In order to increase the University’s involvement in the production of its logo-bearing products, Boston College is considering joining the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC). BC is currently a member of the Fair Labor Association. If the university does join the WRC, membership in the FLA will not be withdrawn.
According to the University Coalition Against Sweatshops’ Web site, “students are denouncing the Fair Labor Association as an inadequate approach to ending sweatshops … The Workers Rights Consortium was released in October 1999 and is an alternative to the FLA.”
While both the FLA and the WRC share the common goal of eliminating the sweatshops that are used to manufacture clothing, the WRC is mainly an organization of students and workers and the FLA is a subgroup of the White House Apparel Industry Parrtnership. The FLA consists of companies, trade unions, human rights and religious groups.
“Both groups have their critics. [Proponents] of the WRC feel that the FLA is too mixed up with manufactures to accomplish anything while supporters of the FLA feel that the WRC needs more involvement with manufactures to achieve their goals,” said Joseph Appleyard, SJ and Vice President of Mission and Ministry.
The WRC Web site states that the group is “a non-profit organization that supports and verifies license compliance with production codes of conduct.”
The member colleges and universities developed the codes of conduct that the WRC tries to enforce.
The WRC is also trying to establish a network of local organizations where the licensed goods are produced, in order to provide workers with a place to learn what their rights are as well as to confidentially report conditions.
The WRC operates on the principle that it is “the university’s role to define expected standards for treatment of workers and to hold licensees accountable … When abusive conditions at a particular worksite are exposed to public view, the licensee company has an obligation to correct conditions … Failure to abide by this principle should be seen by universities as a serious violation.”
“There are those who are skeptical about both groups, but for different reasons. For now, it seems like a good idea to stay in both groups and allow them each to try their respective approaches,” Appleyard said.
BC will send representatives to an organizational meeting of the WRC in New York City on Friday.
The representatives are comprised of two students and one faculty member or administrator. Students who want to become involved with the sweatshop issue on campus should contact BC Peace and Justice.
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