Upstart Anti-Sweatshop Group Impresses College Officials

By MARTIN VAN DER WERF

University administrators who attended the first meeting Friday of the Worker Rights Consortium, a new anti-sweatshop group, came away from it pleasantly surprised: The organization, pushed primarily by students and labor groups, was far more cohesive and less strident than they expected.

However, the administrators, who represented about 30 of the 44 institutions that have joined the consortium, could not agree on which three people to elect to the organization's governing board, and they issued a letter listing continuing concerns that they hope the consortium will answer.

The universities asked for further explanation of how the consortium is financed, called for a way to "reward" apparel companies that have maintained good working conditions at their factories, and raised concerns about the makeup of the organization's governing board. They questioned whether having it be made up of three college officials, three students, and six members of the consortium's advisory board -- whose members represent mostly labor unions and labor-rights organizations -- would dilute university input too much. Also, the administrators wondered whether the selection process for choosing the student representatives was broad enough. As it now stands, the students on the board are chosen by United Students Against Sweatshops, a group that works in tandem with the consortium. The institutions want students who are not necessarily members of United Students Against Sweatshops to be considered for positions on the board.

Nevertheless, most university representatives spoke positively about the organization's professionalism, which has been a question mark.

"I was impressed by the depth of insight of some members of the advisory board," said Damon R. Sims, the associate dean of students at Indiana University. "They really are sincerely committed to collaboration with the universities."

The consortium has been something of a shadow organization, operating out of a one-room office in a New York church while two recent college graduates traveled the country, trying to drum up students' support. Some universities joined the group only after students on the campuses held protests or occupied the offices of presidents or other top administrators.

The four-hour meeting in New York on Friday was closed to reporters because, among other reasons, "we weren't sure how well everyone was going to get along," said David Unger, a sophomore at Cornell University. Participants in the meeting were interviewed as it broke up.

The protests advocating for the Worker Rights Consortium have been driven, in part, by opposition to the Fair Labor Association, a group that evolved from meetings between apparel makers and the U.S. Labor Department. About 130 universities have joined that group, but some students have derided it as "too corporate," noting that company representatives make up almost half of its governing board, and that companies themselves can pick the monitors who are supposed to certify that labor practices at factories meet international standards.

Leaders of the Worker Rights Consortium made it clear that they were not opposed to universities' belonging to both their organization and the Fair Labor Association. The leaders also said they would engage corporations in their efforts to monitor working conditions at factories. However, they reiterated that they had no plans to allow any industry representatives on the group's governing board. Representatives of Nike Inc., one of the largest apparel makers, have already said the company has no intention of working with the W.R.C., partly because it will not give corporations any seats on the board.

The university representatives tentatively agreed to meet again in late April to elect their representatives to the consortium's board. The organization is likely to incorporate as a nonprofit group shortly thereafter. Copyright 2000 by The Chronicle of Higher Education