Cmte. releases sweatshop report

The report recommends Penn hold off on joining a monitoring group until certain conditions are met. The Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor released its full report to University President Judith Rodin yesterday, including both a proposed code of conduct for University-logo apparel and a recommendation to evaluate the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association before joining either. The report identifies the lack of university representation on the two organizations' governing boards as the committee's prime concern and recommends that Penn only sign on with the FLA or the WRC or both if the groups resolve this concern. "The current representation of colleges and universities on the governing boards of the FLA and the WRC is unacceptable," the report stated. "Institutions of higher education are at the forefront of the movement and must have a voice that is balanced with those of other groups on the governing boards of the FLA and the WRC." The committee's report comes several weeks after members of Penn Students Against Sweatshops launched a nine day sit-in at College Hall, which culminated with the University withdrawing its membership from the FLA. The report recommends that the University join either the WRC or the FLA only if they agree to augment the university representation on their governing boards. The committee began meeting February 10, reviewing materials and listening to presentations from both groups before presenting this unanimous report to Rodin on Monday. "I expect to respond to the committee's recommendation on monitoring organizations shortly," Rodin said in a statement Monday night. PSAS members have repeatedly demanded that the University withdraw from the FLA -- which they contend is biased and inefficient because of its close ties with the garment industry -- and join the fledgling WRC instead. Anti-sweatshop and human rights activists claim that the WRC provides better safeguards for workers' rights. The WRC only possesses the membership of a handful of colleges and universities, while over 130 schools belong to the FLA. But the recent decision of three Big 10 schools to join the WRC generated increased publicity and funding for the new group. Penn student anti-sweatshop activists continue to request that the University abstain from re-joining the FLA and become a member of the WRC instead. "We still believe that the FLA is not an adequate organization," College junior and PSAS member Miriam Joffe-Block said last night. But Joffe-Block was pleased that the committee's report agreed with three of PSAS' main concerns with the FLA's policies on public disclosure, factory certification and independent monitoring. According to Joffe-Block, the WRC currently has greater university representation than the FLA does, addressing the committee's chief concern. She noted that the WRC allocates six of its 12 seats on the governing board to university students and administrators, while the FLA only delegates one of its 14 seats to university representatives. Also included in the committee's report is a proposed Code of Workplace Conduct for Penn apparel licensees, outlining policies manufacturers should abide by in the production of Penn-logo apparel. The code outlines a range of human rights standards and enforcement procedures. Among the recommendations are establishing a living wage at factories, a minimum employment age of 15 and the right for employees to collectively bargain with unions of their choice. "The goals of this code are to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment and to assert that Penn expects its licensees to conduct business in a manner consistent with the high standards in its code," the committee said in the report. The proposed code of conduct will be printed in Almanac, the University's journal of record, for comment.

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