From the issue dated April 14, 2000

Nike Draws the Line Company warns Brown -- and sends a message to other colleges -- on sweatshop-monitoring groups By MARTIN VAN DER WERF Nike Inc. has moved to terminate its contract to supply sports uniforms and equipment for the men's and women's ice-hockey teams at Brown University. ALSO SEE: Colloquy: Join an online discussion about the growing student movement seeking to ensure that clothing with college logos is not produced in sweatshops The company says it would not comply with a code of conduct, pushed by student activists, that excludes manufacturers from any role in monitoring the working conditions at factories where collegiate apparel is made. While the action applies only to Brown, it sends a warning to other colleges that are thinking about joining the Worker Rights Consortium, which was to hold its founding conference last week in New York. Student activism has increased around the country in an effort to convince administrators to join the consortium before its conference. At Purdue University, students were in the second week of a hunger strike last week. Protests or sit-ins also were held at the University of Iowa, the University of Kentucky, the University of Oregon, Tulane University, and Yale University, among other campuses. By the time the conference began, at least 35 colleges had joined the consortium. Nike officials, however, say Brown, which was among the first universities to join the consortium, is pushing the issue too far. Company lawyers are concerned that Brown would impose the consortium's code of conduct -- which has not yet been made final -- on Nike. "They could impose an undefined living-wage provision on us, as well as an undefined monitoring process," says Vada O. Manager, director of global-issues management for Nike, based in Beaverton, Ore. Simon J. Pestridge, manager of Nike's labor-practices department, says the company has no intention of cooperating with the consortium. "We don't have a seat at the table of the W.R.C., so it's a nonstarter for us," he says. "We don't agree with its founding principles." Brown officials say, however, that there may be a misunderstanding. The university has neither adopted the consortium's code nor asked Nike to comply with it, says Larry Carr, director of the bookstore. Rather, Brown has asked only that companies comply with the university's existing code of conduct for suppliers. Mr. Carr says he did not know about Brown's contract with Nike. The sporting-goods and apparel manufacturer has provided equipment to the hockey teams for two years under the contract, which runs for another year. In a letter to Brown from Kit Morris, Nike's director of college-sports marketing, the company says that it will continue to honor the terms of its contract, but that "it is our sense from your letter that this will be unsatisfactory to the university. If this is indeed the case, then, given our position, we will deem the contract terminated by mutual consent, effective immediately." The contract has not been canceled yet, however. Mr. Carr says he is optimistic that Brown can resolve the dispute. Many colleges are caught in a tug of war between two groups set up to do away with sweatshops (The Chronicle, March 10). Nike, 10 other apparel makers, and about 130 colleges belong to the Fair Labor Association, which was created last year by the apparel industry, the Labor Department, and some human-rights organizations. It calls for periodic inspections by the companies themselves and by outside monitors, who would certify that factories were using fair labor practices. The Worker Rights Consortium, which is being put together by students, labor unions, and other workers' groups, would require apparel companies to certify that the factories they use are in compliance with its code of conduct. The organization also would authorize surprise inspections, by outsiders, to monitor working conditions. No other apparel makers have threatened to revoke contracts, but "I would say the vast majority of the industry agrees with the stand Nike has taken," says Thomas Cove, vice president for government relations at the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. He says the manufacturers would meet with universities where they have contracts to discuss their concerns over the W.R.C. According to Nike's World Wide Web site, sales of collegiate licensed merchandise make up 1 percent of the company's apparel and sports-equipment business. Nike's letter to Brown says the company has contracts with nearly 200 colleges and universities. Nike does not make public a list of colleges that it has contracts with, but at least five institutions known to have such contracts -- Georgetown University, and the flagship campuses of Indiana University, the University of Illinois, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Michigan -- have joined the Worker Rights Consortium. Maria Roeper, coordinator of the W.R.C., says that a year ago, Nike refused to disclose manufacturing sites for licensed apparel, but then agreed to do so in the face of demands from a number of colleges. She believes that the company will have to agree to a living wage, women's rights, collective bargaining, and other worker guarantees called for by the W.R.C., if enough institutions join the group. "If they don't, it asks the question, why? Why wouldn't they live up to these standards?'" Ms. Roeper says. "They would have a lot of students who are pretty angry. For Nike, the student market is a pretty important one." Kit Lively contributed to this report. http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Page: A54 Easy-to-print version E-mail this article