UNR students vs. clothing company

The student-owned bookstore at the University of Nevada, Reno is dumping one of its suppliers.

The facility joins a number of other campuses across the nation that have dropped Russell Athletic Apparel because of its labor practices in Honduras.

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) has been organizing campuses against Russell and its owner Fruit of the Loom. USAS charges that workers at a Honduran plant work overtime unpaid to meet high production quotas and are provided with unsanitary drinking water. In October 2008, workers at the Honduran plant attempted to organize in response to wages of $40 to $60 a week.

Russell’s Jerzees De Honduras plant was shut down at a time when the company faced an order to resume negotiations with the union, USAS says, leaving 1,800 employees without a job.