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LOCAL/STATE nThe ichigan Daly -Tuesday, October 3, 2000-7
SOLE members storm Kohl' department store=
7
ARRESTS
Continued from Page 1
for the workers.
Former Chentex workers Angelica
Perez and Zenayda Torres have been
traveling with the NLC to speak
about the conditions at the factory.
Perez and Torres said they worked
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a
week for 30 cents an hour. They also
said that workers were also required
to work on Sundays until about
noon.
"They expected -us to work like
robots," Torres said.
When the workers attempted to
organize themselves and ask for bet-
ter conditions, they were fired, Perez
said.
"When we asked for a wage
increase, the company fired II union
leaders. The workers protested for
two and a half days - the company
fired 700 and hired new workers.
They put everyone on a blacklist and
no one can get a job at another facto-
ry," she said.
Throughout the protest, students
shouted for the Kohl's district man-
ager to call CEO Larry Montgomery
to tell him their demands.
"Bad conscience got your tongue?"
yelled RC senior Jason Keydel.
The district manager, who
declined to give his name, had no
comment.
Susan Henderson, Kohl's vice
president for communications,
reached at her office in Milwaukee
yesterday, said she was aware of the
problems at the Chentex facility and
that Kohl's is working to improve
working conditions there.
"We have launched an investiga-
tion into the Chentex factory," she
said, adding that as part of the com-
pany's terms of engagements for
Kohl's manufacturing vendors, "we
do inspect all of the facilities where
Kohl's products are produced."
Charles Kernaghan, executive
director of NLC, said he was disap-
pointed with Kohl's lack of commu-
nication.
"I thought Kohl's would be a bit
more human," because they are a
smaller retail chain, he said. "Kohl's
has no soul - it's lost its moral
compass. They are ruthlessly driven
by the bottom dollar."
Henderson said that Colby Inter-
national, one of Kohl's business
agents that conducts inspections,
found three areas of non-compliance
in the factory, including health and
safety violations, environmental
problems and employment record
mismanagement.
Henderson said Kohl's will follow
up with additional inspections, but
said the department store "will not
get involved in labor disputes
between third parties."
Since Kohl's does not own or
operate any manufacturing facilities
of its own, the company relies on
vendors.
The arrested students were booked
outside the store and given bond
receipts for trespassing, which is a
misdemeanor. They were released on
personal recognizance and their
cases will be referred to the Washte-
naw County prosecutor.
"I thought if I went and asked
them to leave they would, but that
didn't happen," said Pittsfield Twp.
Police Lt. Stephen Heller. "I'm sorry
we had to arrest them. They wanted
to make point and I guess we facili-
tated it..."
"I want do more to show Kohl's
that this is unjust," said Michele
Rudy, an LSA senior who was
arrested. Rudy said she did not
regret being arrested - "I'm not
doing enough," she said.
The protest also attracted a num-
ber of curious passers-by, including
one local man and his four-year old
adopted daughter, Lucy.
The man, who asked to be identi-
fied only as Don, said he was drawn
to the protests not only because he
was in favor of workers' rights, but
because labor conditions in the the
Third World have affected him per-
sonally. Lucy, who proudly held a
picture of Nicaraguan laborers, was
adopted from Guatemala.
"I think it's a good thing to raise
Don and his daughter Lucy, who requested that their last names not be used,
joined SOLE's anti-sweatshop protesters yesterday at the Ann Arbor Kohl's store.
awareness of what's going on in the
Third World," he said. He added that
there are many children such as Lucy
whose parents cannot afford to keep
them because of low wages.
Besides Rudy, those arrested were
RC senior Scott Burkhardt, LSA
sophomore Sheila McClear, RC
freshman Sasha Wright, LSA senior
Rachel Edelman, RC freshman Adri.-
an Esquivel, LSA sophomore Chris
Fici, LSA freshman Matt Hannah,
LSA senior Scott Trudeau and RC
sophomore David Lempert.
