[sas-announce] anti-sweatshop motions for NUS conference

[Josh Robinson]

Dear all,

The following are some model motions from Students Against Sweatshops to 
take to NUS conference. If you can get these through your students' union 
and submit them to NUS conference, that would be great!

Each students' union can submit one motion in each 'zone' -- the four are 
Education, Welfare, Strong and Active Unions, and Society and Citizenship.

Josh
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Students Against Sweatshops: Model motions for NUS conference 2006
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Deadline for submission is December 2



Sweat-free campuses (Education debate)

Conference believes that

1. Many colleges sell merchandise. However, often little consideration has been 
given by college administrations to how, where and under what conditions, 
merchandise has been produced.
2. Many colleges have contracted-out cleaning, security, catering and other 
services. Often the companies that have been hired to provide these services 
pay poverty wages, with poor job security and no union rights.
3. Because of increasing awareness among students, action has place on a number 
of campuses to force college administrations to adopt codes of conduct, which 
commit college authorities to closely monitor and enforce high standards in the 
production of college merchandise.
4. A number of local campaigns (for example at QM in East London and Oxford 
Uni) have brought together academics, students, trade unionists and local 
community activists to campaign for living wages for all college workers on 
campus.

Conference further believes

1. That Constituent Members also have a responsibility to ensure Union-employed 
staff are paid ‘living wages’, that workers are able to join and be represented 
by a trade union, and that services are not contracted-out, but are brought ‘in 
house’.
2. That CMs should be encouraged to adopt a ‘buy union made’ policy whereby 
services and goods are purchased from firms where unions are recognised.
3. That the National Union has a particular responsibility to be seen to be 
promoting Fair Trade, anti-sweatshop and ethical campaigns. That verbal support 
for such campaigns is meaningless without the National Union acting  in its 
day-to-day practice and in the agreements it reaches with suppliers and 
partners  in line with this policy. NUS should not strike deals with sweatshop 
companies such as Top Shop and River Island, currently linked to NUS via the 
NUS card.

Conference resolves

1. That NUS should support No Sweat and Students Against Sweatshops.
2. That NUS should take the examples of Campus Living Wage campaigns at QM and 
Oxford and encourage similar initiatives across the UK.
3. NUS should adopt and encourage a ‘Buy Union Made’ policy in the student 
movement.
4. NUS should produce a ‘Sweat-free Campus’ pack detailing how CMs can campaign 
for a Living Wage for all campus workers, campaign against contracted out 
services, commit administrations to ethical/sweat-free buying policies.

(368 word)


Ethical NUS card (Strong and active unions debate)

Conference believes:

1. That those who benefit most from an NUS discount card are those who are 
least able to afford to pay for it.
2. That some of the companies currently promoted by the NUS card abuse the 
environment and subject their workers to inhumane conditions.
3. That there is a range of companies, including but not limited to, workers' 
co-operatives, renewable energy companies and manufacturers of sweat-free 
clothing, that have a less harmful impact on the environment and/or their 
workers.

Conference further believes:

1. That the discount card supplied by NUS should be available to all NUS 
members, regardless of their ability to pay for it.
2. That promoting more 'ethical' companies is a step towards improving the 
safety and working conditions of many workers worldwide.
3. That 'ethical consumerism' is no substitute for building practical 
solidarity with workers.

Conference resolves:

1. To consign to the dustbin of history the plans for a 'paid-for' NUS discount 
card.
2. To campaign to force all companies promoted by the NUS discount card to 
adhere to ILO standards in the workplace and reduce their environmental impact.
3. To use the NUS discount card actively to promote workers' co-operatives, 
fair-trade, renewable energy, and sweat-free clothing in accordance with ILO 
standards.

(192 words)


Students in the workplace (Welfare debate)

Conference believes

1. That driven by debt and poverty most students now have to work while also 
studying at college.
2. That working long hours, often late at night or early in the morning, while 
doing college work, has a detrimental effect on many students’ lives and 
studies.
3. That many students work in badly-paid jobs.
4. That many students take work in the service sector, in jobs such as bar 
work, catering, cleaning.
5.  That such jobs are unlikely to be unionised and that workers in such jobs 
often suffer from poor job security, poor health and safety, long hours, as 
well as low wages.

Conference further believes

1.  That many students are workers too.
2.  That all workers have the right to join a union and that NUS should 
actively encourage students to join a relevant trade union.
3. That NUS and the unions should encourage ‘best practice’ on British 
campuses: workers who work in SUs, college canteens, as security staff or 
cleaners all deserve decent pay, conditions and contracts. In particular NUS 
should encourage CMs to adopt ‘Living Wage’ campaigns on campuses, where 
workers are not paid around the bare legal minimum rates, but are paid a 
‘Living Wage’ (one estimate in London is that this amounts to at least £6.70 
per hour)
4. That contracting-out of services on campus must end; all services should be 
brought ‘in-house’.
5. That we should fight for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws introduced 
by the Tories and maintained by Blair which prevent workers from organising 
effectively for their rights.

Conference resolves

1. To instruct the NEC to actively discuss ways of campaigning with one or more 
of the national trade unions to unionise campus workers, students and 
non-students alike.
2. To launch such a campaign in the next academic year.
3. To campaign for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws.

(293 words)


Sweatshop labour (Society and Citizenship debate)

Conference believes

1. That some of the high street's most famous names, including Nike, Gap and 
Reebok, have been exposed as sweatshop employers. Children as young as eleven 
have been found working in scandalous conditions in factories commissioned by 
major brands to produce their goods.
2. That No Sweat has found sweatshops in the East End of London paying 
illegally low wages to workers producing clothes for Top Shop and other Oxford 
Street stores; that Phillip Green, owner of Arcadia (which includes Top Shop), 
recently paid himself and family members £1.2 billion in dividends.
3. That Batay Ouvriye, the Haitian union organisation, is currently engaged in 
a struggle to unionise some of the poorest workers in the world, but faces 
local bosses, hired thugs and transnationals such as Levi Strauss.
4. That college administrations often have no idea where and under what 
conditions college merchandise, and goods used on campuses, were made.
5. That many colleges have contracted out catering, security and cleaning 
services to anti-union companies which pay poverty wages.

Conference further believes

1. That “sweatshop” means: poverty pay, forced overtime, sexual abuse, poor 
health and safety and violent harassment, especially against trade unionists.
2. That sweatshop production is not only a problem in the less-developed world: 
No Sweat and the GMB union have found sweatshops in the East End of London, 
producing clothes for Top Shop and other Oxford Street stores.
3. That sweatshop workers must be free to organise independent trade unions: 
company-adopted codes of conduct mean very little without grass-roots union 
organisations which are capable of enforcing standards such as a limit to the 
length of the working week, decent health and safety
standards.
4. That the first national campus week of action, which took place over 11-18 
February, was a step forward towards developing student action in solidarity 
with sweatshop workers.
5. That NUS must campaign for ‘sweat-free campuses’ and back demands for 
college administrations to ensure living wages and union rights are guaranteed 
to all those who work on UK campuses.

Conference resolves

1. To support No Sweat, Amnesty, Students Against Sweatshops (SAS), People and 
Planet and other campaigns that expose child labour, poverty pay and lack of 
union rights.
2. To affiliate to No Sweat for £100 and donate £200 to its Haiti appeal.
3. To back the 2007 campus week of action against sweatshops.

(394 words)

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