ABSTRACT
In 2009, on university and college campuses across the United States (US), Canada and the United Kingdom (UK), noisy, determined, well-informed students demonstrated against the mass sportswear retailer, Russell Athletic. They demanded that Russell reopen a plant in Honduras that had closed in response to a union drive, firing 1,200 workers. At the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals in Florida and Los Angeles, students denounced the NBA for its licensing agreement with Russell. At sporting goods stores, they called for a boycott against Russell. In Omaha, Nebraska, they protested at investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway head office, criticizing Berkshire's ownership of Russell's parent firm. Sixty-five US Congressional leaders signed a letter highlighting their ‘grave concern’ at reports of ‘severe violations’ of labour rights at Russell. The universities of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Cornell and some hundred others suspended millions of dollars worth of their purchases of Russell Athletic apparel. Faced with this multifaceted, sophisticated and well-organized campaign, Russell Athletic capitulated and agreed to reopen the Honduran plant, hire back the dismissed workers, recognize and bargain with the union, and not interfere with union drives at its other plants in Honduras (Greenhouse 2009; USAS 2009). It was an extraordinary victory at a time when most labour movements, not least in the United States, had been in massive retreat.
