In an effort to protect the rights of workers who make UW apparel, a group of UW-Madison students and administrators requested Monday that Chancellor John Wiley put pressure on UW licensees that outsource labor.
The university's Labor Licensing Committee decided to reintroduce the issue after a Wiley-endorsed letter campaign to the 10 biggest UW logo product makers had only limited success last spring. Such licensees included Adidas, 4004 Incorporated and Gear for Sports. The LLC voted unanimously to convince Wiley to contact corporations that do not allow their workers the right to organize, according to Joel Feingold, Student Labor Action Coalition and Labor Licensing Policy Committee member and UW-Madison sophomore.
Additionally, the letter to Wiley requests that UW-Madison not sign with any new companies who outsource their labor to countries like China, which do not legally protect the right to organize. For licensed corporations already in countries without freedom of association, the LLC wants them to educate workers on unionization and give them the right to organize within their companies.
\I think this is a strong step forward,"" said Special Assistant to the Chancellor and LLC member LaMarr Billups.
If Wiley accepts the LLC's plan, he and the committee will send letters to licensees outlining these provisions and possibly threatening to cut ties with corporations who do not respond, according to Feingold.
Billups said the committee expects a response from Wiley within two weeks.
Eventually the committee wants to move the university toward a sweatshop-free policy, according to Billups.
""It won't have any appreciable effect on cost [of UW products],"" Billups said.
While universities nationwide hire groups like the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium to monitor licensees, Feingold said they researched the effectiveness of such groups and were mostly disappointed. With corporate executives dominating the FLA board, the LLC knew it had to take responsibility for protecting UW licensee workers, according to Liana Dalton, LLC and SLAC member and UW-Madison junior.
""What we found was worse than we thought,"" Dalton said.
Despite the refusal of some corporations to comply with last year's provisions, several have improved their labor policies by disclosing workers' wages. The LLC plans to reward these corporations, which include New Era in New York and Just Garments in El Salvador, by promising not to drop them as licensees while they make labor changes, according to the letter to Wiley.
