WRC-FLA decision remains on hold

Penn was disappointed by the FLA's and WRC's responses to its requests. After receiving responses deemed unsatisfactory from two rival sweatshop monitoring organizations, the University has decided to continue withholding its membership from both the Fair Labor Association and the Workers Rights Consortium. The Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor recommended holding off on joining either organization after reading the FLA and WRC responses to a letter from University President Judith Rodin requesting greater representation of colleges and universities on each organization's governing board. In its initial report, released on February 28, the sweatshop committee had recommended that Penn withhold its membership from both organizations until each adequately addressed the committee's concerns about who sits on each organization's board. In a letter sent to Rodin last Thursday outlining the committee's latest recommendations, Chairman Howard Kunreuther, a professor of Operations and Information Management, said the committee was disappointed by the responses provided by the FLA and WRC. The letter stated that the FLA's promise to "take into consideration" greater university involvement with its governance "falls far short of our expectations." And Kunreuther called the WRC's response "promising," but said that it "fails to make a sufficiently firm commitment to address the composition of the governing board." As of yesterday, 35 colleges and universities had joined the WRC, while more than 130 had joined the FLA, with several joining both. The WRC will hold its official founding conference on Friday in New York, where several of its 12 board members will be elected. The organization promised that at least half of the board -- three students and three university representatives -- will involve colleges in some way. The other six members will come from the WRC Advisory Council, which includes academics, politicians and worker-rights experts from around the world. The FLA's board currently has six apparel industry representatives, six representatives from human rights groups and one representative from member colleges and universities. Penn had been a member of the FLA until February, when Rodin agreed to withdraw from it after a 10-day sit-in in her office by members of Penn Students Against Sweatshops. In a letter sent to Kunreuther last Friday, Rodin said she agreed with the committee's assessment of the FLA and WRC responses and had sent letters to both groups explaining Penn's disappointment with their answers to her original requests. Rodin said she would ask for the committee's help again after receiving the next set of responses from the FLA and WRC. In her letters to the groups, Rodin asked the WRC to permit Penn to send two observers to the founding conference on Friday and requested that the FLA allow a Penn representative to speak at its governing board's April meeting. But WRC Coordinator Maria Roeper said yesterday that non-member schools will not be permitted to send any representatives to the WRC's conference on Friday. "We've been saying all along that we can't accommodate observers," Roeper said. "We've told Penn that before and it's not going to change." PSAS member Miriam Joffe-Block, a College senior, said two Penn students will attend the conference as representatives of United Students Against Sweatshops, but will not represent the Penn administration. FLA Executive Director Sam Brown would not comment on whether a Penn representative could attend his group's next board meeting, but said he was disappointed that Penn declined to rejoin the FLA at this time. "I think it's a mistake," he said, noting that college-logo apparel accounts for less than 1 percent of all clothing production. "It seems to me that universities should have an interest in that broader world."

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