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Labor group seeks second membership for University

Members of Carolina's Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee on March 22 voted unanimously to urge that the University stay in one labor monitoring group while joining another.

Carolina already is a member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a nonprofit organization that monitors manufacturers' compliance with a workplace code of conduct designed to assure that products are not produced under sweatshop conditions.

The FLA's code and principles governing monitoring were initially created by representatives of the apparel and footwear industries, human rights groups, labor and religious organizations, university interests, and consumer advocates. About 130 colleges and universities are members of the FLA.

Carolina's new membership would be with the Worker Rights Commission, a group of companies and universities whose representatives are expected to hold their first formal meeting in April.

Students and labor and human rights groups formed the group in an effort to better protect the rights of factory workers whose companies are licensed to manufacture merchandise bearing collegiate logos.

Interim Chancellor William O. McCoy is expected to decide whether to accept the Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee's recommendations in April before the Worker Rights Commission's first meeting.

Committee co-chair Rut Tufts, director of auxiliary services in Lenoir Hall, said the panel managed to forge a consensus in which some members set aside their first choice in order "to work together as a campus community to ultimately end up with the best means available for improving working conditions in these sites."

Three students serve on the advisory committee, including a member of Students for Economic Justice (SEC). The student group had pressed for the University to join the Worker Rights Commission.

In other anti-sweatshop measures, Carolina has required manufacturers to disclose their plant locations and pay employees a living wage once that amount is determined to the satisfaction of the committee and the campus.

The University also belongs to a pilot program aimed at guiding apparel manufacturers and subcontractors striving to comply with fair labor codes at their factory sites.

The pilot is made up of several universities that are clients of the Atlanta-based Collegiate Licensing Co., which handles their licensing contracts with companies such as Nike.

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