Eleven students caroled in protest at President Neil Kerwin’s office on Dec. 4, urging the administration to improve safety standards for the Bangladeshi employees working at AU’s apparel manufacturers.
The “Caroling to Kerwin” protest was hosted by the AU End Deathtraps Coalition, a group of students that supports the rights of the workers who make AU apparel, according to Caiden Jay Elmer, a member and junior in the School of International Service. The coalition is a larger group made up of the AU Student Worker Alliance, Amnesty International and Ecosense.
The group walked together to the office singing a modified version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” that urged AU to put an end to the workers’ suffering. The song replaced the original lyrics with lines such as, “Kerwin with your smile so bright, won’t you change the code tonight?”
Some AU apparel is made in eight Bangladeshi factories, which do not have sound safety and fire regulations, according to the group’s protest announcement.
Coalition member Katie Plank, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she attended the protest to show the administration that the neglect of workers’ safety and rights was not something she supported as a student.
“AU, by selling apparel made in factories in Bangladesh, is complicit with upholding unsafe standards, and that’s not something that we think we should be a part of,” she said.
Once at the offices, the group sang and read its letter of intent to Kerwin’s secretary and another staff member, who accepted the letter on behalf of Kerwin, who was not in the office. Department of Public Safety officers monitored and followed the marchers to the office.
AU End Deathtraps Coalition asked that the administration require the manufacturing brands sign the Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh, an agreement created by Bangladeshi and international union groups that provides workers with more safety protections in the factories.
By signing the accord, factories would have to provide health and safety inspections, brand companies would have to invest more funds for safety repairs and workers in the factories would be given collective bargaining rights to ask for better working conditions.
Plank said that the day’s protest was not simply to make a statement, but to show the administration that the coalition is serious about its cause.
“It’s not meant to be huge or intimidating, it’s just a reminder that we’re still here,” she said. “And it’s also to genuinely wish them all a happy holidays, and to remind that a great gift to the students and for the Bangladeshi workers would be to change the Code of Conduct so that things are safer.”
kmagill@theeagleonline.com
