January 29, 2008

U. of Wisconsin-Madison Cuts Ties to Apparel Maker for Violating Code of Conduct

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has canceled its contract with an apparel company that refused to allow a labor inspection of one of its plants, according to The Daily Cardinal, the campus’s student newspaper.

The business, the New Era Cap Company, prevented a university-hired labor-monitoring group from entering its facility in Mobile, Ala. The university’s code of conduct requires companies licensed to use its logo to have their working conditions observed by a monitoring agency, the Worker Rights Consortium.

The university was among the first to adopt a “designated suppliers” program, in early 2006. The program established a code of conduct requiring university-licensed makers of apparel to allow their workers to unionize and to allow monitoring by the rights consortium.

The university could have filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the cap company, but instead decided to terminate the contract immediately and end ties with the company as soon as possible, a university spokeswoman said.

New Era has been accused of worker discrimination and anti-union activity. Students, including some from Wisconsin, have observed conditions at the Alabama facility as representatives of United Students Against Sweatshops. —Beckie Supiano

Comments

1. Way to go UW at M! Kudos to the university for terminating this contract. Obviously, there were violations of worker’s rights ocurring and this was why UM was denied access to the plant as their contract dictated they would have. I applaud them.

   — education rules    Jan 29, 03:39 PM    #

2. Wait a moment Education Rules, you are making a very big assumption there. Don’t read approval of misbehavior to my comments. Look at the lack of specificity and evidence in this very brief blog and don’t assume it is the whole picture of what is, or is not, going on.

   Accusations aren’t the same as proof. What you are saying is similar to the argument that says the Patriot Act is fine because if you aren’t doing anything wrong you shouldn’t worry if someone is listening to your phone, reading your email, and reviewing your library records.

   — Bill    Jan 29, 03:53 PM    #

3. It was part of their contract, so they knew going in there would be an inspection. I guess they figured they could make something before they had to refuse entry and inspection. If there was no problem, kick the doors open and let the inspectors come in. Obviously, this was not the case. It is no different than restaurants being inspected by the health department. The Patriot Act analogy makes no sense in this situation….

   — rec    Jan 29, 04:43 PM    #

4. It is absolutely ridiculous to compare this to a Patriot Act. This is a business decision. New Era violated a contract. Instead of wasting time and money on a lawsuit (and jeopardizing a continual supply of profitable licensed merchandise), the UW must be confident that it can find another licensee that will follow its policies. I am sure that there will be no difficulties in doing so.

   — ABM    Jan 29, 04:54 PM    #

5. As a UW-Madison alum, I am proud they took this action.

   — UW-Madison graduate    Jan 29, 05:06 PM    #

6. Kudos to New Era! God bless them for taking a stand, rather than letting a bunch of anti-business leftist children try to manage their business from a college campus. This was clearly a smear job by the Teamsters Union, backed up by the NAACP and these leftist college children. If you read the articles that are available with a simple google request, you can see that this is nothing more that the Teamsters trying to get the upper hand in a stalled contract negotiation.

   Union workers = losers. Period. Oh yes, you can be assured that you will earn no less than the lazy incompetent next to you. . . but you can also be assured that you will earn no more, regardless of your skills, motivation, and drive. Perhaps in the 1920s and 30s, they did some good, but those days are long past. There’s a reason why unions now represent barely 12% of the workforce – most Americans are understand that the best way to represent yourself is to represent yourself.

   It will be interesting to see if other colleges follow the lead of Madison and allow themselves to be pawns in what amounts to a contract dispute between a union and a private company. I should hope that other campuses have more integrity. . .

   — Bill    Jan 29, 10:01 PM    #

7. Re: post 6: You’re calling people “college children” because they still believe they can make a difference in the world. Idealism often dies, as it appears to have done in your case, which is very sad. If only our idealism could survive throughout our lifespan, the world would be a better place.

   This issue of fair factory workplaces is especially important in places like China and Mexico. Hopefully colleges will start to take rights violations in those places as seriously, soon.

   — NS    Jan 30, 11:54 AM    #

8. RE: post 7: You equate idealism with leftist, socialist philosophies and goals. You’ll pardon me if I reassert that these are children without the common sense to understand that they are not helping people, they are simply enabling and possibly enriching union bosses. “If only our idealism could survive. . .the world would be a better place.” The problem with that statement is that your ideals are apparently in conflict with the ideals of others. . . many others. Personally, I don’t find trying to assert discrimination where none exists simply to win a contract negotiation an ideal. I don’t find it to be ideal that college students from Michigan go to the south and then try to assess what constitutes a living wage. I’ll guarantee you that the $9-10 an hour those 118 warehouse (not factory) workers are getting paid goes a lot farther than the $9-10 an hour a McDonalds counter person makes here in the northeast. Why. . . it would probably equate to $14 or 15 an hour – like a warehouse worker gets paid up here.

   Here’s a plan. Why don’t these wonderful young people who you claim are making a difference open up their own cap company. They could compete directly with New Era and make it a selling point that they pay all their employees “a living wage.” Despite the fact that unskilled labor is plentiful, they could pay their unskilled folks as if they had engineering degrees. . .or PhDs. Not likely to happen, is it? Aside from the fact that you can’t run a business by paying more for labor than it is worth, I doubt that most of them have the guts it takes to risk everything they have to build a successful enterprise.

   BTW, I think it would be a hoot if these kids went to Mexico or, especially China. Of course, I would be appropriately appalled when the Chinese used them to grease the tracks on their tanks. . .

   — Bill    Jan 30, 01:19 PM    #

9. Bill,
   Monitoring of workplace conditions goes beyond just pay. There are also considerations to safe working conditions and other basic worker rights. Moreover, issues of living wage should be viewed in the context of the organizations that can afford to pay living wages, such as the case a few years ago when Harvard university payed its janitorial and food service staff below a living wage while possessing the most financial resources of any university in the world. While you may laugh at the concept of idealism, idealism has brought you the comfortable working conditions you most likely enjoy assuming you work in an university setting. How about making workplace rights something to be enjoyed by all and not just the elite of this country?

   — UW-Madison graduate    Feb 1, 06:52 PM    #

10. And how many years did it take for the once-noble U. to see the error of its ways?

    And how many of the highly paid consultants and legal eagles on the Bascom Hall payroll let this slide by them, while they were on their way to happy hour on the Capitol Square or was it for that 3 hour lunch work-out at the gym?.

    Let’s not applaud the drunk driver who misses he little old lady on the crosswalk. He is NO pillar of integrity and the U. just once again bowed to political correctness.

    What squeaky wheel will get their attention next? Spousal benefits for gays?

    Yawwwwwwn…...l

    — g.    Feb 5, 06:55 PM    #

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