EDITORIAL & OPINION: No ties to sweatshop labor

Penn must formulate a policy ensuring that no licensed merchandise is being produced in sweatshops. Instead, they sit stitching baseball caps for $25 a week, or about eight cents per hat. One night, between 10 and 20 of the workers tried to go to school. They were fired. And if this all seems terribly remote, please take a moment to consider the following: That factory makes baseball caps with the logos of American universities stitched into their crowns. There is no reason to believe that Penn apparel is made in such a place, but there is also no way to be sure. And that is a problem. The solution? First, Penn needs to commit to a policy that clearly disavows the use of sweatshop labor. Furthermore, companies involved in the production of Penn apparel should be required to meet the standards of the Apparel Industry Partnership Workplace Code of Conduct at all of their factories. Among its provisions, the code mandates the payment of fair wages and requires factories to maintain safe and sanitary working conditions. The code also protects the right of workers to unionize, and bans the use of child and forced labor. Clearly, such a policy will only be effective if it is developed together with other schools. And that makes Penn's absence from Wednesday and Thursday's Ivy League conference on sweatshops all the more troubling. Although the University says that they remain committed to an Ivy-wide policy, Penn would do well to make a point of attending future conferences on the subject. Nonetheless, simply developing a policy similar to the AIP code is insufficient. Penn also needs to create a mechanism for ensuring that the companies licensed to make Penn gear don't break the rules behind our collective back. And that is best accomplished by requiring companies to release the location of every factory producing Penn apparel. After a one year implementation period, Penn should commit to ending its relationship with any non-compliant company. The suggestion is not a novel one: Duke and the University of Wisconsin have recently adopted similar policies. It is high time Penn did so as well.