Pittsburgh, PA – United Steelworkers of America (USWA) President George Becker today denounced yesterday mornings attack on protesting students at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) by university and state police in full riot gear.

Becker said the University’s use of armed police force to suppress a peaceful sit-in "appalls me even more than it did in Seattle. Universities are supposed to be bastions of free speech. But apparently speaking out against rank violations of workers’ human rights is not ‘politically correct’ at the University of Wisconsin.

"It’s cruelly ironic," Becker said, "that American universities are now reinforcing the moral hypocrisy of our nation’s trading policies."

Becker added that "the oppressive actions by the University of Wisconsin offer yet more proof that when students stand up for workers’ rights, their own rights are forcefully suppressed. We saw it in Seattle, and we’re seeing it again now at the University of Wisconsin."

Forty-eight student members of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) who were peacefully occupying the Chancellor’s office at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) were dragged off by university and state police in full riot gear and gas masks Sunday.

The students were protesting the university’s purchase of apparel made in sweatshops overseas, where abysmal working conditions and human rights violations are commonplace. The University of Wisconsin is one of many schools across the country that makes millions of dollars from the sale of clothes with its logo affixed to them.

"Instead of violating these students’ rights," Becker said, "the university should be applauding their moral fortitude." He said the United Steelworkers of America wholeheartedly supports the USAS’ drive to abolish the shameless purchase of goods made in sweatshops.

The Steelworkers President said the actions of the Wisconsin students, along with similar actions by students at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan and the earlier favorable decisions by the Universities of Notre Dame and California, signal a growing awareness of that "our trade polices create a race to the bottom on wages by shamelessly exploiting oppressed workers in developing countries.

"This is why the WTO must be reformed," Becker said. "This is why the push let China off the hook on its unparalleled violations of human rights must be defeated when Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China comes up for a vote in Congress."

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