DETROIT (AP) -- Police arrested a dozen University of Michigan students who occupied the president's office Tuesday to protest what they call the school's failure to follow its own policies on sweatshop labor.þþThe students were arrested for refusing to leave the building at the end of business hours, said university police spokeswoman Diane Brown. They were to be released Tuesday night.þþThe students were among a larger group that protested outside the building on the Ann Arbor campus, holding anti-sweatshop placards, chanting slogans and beating drums.þþStudents Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality has long urged the university to tackle labor conditions at its apparel manufacturing sites, said Blase Kearney, who told The Associated Press he was participating in the sit-in.þþ''We were ready to go in today and demand that they do something about it,'' Kearney said Tuesday.þþAfter a similar sit-in in 1999, the college issued guidelines for protection of workers at plants that produce apparel licensed by the university. The university said it would require vendors to disclose working conditions in factories.þþUniversity spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said protesters Tuesday were singling out the school's decision not to join a designated supplier program as a way of monitoring overseas labor conditions. Cunningham said a committee previously studied the program but determined it held ''unintended consequences'' for apparel workers.þþThe committee is to release a report recommending alternatives this month. President Mary Sue Coleman plans to meet with students and panel members to discuss the findings, Cunningham said.þ
Source: NY Times
