Some corporate recruiters had a hard time doing their job at Wednesday night’s career fair at the Breslin Student Events Center.
Students for Economic Justice, an MSU anti-sweatshop organization, stood in front of the Kohl’s Department Store and Target Corp. booth to protest what some call unfair labor conditions.
Adam Szlachetka, who is involved with the group, said the protest was held because Kohl’s recently fired more than 700 workers in Nicaragua who tried to unionize.
“They could easily afford to give them minimum wage and they don’t,” Szlachetka, a political economy junior, said. “We don’t feel Kohl’s represents the MSU community at all.”
The protest was spurred by the visit of two Nicaraguan laborers who worked at an overseas factory contracted by Kohl’s. While on campus Monday, they asked for the students’ support, Szlachetka said.
The workers told students they were given very few bathroom breaks, subjected to cavity searches and not allowed to work if pregnant.
The protest consisted of students involved with the organization passing out fliers and telling students about sweatshop labor in Nicaragua.
“We’re not calling for a boycott,” Szlachetka said. “We just want people to know what’s going on. We definitely want to put pressure on the Kohl’s corporation.”
The front of the fliers read: “Mothers sewing Kohl’s jeans in Nicaragua have to raise their children on coffee because they can’t afford milk.”
Some students at the fair opted to take the fliers; Others did not. Nationwide protests have been going on and ten protesters were even arrested on Monday in Ann Arbor.
No such outbreaks occurred in East Lansing on Wednesday, as the students left less than an hour after they arrived at the Career Galler fair.
“I’m sure they’ll ask us to leave, but we’re not here to mess up the fair at all,” Szlachetka said.
Kohl’s was on campus recruiting for its summer internship program. Despite the protest, recruiters said they were successful.
Fahmida Zaman, the internship coordinator from the corporate offices, said she came to MSU looking for good students. And before 7 p.m. rolled around, her interview schedule was half full.
Zaman said she talked to the protesters and let them know who to contact in the corporate offices. Aside from that, she kept quiet.
“It’s fine,” she said. “They can do whatever they want. Our job is just to recruit.”
Still, Students for Economic Justice members seemed pleased with the outcome.
“We figure we did enough in here. We just wanted to come in here and pass out our fliers,” Erin Earhart said. “We’re just trying to raise the consciousness that these stores do use sweatshops.”
Earhart, an interdisciplinary humanities senior, said Kohl’s representatives acknowledged they have heard similar complaints and even said they were “working on” the situation.
“That’s what everyone says,” she said. “If enough people say they’re unhappy, things will change, they will be forced to change.”
