Students’ dilemma: Fight cancer or support sweatshops?

Keren Gottfried a student journalist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, is reporting on an interesting ethical dilemma on campus. The school’s book store is selling T-shirts for $10. Six of those dollars will go to fight cancer. That’s a great cause, few would argue, right? Wrong!

A group of students is questioning where the shirts came from and under what conditions they were made. Great questions, right? Right! The fabric was made in the USA, sent to Honduras where it was sewn, shipped back to the USA, printed, and eventually found their way into Wilfrid Laurier’s bookstore. Can all of that traveling be done for $4, some of which is profit? Maybe, but the labor expenses need to be real low.

Keren contacted the company that made her shirt and asked them. You should read her article. Of great interest to me is that Keren gets stonewalled by Delta Apparel – the same folks who stonewalled me on the first leg of my WAIW? quest.

It’s always great to see other people asking “Where Am I Wearing?” I just wish the answers were easier to come by.