Students Occupy Rutgers Admin Building in Sweatshop Protest

An occupy protest developed on Friday when a group of students protesting  Rutgers University's relationship with a controversial sweatshop monitoring group occupied the Old Queens administration building after being informed that President Richard McCormick was not available to speak with them.

United Students Against Sweatshops said they have been engaged in dialogue with McCormick for two years about having Rutgers' disaffiliate with the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a controversial sweatshop monitoring organization.

"For two years students have asked the University to stop paying the the FLA thousands of dollars in yearly affiliation fees, citing the organization's decade long failure to improve conditions in factories producing Scarlet Knight Apparel and record of covering up abuses in member companies’ contracted factories," a release from the student group said Friday.

The 22 students arrived at McCormick's office around 1 p.m. Friday with the intent of confronting McCormick and again asking him to discontinue the university's involvement with the FLA. 

The occupation began when they were told he was not available to speak with them, and lasted about four hours.

Word spread quickly via social media and phone calls, and students slowly trickled over to stand outside the building to show support for their classmates.

Rutgers police blocked the entrances to the building and did not allow anyone without an appointment to enter.

Among the students standing outside was Matt Cordeiro, president of the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA), who said that Rutgers is also affiliated with the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) a watchdog group that monitors illegal labor practices in factories.

The WRC is a respected group with less corporate interests, Cordeiro said.

"One has demonstrated it is worth it's salt, the other isn't," he said.

RUSA passed a resolution about a month ago stating that the university should disaffiliate with the FLA, Cordeiro said.

One week ago, the students with USAS met with McCormick at the Red Lion Cafe on College Avenue and threw him a complete with party hats and cake.

At that meeting, McCormick said the university would not be ending it's relationship with the FLA, causing the students to walk out in protest.

University spokesman Greg Trevor said the students walked out before McCormick could give a full explanation as to his decision.

McCormick sent a letter to the students on Wednesday thanking the students for their efforts and stating that he has spoken to the CEO of the FLA and raised the concerns of the students.

McCormick said the FLA has taken steps to improve its operations, including the formation of a student advisory board, and the public release of an audit of conditions at a Foxconn factory in China that had a high number of labor violations.

"It is my view that these steps, one of them directly related to a Rutgers recommendation and the other of potentially historic benefit to workers in China, merit our university's continued membership in the FLA," McCormick said in the letter. "I will thus recommend to to the incoming president, Robert L. Barchi, that Rutgers remain in the FLA for at least the next two years so that we can see whether progress is truly made at these factories, and also so that we can see the implementation of a student advisory council and its impact on the FLA."

Trevor said that McCormick was not available to speak to the students on Friday, and that they were asked to schedule a meeting with him.

Yara Calcano, 20, a protester with the group, claimed she was physically removed from the building by Rutgers police when she asked if she could visit the bathroom.

Calcano said an officer led her to the front door of Old Queens, at which point she said she was physically handled and pushed out the door.

Calcano said she was told she was trespassing while she was being ejected.

Rutgers police referred comment to the Rutgers public relations department.

Trevor said that when the student asked to go to the bathroom, she was escorted from the building.

Calcano said the students did walk out of the April 20 meeting out of frustration over the process, which has been a "back and forth" for two years.

The meeting was moved from the official meeting space at Winants Hall to the Red Lion Cafe, which Calcano said offended the students.

"They're not taking us seriously," she said.

The students involved with the USAS are asking McCormick to disaffiliate with the FLA before he leaves office on June 30.

Student Richard Garzon said the students made a group decision to leave the building around 5 p.m. when it was decided that more people wanted to leave than to stay, but the cause was still very important to them.

They plan on taking it up next year with incoming Rutgers president Robert L. Barchi, Garzon said.