Protest officially over after 9 days

Penn withdrew from the Fair Labor Association, effective immediately. The student anti-sweatshop protesters ended their nine-day sit-in yesterday as University President Judith Rodin officially withdrew from the Fair Labor Association and promised to re-evaluate factory monitoring options. Yesterday afternoon, Rodin faxed a letter of withdrawal to the FLA, which had been monitoring the manufacture of Penn-logo apparel. The agreement also specifies that the Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor -- comprised of students, faculty and administrators -- will evaluate the different monitoring organizations and make a recommendation to Rodin by February 29. Rodin said she was pleased with the outcome, calling it a "strategy with no strings attached." She added that this decision "will wipe the slate clean and have the committee continue to do its work." Members of Penn Students Against Sweatshops expressed high spirits at the conclusion of their protest. The agreement made Penn the first school to withdraw from the FLA, which activists maintain is biased and ineffective. "We feel as a result of our actions President Rodin has made a good decision," PSAS member and College sophomore Harrison Blum said yesterday afternoon, as the students cleared away the sleeping bags and rolled up their protest signs in College Hall. Thirteen students began the sit-in last week demanding that the University pull out of the FLA and join the Worker Rights Consortium, which they claim more effectively monitors labor conditions because it is run by human rights organizations rather than the corporations it watches. "We're going to consider monitoring organizations from scratch now," PSAS Coordinator and College senior Miriam Joffe-Block said. "Our voice has been heard." According to Public Policy and Management Professor Howard Kunreuther, who chairs the committee, the group decided at its second meeting yesterday that it will draft a code of conduct for the University and use this to evaluate both the FLA and WRC. Previously, the only specified goal for the committee was to examine codes of conduct. "I felt very strongly that the deliberative process had to move forward," Rodin said. With both parties agreeing to the final details of the arrangement, PSAS members spent yesterday evening moving out of the building that had become their home for the past nine days. During that time, the group received extensive coverage in the local media, as well as from college newspapers across the country. They held several rallies and captured the attention of a campus normally apathetic to social causes. PSAS will continue its two-day fast until noon tomorrow. Over 60 colleges and universities are fasting in sympathy with the Penn protesters. PSAS members were quick to emphasize that yesterday's victory did not mean their work on the issue was over, noting that the University had yet to make a decision on future membership in monitoring organizations. "There's still a lot of work to do," said Anne Wadsworth, a PSAS member and Nursing freshman, who added that while Rodin has expressed concern for workers' rights, "she knows what we're capable of; we know what she's capable of." "It may take time but I didn't see any reason why we can't come to an agreement that works for both sides," Wadsworth added. The student movement against sweatshop labor, led by PSAS, has been gathering momentum across campus since the sit-in began. The original group of 13 students spending their days and nights in College Hall swelled to 35 on Monday and 28 student groups declared their support for the sit-in. Yesterday's arrangement resonated beyond the students in College Hall, with many student groups saying they agreed with the resolution. "The University has made the right decision to look at the WRC and hopefully decides to join the WRC," said United Minorities Council Political Chair Archana Jayaram, a College junior, after yesterday's announcement. "We saw it as a human rights issue." And the Undergraduate Assembly also commended the students' activism and yesterday's decision. "We applaud everything that's gone on," UA Vice-Chair and Wharton senior Ryan Robinson said. "We applaud the University for jumping on this and acting on it promptly and making an educated decision."

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