News releases

STATEMENT BY CHANCELLOR DAVID WARD

Progress on sweatshop issue
2/18/2000

Since our earliest efforts to address sweatshop issues, initially through the Collegiate Licensing Company Task Force and subsequently through participation in the Fair Labor Association and independent monitoring projects, we have tried to unite academic institutions in pursuit of common objectives.

Today, we take another step in this direction, affirming our stated intention to examine the Worker Rights Consortium as a possible instrument through which to effectuate workplace standards that we have previously adopted for our licensees.

With the cooperation of the University of Michigan and Indiana University, we are offering to conduct this examination collectively, as a part of the process through which the WRC comes into being. We propose to attend the April organizational conference. Much as we provisionally joined the Fair Labor Association in order to influence its direction, we would like to help the WRC become a viable instrument for ensuring licensee compliance with workplace standards. We believe that this new collaboration offers great potential for further advancement on the difficult issues of sweatshop abuses.

We do have some concerns about the WRC. We would like to have those concerns heard, and will seek to have them addressed. We hope that by offering to join in the WRC's formative process, we can accomplish this objective.

We can not succeed in this effort if we do not have full governance participation. We agreed to withdraw from the FLA in order to eliminate our provisional membership in that organization from continuing to distract the community from the larger issues of sweatshop abuses. We have called upon student government leaders to join with the leadership of the other governance units on campus to forge a new mechanism through which to promote campus anti-sweatshop initiatives. This can include examining how well licensee compliance is being achieved through the Collegiate Licensing Company, should include a continuous assessment of the WRC, the FLA, or any other potential monitoring organization, and may involve evaluation of self-monitoring options, pilot programs and other initiatives such as those recommended by the Living Wage Symposium hosted by the UW-Madison.

We are committed to making a difference in the global incidence of sweatshops, especially as it may impact our licensing program. Today, we have identified how far we are willing to go to make this happen. But this is not a negotiation. We want to be part of a process that students can support, and will pursue through the appropriate mechanism of campus governance.
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