'U' pays for new offices for Tower Societies
MICHIGAMUA
Continued from Page 1
chose not to apply for space last year when members
knew there was a possibility of being removed from
the tower.
"Michigamua was told they should apply like any
other student group," said Routel, a Law student,
"They refused and said if they lost their space, they'd
go off-campus. They made that choice and they
should've followed through with it."
Adrian Prather, Engineering junior and
Phoenix member, said his group foresaw that
they'd have to vacate the Union.
"We figured that it was definitely privileged
space; we knew that," Prather said. "It was too
much of a problem for us to stay there."
University graduate Marisa Thomas, a former
Phoenix member, said the administration took
the lead on finding new accommodations.
"Really, the administration found the space.
But we did all the physical move," Thomas said.
Both Thomas and Prather said their new office
is smaller and less comfortable than their previ-
ous office.
University administrators proposed transition-
al space for Michigamua during the first week of
the tower occupation in February.
SCC members rejected the proposal because
they thought it was still special treatment, Rou-
tel said.
"We explained why we thought this was unfair
and magically it came out of the woodwork this
summer,' Routel said. "We expected nothing
less from the administration and of course it's
not at all what we want."
The SCC's occupation of Michigamua's meet-
ing space ignited a fiery debate over space allo-
cation for student groups. A panel was assigned
to analyze the process and make recommenda-
"We explained why we thought this was unfair and
(Michigamua's move) magically came out of the
woodwork this summer."
- Collette Routtl
Students of Color Coalition member
tions to Harper and Bollinger.
Among the recommendations released in
April, the panel suggested organizations should
respect diverse perspectives and should not be
given indefinite University-owned space.
One recommendation suggests that groups
wanting space in buildings such as the Michigan
League and Union should be registered with
Michigan Student Assembly.
The MSA Website for group registration lists
the privilege of Union office space as a benefit
of registration with the assembly, but none of the
Tower Societies are registered on the site.
Harper pointed out that MSA isn't registered
either, although it has it's own office in the
Union.
Harper said she normally doesn't get involved
in the space allocation process except in special
cases of big events or transitions.
"The (University) president said in a state-
ment that the interim dean of students should
coordinate the move," Harper said.
Cianciola also identified the president's state-
ment as the motivation for finding alternate
office space for the societies.
In the other University aided move, the Inter-
Cooperative Council - which coordinates coop-
erative housing - and the Student Buyers
Association, which provides food for co-ops and
Greek houses, lost their offices on the fourth
floor following renovations, said Richard
Swonger, ICC director of financial services.
Cianciola said all groups forced out were
offered temporary space in the Perry Building
on Packard Avenue.
"They offered to help us find space, as they dlo
for all student groups," said Susan Caya, ICC
director of education and training.
Swonger said the administration "was no help
whatever," adding that SBA occupied its Unian
office for about 20 years.
"They showed absolutely no interest in us,"
Swonger said.
Caya maintained that there was a general offer
of temporary space to the organizations that no
longer had space at the Union, but the ICC
chose to find a new location independently. She
declined to comment on any problems she may
have encountered with the administration.
The Union meeting space of most student
groups is pretty stable, said SNRE senior Jessica
Mendelowitz, president of Environmental
Action.
"We'd be pretty shocked if we lost our office
space," she said.
Mendelowitz said EnAct applies every two
years to renew the lease they've had "for years
and years."
"I feel that priority does go to those who do
obvious projects on campus," she said.
TRIBE
Continued from Page 1
tion by two anthropology professors
- Terence Turner of Cornell Universi-
ty and Leslie Sponsel of University of
Hawaii at Manoa - in which the two
concur with Tierney's findings.
"In its scale, ramifications, and
sheer criminality and corruption it is
unparalleled in the history of anthro-
pology," Turner and Sponsel wrote.
