Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, an anti-sweatshop group, said he agreed, particularly when it came to Disney's manufacturing operations abroad.

Labor unions are also seeking to improve ties to the young by working closely with anti-sweatshop groups on college campuses and by recruiting hundreds of people in their 20's to work as union organizers.

Many of anti-sweatshop groups are student-led, such as the United Students Against Sweatshops.

Duke students and anti-sweatshop groups applauded the code because it goes further than any other university code and will likely be copied by other colleges.

When anti-sweatshop groups threatened a boycott against apparel from Bangladesh in the mid-1990's because many factories employed child labor, the factories simply fired the children, pushing some into begging and prostitution.

"There has been some improvement on the ground, but nowhere near significant enough," said Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, a leading anti-sweatshop group.

C1 Identifying Foreign Factories Nike became the first large apparel company to disclose the names and locations of its overseas factories - a move that anti-sweatshop groups said was vital to uncover unsatisfactory working conditions.

The founders of the anti-sweatshop group are all college educated.

Campaigns have been taken up by many colleges and universities, especially anti-globalisation groups, as well as several anti-sweatshop groups such as the United Students Against Sweatshops.

The anti-sweatshop group says it plans to keep the pressure on.