child labor, there's a right to unionize and safe working conditions."

By Doug Cunningham

University of Southern California students held a sit-in Tuesday to demand the university support the anti-sweatshop Designated Suppliers Program. The program screens factories to prevent sweatshops from making university logo clothing. Fifteen students at the University of Michigan were recently arrested during a similar sit-in at the university president's office there.

By Doug Cunningham

A dozen University of Michigan students were arrested in a sit-in at the university president's office. The university rejected the students' demand that it stop using sweatshops to make university branded clothing. Molly Glasgow, Midwest Regional Coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops, says the students want the University of Michigan to join the Designated Supplier Program.

[Molly]: "It's a program to have all university apparel made in factories that provide suitable wages and allow unions to form."

By Doug Cunningham

The Purdue University hunger strikers ended their 27 day hunger strike this week as the university agreed to take a step toward participation in the anti-sweatshop Designated Supplier Program. The university hasn’t joined the program but will participate as observers for awhile. The hunger strike ended bu the struggle to get Purdue into the program to make sure its apparel isn’t made in sweatshops willl continue.

A number of hunger strikers at Purdue University enter their 20th day without solid food today. Jesse Russell reports:

Mark Franciose was one of the first students to hunger strike at Purdue. On Tuesday he told the Workers Independent News that he was starting to feel the effects:

[Franciose 1]: It’s definitely taking its toll, I have pains - I’m hoping to see a doctor when I have time.

The 15 students at Purdue who have been joined by hundreds of supporters both nationally and internationally are demanding that the university require Purdue apparel providers to practice fair labor standards - including letting workers unionize and demand living wages. Wednesday morning workers who had recently been fired from apparel plant in Kenya for trying to form a union called the office of Purdue’s President and received a chilly reception.

A hunger strike at Purdue University has begun to expand to Universities around the country through the power of the internet. Jesse Russell has more:

By Jesse Russell

Fifteen students are now on strike at Purdue University with at least one striker on his thirteenth day without solid food. They are demanding that the University require better labor standards from Purdue apparel suppliers. Through the power of the internet and social networking websites such as Facebook, the strike is spread off of Purdue’s campus and across the country. The “Support the Purdue Hunger Strike” Facebook group had more than 600 members as of Wednesday afternoon. Those members come not only from Purdue, but from around the country and as result solidarity strikes are breaking out on other University campuses. Ten students are on strike at the University of Colorado-Boulder and seven students at Santa Clara University in California. Also joining in are a handful of students at the University of North Carolina, Michigan State, and the University of Southern Mississippi. They want workers in factories where Purdue apparel is made to have the right to form a union, workers be allowed to demand higher wages, and the Purdue’s code of conduct to be enforced.

The hunger strike at Purdue University that began with only three students more than a week ago has grown to 15. The students are targeting the labor practices of apparel makers for the Big 10 University. Jesse Russell reports:

A hunger strike at Purdue University has entered its 11th day for many of the students taken part. The students are protesting the university contracting apparel providers who use sweatshop labor. They are demanding a Designated Supplier Program be adopted. Alex Hanna is one of the students striking; he says the administration has yet to acknowledge the students, many of whom are camped out in front of the President’s office.

By Doug Cunningham

Fifteen Purdue University students Thursday began a sit-in demanding the university adopt the Designated Supplier Program to ban sweatshop produced clothing from the university. Students are asking people to support them by calling Purdue President Martin Jischke at (765) 494-9708.

By Jesse Russell

Nine immigrant workers are filing a $1.5 million lawsuit against a former employer in Brooklyn. The workers allege in the suit that Bushwick Food Bazaar fired them with out paying any wages or giving them tips. They are also alleging that they worked long hours and suffered from harassment. National Mobilization against Sweatshops has not released the residency status of the workers, but is arguing that it shouldn’t matter since all workers have the right to a minimum wage under federal and state labor laws.

By Doug Cunningham

Some Target stores, including one in the Bronx, are selling Halloween costumes allegedly made under sweatshop conditions. The Labor federation of Workers, known by its Spanish language initials FTVO, says Target is selling costumes - including Barbie and Harry Potter costumes - from a Mexican factory where workers have been illegally locked out. The union says the costumes are made in horrible sweatshop conditions including the use of child labor. Labor activists are focusing a campaign on Target and Mattel to win union recognition for the locked out workers.

By Doug Cunningham

Wisconsin's state capitol has a new ordinance creating humane labor standards for all city garment purchases. The new ordinance in Madison requires that uniforms for police, fire and parks personnel be made in conditions that respect the economic dignity and human rights of workers, including the right to organize. Madison's anti-sweatshop ordinance sets up a monitoring system to check conditions in factories where clothing it buys is made.

Madison, Wisconsin is preparing to get the sweat out. The city council is set to weigh a bill that would prevent taxpayer money from being used to purchase goods made in sweatshops. City Alderman Austin King says he introduced the legislation because he felt it was time for the progressive city to adopt an ethical policy:

[King]: We're going to have an ethical standard for the way we spend our tax dollars and we're not going to use it on goods and services that were produced under really disgusting, inhumane conditions.

Marking the eve of Human Rights Day, National Labor Committee organized hundreds of NYU students to march through campus yesterday. The marchers were calling on fellow NYU students, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, to sign a pledge guaranteeing that any women sewing their garments sold at Walmart will be granted the legal right to maternity leave with benefits.

Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director of the National Labor Committee.

"Walmart is the biggest sweatshop abuser in the world today. Walmart says it has moral values, but Walmart has no moral compass. In Bangladesh today, women sewing Walmart clothing are working from eight o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock at night - fourteen hours a day, seven days a week with only ten days off a year. They're getting thirteen cents an hour. It would take a worker in Bangladesh one hundred and nine years to earn enough money to go to NYU for one year."