• Sweatshop conditions and poverty wages: Workers making university apparel face abusive treatment, excessive working hours, dangerous conditions, and wages that are too low even to meet their basic needs.
  


• Illegal repression: When workers organize and demand improvements, they are subject to threats, harassment, illegal firings, and the closure of their factories.
  


• The race to the bottom: As multinational brands scan the globe for the cheapest products, supplier factories face extreme pressure to keep costs down. In this reality, workers and their unions have little hope of winning the wages and conditions they need.

The Solution: University apparel should be made in designated sweat-free factories, where workers have a voice on the job to stop sweatshop abuses and earn a living wage.

• A voice on the job: The best way to eliminate sweatshops is for workers to have the power to advocate for their interests on a daily basis through the collective voice of a union. University products must be made in factories where workers have this voice to eliminate sweatshop abuses.
  


• A living wage: The prices paid by U.S. clothing companies are simply too low for factories to pay workers enough to meet their basic needs. In order for workers to earn the income they need, we must require brands to pay the designated factories prices high enough to allow factories to pay their workers living wages.
  


• An alternative to the Wal-Mart model: Currently, most university apparel is produced in the same factories that produce for big box retailers like Wal-Mart, and under the sweatshop conditions that Wal-Mart essentially requires of its supplier factories. We must create an alternative model ñ a race to the top ñ in which university apparel is produced in factories that demonstrate respect for worker rights ñ not just low prices ñ and in which worker victories are sustained and protected.