Student activism against labor violations at a Honduran Fruit of the Loom plant made its way here Friday, when United Students Against Sweatshops held a community forum to discuss the situation in Fruit of the Loom’s corporate home city.

About 25 people gathered at the Western Kentucky University ALIVE Center for the forum moderated by USAS, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that has encouraged nearly 100 universities nationwide to stop doing business with Fruit of the Loom and its subsidiary Russell Athletic, which makes athletic apparel for many universities and colleges, including WKU.

Jack Mahoney, a staff member for USAS and Georgetown University graduate, said that Friday’s forum was the culmination of a week in which USAS members from several universities visited Bowling Green to speak with residents, clergy, community organizations and labor representatives about the efforts of workers in Honduras to unionize at Jerzees De Honduras, which produces sweatshirts, shorts, T-shirts and other apparel for Fruit of the Loom and Russell Athletic.

In October 2008, workers at the plant attempted to organize in response to making wages of $40 to $60 a week, which Mahoney said was not enough to make a decent living in Honduras, working unpaid overtime to meet high production quotas and having unsanitary drinking water at the plant.

Five days after negotiations with plant leaders stalled and the company would have been ordered by law to enter into mediation with the union, Fruit of the Loom announced it was closing Jerzees De Honduras, leaving 1,800 employees without a job.

Fruit of the Loom is Honduras’ largest private employer, with 10 factories operating there, none of which is unionized.

Mahoney said the shutdown has had ramifications for universities that have had licensing contracts with Russell, leading nearly 100 schools - including the University of Louisville - to end their association with the company.

The licensing contracts of those universities that have severed ties with Fruit of the Loom stipulated that apparel providers sign a workplace code of conduct to ensure worker rights.

“There are very clear guidelines set forth by hundreds of universities for conditions in these factories, and in a number of ways those guidelines have been violated,” Mahoney said.

While many of the people USAS has met here have been receptive, Mahoney said they had hoped to discuss the situation with Fruit of the Loom representatives here.

No one from the company appeared at Friday’s meeting, though Mahoney said he extended an invitation.

Fruit of the Loom spokesman John Shivel declined comment in an e-mail.

Greg Capillo, a WKU senior from Bowling Green, said that the goal of the forum was not necessarily to force the university to boycott the company, but instead to enable USAS to hear from community members about the situation.

“Our goal here is not to destroy Fruit of the Loom or bring down global capitalism; we want to see the laborers go back to work in an environment ... that is equitable and fair,” said Capillo, a member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Americans for an Informed Democracy. “I don’t think the people at Fruit of the Loom are monsters, they’re just people who made a probably difficult economic decision that I don’t feel is right.”

Eldon Renaud, president of UAW Local 2164 and former Bowling Green mayor, attended the forum and said he has been in contact this week with Fruit of the Loom CEO John Holland about arranging a meeting to discuss the company’s efforts to negotiate with the Honduran workers and reopen the factory.

“I’m confident that what you’re doing right here will pay dividends for the workers in Honduras,” Renaud told the group.

Andrew Hammond of Bowling Green said he has traveled to Honduras five times through his family’s missionary work, and that he has gotten to know a Jerzees De Honduras employee through his travels.

Hammond said that he wanted to see the workers be able to return to their jobs, but questioned whether a boycott would be the most effective strategy.

Hammond also said that working conditions had been improving at the factory.

“Forty to sixty dollars a week is an excellent wage down there,” Hammond said. “If (wages) were $25 or less, that would be deplorable.”

Mahoney responded that the main concern is making sure that Fruit of the Loom recognizes the laborers’ right to organize.

“I don’t think we can look at that and say there’s no cause for concern,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said that if the workers’ demands are met and the factory reopens, USAS will recognize Fruit of the Loom for “doing the right thing,” and that the organization would also support universities that would look to re-enter licensing agreements with Russell if the workers in Honduras are allowed to organize and return to their jobs.