The board of directors of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which works to improve workplace conditions in factories around the world, recently took action to increase university participation on the board, increase participation by licensees and expand the FLA monitoring program to include additional products.
The board voted on Oct. 24 to:
"The FLA has taken some giant steps ... with the increased university representation, increased company participation, two newly accredited monitors and the expansion of the FLA monitoring program to include products other than apparel and footwear," said Dan Glickman, former member of Congress, former U.S. secretary of agriculture and current chair of the FLA. "All of these actions reflect the deep commitment of all of our stakeholders to improve working conditions globally. The FLA can make a great contribution to ensuring that our trading system is both open and fair."
Cornell is a founding member of the FLA.
"I want to commend Princeton's Bob Durkee, who has been a member of the FLA board since its inception," said Henrik N. Dullea, Cornell vice president for university relations. "Bob fought successfully for increased university representation and has provided first-rate leadership to the FLA board as its presiding officer during the search that led to Secretary Glickman's appointment. Bob's steady commitment to improving the working conditions of people throughout the world by engaging manufacturers, human rights organization and universities in common effort must be applauded."
The FLA now has six company representatives, six human rights representatives, three university representatives and one chair. The eight new companies admitted include three category A licensees -- fully participating companies -- which brings the total number of fully participating companies to 13. In addition, five category B licensees were admitted. Category B licensees are companies that submit to the FLA's monitoring process only those facilities that produce or manufacture products under license from FLA-affiliated schools.
The wider range of products produced by the new companies include class rings, yearbooks, graduation products, school photography, achievement awards, woven blanket throws, wall hangings, beanbags, outdoor furniture, bags, hosiery, collectibles and plastic mugs and sports bottles.
The two new monitoring organizations approved by the board are the A & L Group and Cotecna Inspections. The A & L Group Inc., a labor inspection firm based in New York, is accredited in the United States. Cotecna Inspections, a Geneva-based verification and inspection organization, is accredited in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and the United States.
The FLA is a unique collaboration of companies, human rights and labor rights organizations and 160 colleges and universities working to improve workplace conditions in factories around the world. FLA currently has 13 participating companies that contract with more than 4,000 factories in 75 countries and represent more than $30 billion in apparel and footwear sales.
Companies participating in the FLA process make a commitment to implement a code of conduct with very high standards. They also commit to a process of internal and external monitoring, remediation of problems and an eventual public report on their performance.
The FLA Workplace Code of Conduct prohibits forced labor, child labor, harassment or abuse and discrimination. It requires high health and safety standards, freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and establishes standards for wages and benefits. It also limits hours of work and requires premium overtime compensation.
Cornell also is a member of the Workers Rights Consortium (known as WRC), which like the FLA monitors codes of conduct throughout the world. In addition, eight Cornell faculty members joined 434 academics worldwide in signing a recent statement by Scholars Against Sweatshop Labor (known as SASL). The statement encourages anti-sweatshop activists "to continue to deepen both their own understanding and their educational efforts -- to examine conditions facing workers generally in developing countries, including those not employed in sweatshops; and to consider the most effective means of improving these general conditions."
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