Ward outlines next steps on sweatshop issue

In its ongoing effort to end the use of sweatshop labor, the university will maintain its provisional affiliation with the Fair Labor Association as it continues to evaluate the FLA and the Worker Rights Consortium as options to bring about change, Chancellor David Ward says.

In addition, UW–Madison will explore the possibility of independent monitoring of workplace conditions to augment monitoring through the FLA, Ward says. This project will build on the university’s current pilot monitoring project, which is examining the factories of three UW–Madison licensed manufacturers in Costa Rica, Korea and Mexico.

“These next steps represent UW–Madison’s ongoing national leadership on this most difficult issue,” Ward says. “It is important to remember that complex global problems such as sweatshops cannot be resolved overnight. Yet the university remains committed to helping solve this important human rights issue.”

The measures would be among several steps announced recently in the university’s ongoing effort to end the use of sweatshop labor practices among manufacturers of university-licensed products.

Ward’s announcement is based on feedback from the university’s sweatshop task force advisory committee, which he created last year to provide guidance on how to best eliminate the use of sweatshop labor in the production of apparel and other merchandise bearing UW logos.

“The university’s membership in the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has always been provisional,” Ward says. “I don’t believe that FLA can alone solve the sweatshop issue. But for the time being, it is valuable for UW–Madison to keep working within this alliance and monitor its progress.”

Should independent monitoring through the FLA prove to be insufficient, the university could partner with other major universities or go it alone.

Under new guidelines implemented Jan. 1, licensed manufacturers of UW–Madison merchandise must disclose their factory locations and follow other stringent workplace standards outlined in the Collegiate Licensing Company’s draft conduct code.

UW–Madison is one of only six universities nationwide to impose such strict requirements on its licensed manufacturers. Ward announced the new standards in October 1999.