For Immediate Release
Contact: Nathan Jun (njun [at] purdue.edu)
www.purduehungerstrike.org

Purdue students launch hunger strike demanding humane conditions for workers manufacturing university apparel

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND., USA — Purdue University undergraduate and graduate students are engaged in a hunger strike until university administrators agree to adopt a set of guidelines promising humane conditions for workers producing Purdue apparel.

The hunger strike began on Friday, November 17 and will continue until Purdue agrees to revise the guidelines for producers of university apparel. Students have been occupying various campus buildings 24 hours a day despite harassment from university administration and the Purdue police department.

“This isn’t a political or partisan issue, but a moral issue—an issue of basic human rights,” says hunger strike participant John Slavin, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the chemistry department. “We are on strike to put an end to Purdue’s complicity with the violence and oppression of sweatshop
labor.”

Students have been pressuring administrators to make Purdue a sweatshop-free campus for seven years — a policy already in place at 30 peers universities including Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over the
past year and a half, they have attempted to reach an agreement with the university, but have not received any concrete response to the administration’s objections to the guidelines proposed in the Designated
Suppliers Program (DSP).

The DSP requires manufactures of Purdue logoed apparel to adhere to standards including allowing workers to unionize if they desire and to bargain towards a living wage. It also requires that producers of Purdue apparel adhere to the university’s already established Code of Conduct for manufactures of logoed apparel—which is currently not being enforced by Purdue administrators.

By noon today, hunger strikers were contacted and interviewed by the Indianapolis Star, WBAA (West Lafayette, IN) The Journal & Courier, The Purdue Exponent, WLFI TV 18 (Lafayette, IN) and various university newspapers including Ball State and Purdue-Calumet. Below please find online media coverage to date:

Indianapolis Star:
www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

Lafayette Journal & Courier:
www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

WBAA FM 101.3/AM 920 (West Lafayette, IN)
www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbaa/news.newsmain

WBAA FM 101.3/AM 920 (West Lafayette, IN)
www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbaa/news.newsmain

Today, more than a dozen students formally declared their intention to join the strike by delivering letters to Purdue President Martin Jischke. Three other students have been on strike since 17 November, 18 November, and 20 November, respectively.

What you can do to help:
1. Visit our website (www.purduehungerstrike.org) to learn more about the strike.
2. Sign our online petition at www.petitiononline.com/nosweat/petition.html
3. Donate juices, decaffeinated tea/soda, and/or unrefined sugar to the strikers (currently camping-in in the Stewart Center outside Fowler Hall)
4. Send letters of support to the strikers c/o purdue_ole (at) yahoo.com or egcollective (at) riseup.net
5. Contact the Purdue Board of Trustees, President Martin Jischke, and Vice President of University Relations Joe Bennett
Purdue Board of Trustees

E-mail - trustees (at) purdue.edu

Phone: 765-494-9710

Fax: 765-496-7465

President Martin Jischke

E-mail: mcjischke (at) purdue.edu

Phone: 765-494-9708

Vice President of University Relations Joe Bennett

E-mail: jlbennett (at) purdue.edu

Phone: 765-494-2085

Thank you for your support.

In solidarity,

Nathan Jun, Purdue Alliance of Libertarian Socialists