Ball Markers Focus of Sweatshop Protest

The Colorado State University bookstores have pulled school logo ball markers from their shelves following accusations they were made with sweatshop labor.

CSU said it pulled the Team Golf products from the bookstore pending an investigation by the Fair Labor Association. CSU refuses to sell any licensed apparel or logo items made in questionable working conditions, said Mark Minor, CSU’s assistant vice president for public affairs.

In a statement, Minor noted that the allegations against Team Golf are just that - allegations - but said CSU immediately pulled any of the company’s items just to be sure.

“We have contacted our FLA representative, who says they have begun an investigation,” Minor said. “Until that investigation runs its course, and/or until the charges against Team Golf are either substantiated or proven false, CSU has suspended business operations with Team Golf including pulling any existing Team Golf inventory from the shelves of the CSU bookstore.”

If making things in questionable labor conditions is a rationale for pulling things from the shelves, then CSU had better remove the better part of its licensed apparel and the various logo trinkets. I haven’t been to CSU’s store recently (my father was a graduate, and we visited several times back in the 70s and 80s), but if it’s anything like UM bookstores, it’s full of stuff made in China. And by definition, that means poor working conditions.

My guess is that they’re picking on a small ball marker maker because Nike has too many lawyers. So instead, these moonbats sweep the stores clear of ball markers and then go home, feeling smug and satisfied that they’ve done their part for global justice ... while wearing their made-in-China t shirts, cargo pants and shoes, listening to their iPods (produced in China by women who make $50 a month) and driving their hybrid vehicles (whose batteries are produced in environmentally disastrous Chinese nickel processing sweatshops).