Speakers: Anti-sweatshop policies at CU and elsewhere make a difference

By Linda Myers

Anti-sweatshop organizations at colleges and universities are making a difference in the lives of workers. That was the central message from two leaders of the anti-sweatshop movement who came to campus to give reports from the field Oct. 1 in Barnes Hall auditorium.

Scott Nova, right, executive director of the Workers Rights Consortium, answers a question from the audience, while fellow panelists Henrik N. Dullea, left, Cornell vice president for university relations, and Auret van Heerden, executive director the Fair Labor Association, look on in Barnes Hall, Oct. 1. Bob Kausner/University Photography

The speakers were Auret van Heerden, executive director the Fair Labor Association (FLA), and Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). Henrik N. Dullea, Cornell vice president for university relations, moderated the event and introduced the speakers to the audience, which included Edward Lawler, dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Patsy Brannon, dean of the College of Human Ecology; and many members of Cornell Students Against Sweatshops. Dullea's and Lawler's offices, the ILR School, Human Ecology's textiles and apparel department and the student anti-sweatshop group co-sponsored the talks.

"We have made significant progress, as measured by tangible results, to improve the working conditions of men, women and children in factories around the world," said Dullea. He noted that Cornell was one of the founding members of the WRC, which now represents 105 colleges and universities and was an original member of the FLA's University Advisory Council, a group that now includes 176 colleges and universities. Both groups work to make sure that clothing and other items manufactured for their member institutions are made under fair labor conditions.

Van Heerden said: "Our challenge is to ensure some kind of protection and basic labor standards in a global economy." He related how a hierarchy of protections for workers set up under the International Labor Organization were not being enforced for reasons ranging from too few regulators and resources to a huge surge in the number of overseas factories due to the mobility of capital. "We're seeing factory after factory in buildings never intended to be used for those purposes," he said. "Manufacturers are essentially operating in an unregulated environment," leading to, he said, such abuses as dangerous working conditions, harassment and firing of workers who attempt to organize, sexual harassment of women workers, overly long working hours and inadequate pay even by Third-World standards.

FLA and its member organizations now seek to inspect 3,000 factories out of an estimated 50,000 in the apparel industry, which van Heerden called "a drop in the ocean." Since monitoring them all is not a possibility, he recommended that watchdog groups "act in concert" and called for "greater transparency" on the part of the manufacturers so that consumers "can see what's going on in the factory where the shoes they are considering buying were made." Collecting meaningful, up-to-date data on factories and organizing an informative rating system that consumers can use, however, is still a long way off, he said.

The encouraging news is that major brands are now acknowledging that they have some responsibility in how the goods they sell are manufactured, reported Nova, calling that development "an enormous change, due in part to colleges and universities requiring that manufacturers take responsibility and put in place codes of conduct at their contract factories that respect workers' rights." The code that the organization promotes -- and Cornell and other member universities endorse -- guarantees the right to a safe workplace; dignity on the job; no racial, religious or gender discrimination; no excessive overtime; and the right of workers to associate freely without reprisal and join a union if they choose to, said Nova.

The WLC, which includes corporate representatives as well as students and workers on its board, also has proven that small low-cost improvements in a factory can make a huge difference in workers' lives and still keep product pricing competitive, Nova said. Among the changes his group was able to push for at a plant in Indonesia were: allowing workers to wear sandals on the job (previously they were required to work barefoot, leading to many foot injuries and electric shocks from floor cables); improving ventilation, which lowered the factory's ambient temperature from 95 degrees to more-tolerable levels; providing an adequate supply of clean, cold drinking water (before, water had been warm, dirty and in short supply); allowing workers to take sick leave without harassment (in the past they had been singled out for the toughest duties on their return); and not requiring workers to take extra work home with them after a long work week.

"These changes wouldn't have happened without colleges and universities taking action, without the activists that led them, without courageous workers and without the help of major brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebok and dozens of others," said Nova. "I hope we'll see many similar changes in years to come."