"Tierney presents convincing evidence
that Neel and Chagnon, on their trip to
the Yanomami in 1968, greatly exacer-
bated, and probably started, the epi-
demic of measles that killed hundreds,
perhaps thousands."
Peter Ward, chairman of the pathol-
ogy department at the University's
Medical School, said Tierney's claims
are unfounded, as the measles epidem-
ic reached the tribe a year or two
before the research team was present.
"A large amount of the population
also died because of the measles,"
Ward said.
But Ward said there is no way to
know the true story.
"I don't think anyone can really
know what happened," Ward said. "As
far as anybody knows, the individuals
were healthy, and the question is did
they die because of the virus or the
vaccine?"
University Provost Nancy Cantor in
a written statement negated some of
the items that Tierney addressed.
"Allegations, particularly those
involving academic work of highly
distinguished scholars in their field,
require a fair and proper peer review
- not a sensationalized public discus-
sion in the headlines and over the
Internet," Cantor said.
"The measles outbreak occurred in
November 1967. Measles was intro-
duced into the region by a party of
Brazilian missionaries before the Janu-
ary 1968 arrival of the Neel expedi-
tion," she said. "There is substantial
evidence of the outbreak existing long
Before Dr. Neel left for Venezuela, so
Dr. Neel could not have been the
cause."
Cantor also said that compared to
normal outbreaks of the measles, the
death rate in this tribe was comparably
lower.
"The predicted death rate from
untreated measles is 30 percent to 36
percent; the most common complica-
tion is bacterial pneumonia. In this
outbreak, the death rate was a very low
8.8 percent, showing clearly that prop-
er medical care was provided," she
said.
The American Anthropological
Association issued a statement on the
allegations, in which it said that if
proven true, a serious violation of the
Yanomami human rights and of the
AAA Code of Ethics would have
occurred. But, the association it will
conduct a full investigation to decide if
Neel violated its code.
"This book presents the views, cox-
clusions and opinions of its author. Bis
extremely important, however, that other
individuals featured in the book be
afforded the opportunity to express their
own views on its contents," the associa-
tion's statement said.
Turner issued another e-mail Thur-
day in which he said he did not neces-
sarily believe what Tierney had
written, but instead had wanted to
warn the AAA of what could possibly
happen.
"The sole purpose of the memo was
to describe these allegations, in order
to warn the leaders of the association
of the nature of the allegations that
were about to be published and the
scandal they would probably cause for
the whole profession," Turner said.
The AAA wants to hold an open
forum during its annual meeting next
month so members of the association
can discuss issues raised in the book,
DEBATES
Continued from Page 1
"Bush has to show his critics and the American
public that he's up to speed on the issues," he
added.
LSA freshman Alden Givens said that although he
has already decided to vote for Gore, he will be
watching the debate.
"You can't just go in blind," he said. "You gotta
know something about it."
But Givens said that "not one single thing" could
happen tonight to change his vote.
Although the debating abilities of the two candi-
dates have been heavily discussed throughout the
past few weeks, Ballenger said he believes that they
will not overshadow the actual issues.
"I don't think the issues will take a back seat," he
said. "I think they'll be front and center."
But, Ballenger added, "Strategy may be telling."
Ballenger alluded to the image of Former
President George Bush looking at his watch as
then-candidate Bill Clinton spoke during the
1992 debate.
The image, Ballenger said, dominated the
post-debate commentary and fortified the belief
that Bush did not care about the troubled econo-
my.
Two people not included in the debate are
Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and Reform
Party candidate Pat Buchanan.
Neither received the required 15 percent popu-
lar support that allowed third party candidate
Ross Perot into the 1992 debate.
Nader supporters passed around a petition to get
the candidate into the debate when he visited the
Michigan Theater two weeks ago.
"That's not fair," Givens said of Nader's exclu-
sion. "He's obviously got some kind of following.
At the end, if he wasn't what the majority wanted
he'd be in the same boat as Gore or Bush or who-
ever loses."