Monday forum looks at collegiate code to eliminate 'sweatshops'

Manufacturers that produce shirts, hats and other apparel using the names of colleges and universities are under pressure to eliminate "sweatshops" by following a code of conduct that establishes safe and humane working conditions in their factories. And colleges and universities nationwide are working to develop an enforceable code that includes strong compliance and monitoring procedures that could end sweatshop conditions where collegiate products are made.

After Duke University and other schools and groups released a series of codes last year, the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) organized a task force that includes Duke, Cornell and 12 other colleges and universities. The goal was to write one code for use by CLC's 160 member institutions and other colleges, a code that could have a significant impact on manufacturers, rather than a multitude of codes developed by individual campuses. The task force's draft code was circulated in December 1998 for feedback from campus constituencies, including faculty, students and administrators, as well as manufacturers, government and nongovernmental organizations, labor and human-rights groups and consumers.

At Cornell, the effort to secure improved working conditions in factories where university names and trademarks are put on apparel has brought together students and administrators to examine all aspects of the draft document. To foster discussion, the university and the campus group Students Against Sweatshops will co-sponsor a forum the night of Monday, Feb. 22, to review efforts to develop a code aimed at eliminating sweatshops. The forum, titled "Sweatshops and a Collegiate Code of Conduct," at 7:30 p.m. in Lecture Hall D in Goldwin Smith Hall, will include students, faculty and representatives of the task force that drafted the collegiate code.

The panel will be moderated by Robert Frank, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics, Ethics and Public Policy at Cornell. Frank, who teaches a course in business ethics, holds appointments in both the Johnson Graduate School of Management and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Panelists scheduled to participate include:

• Mark Anner, a graduate student in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, who has worked on labor issues in Central America for almost a decade and is now working toward a Ph.D. in international comparative labor.

• Jefferson R. Cowie, a visiting assistant professor of collective bargaining, labor law and labor history in the ILR School, whose research and interests include comparative labor history, labor and trade integration and Latin American history.

• Bruce Siegal, vice president and general counsel at Collegiate Licensing Co. in Atlanta, which appointed the task force charged with developing a code of conduct. The task force's draft code was released publicly to seek comments from colleges and universities and their campus constituencies, as well as licensees (manufacturers), human-rights organizations and others.

• Jonathan Rosenblum, a labor attorney based in Madison, Wis., who serves as an independent consultant to the CLC task force. Rosenblum has been involved in negotiating terms of agreement in the White House Apparel Industry Partnership (AIP) and in a pilot project in labor-rights monitoring in Guatemala. He served as outside counsel to Duke University in the development of its proposed code and has been a legal officer for the United Nations' International Labor Organization.

• David I. Stewart, director of community relations at Cornell and a member of the code task force. Stewart coordinates the university's product-licensing program.

• David Unger, a freshman in the ILR School and a member of Students Against Sweatshops.

"In addition to the collegiate code, an industry group, the White House Apparel Industry Partnership, has put forth a code that has support in several quarters," Stewart said. "While the collegiate task force code goes beyond the AIP code and other proposed codes, manufacturers, for example, have argued that they should not be required to disclose the exact location of all production facilities."

Stewart said the pros and cons of these codes will be discussed in the Feb. 22 forum at Cornell, and he added: "The task force has developed a code that will be a living document, one that can be updated and improved as we gain experience with monitoring and compliance. To eliminate sweatshops, we need a strong alliance, and we need to make a start now."