The campaign has been going on at USC for about eight years. The protesters were members of the Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation, and they are part of a nationwide effort by students lobbying universities to make sure college-themed clothing is not produced under sweatshop conditions.
The students want USC to join the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent monitoring group, to ensure proper working conditions for those producing university-themed apparel. They also urged USC to join other colleges that abide by the consortium's Designated Suppliers Program, which ensures that workers producing such apparel can form unions.
"We agree with their objective," said Grant of the students. But he described the consortium as being on "the radical end" of the spectrum and said it does not equally represent manufacturers, as well as workers, in the garment industry. A university handout said USC belongs to the Fair Labor Assn., described as a trade group dedicated to improving workplace conditions in the clothing industry.
In the end, 12 students and one attorney from the National Lawyers Guild abandoned the sit-in. A 13th student and a second lawyer had left the protest for bathroom breaks and had not been allowed to return.
About 30 minutes before Michael L. Jackson, vice president of student affairs, delivered Suite's letters, the university let loose another weapon: It began calling parents.
Worried parents then began calling the students on cellphones to urge them to quit the protest.
Said Andrew Bunting, an international relations and German major, of the parental calls: "It was clearly a very calculated ... one-two punch."
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angie.green@latimes.com
