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UW hosts “Labor Behind the Label”
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by Matthew Dolbey
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
The University of Wisconsin will assemble various representatives from national and international arenas deeply involved in the topic of collegiate apparel licensee conduct.
<p>”The Labor Behind the Label” is a UW-sponsored event taking place today and Thursday at the Pyle Center that will discuss the issues of workers’ rights, full wage disclosure and the right to organize unions of licensees.
<p>Conference organizer LaMarr Billups, special assistant to UW Chancellor John Wiley, said this forum is intended to inform students and university administrators in Madison and nationally about the concerns of manufacturing university-branded apparel.
<p>”This is going to be an overview of what the whole issue (of licensee labor practices) is about,” Billups said. “There are many people who are interested but not knowledgeable.”
<p>The conference will gather representation from Adidas, one of UW’s 10 largest licensees; the Worker Rights Consortium, UW’s agent in labor relations; and the Fair Labor Association, an organization for workers’ rights. All will be involved in a question-and-answer forum Wednesday at 7 p.m. mediated by UW rural sociology professor Jane Collins.
<p>Aside from academic, advocate and labor representation, Billups also said Jonathan Rosenblum, a local attorney specializing in labor issues, will be present.
<p>Billups said UW decided to host the conference because of its ongoing commitment to satisfactory working conditions. He added other colleges such as the University of Michigan and Georgetown University have been watching UW’s motions and are following in its footsteps, especially on the issue of full wage disclosure, which asks all licensees and factories to reveal what workers receive for pay and benefits. UW decided to ask this of its more than 450 official licensees and more than 3,300 factories in February.
<p>”If they haven’t already approved [full wage disclosure], they’re about to do it,” Billups said. “They were waiting for someone to kick things off, and we did it.”
<p>Billups also said UW sent letters out to its top 10 licensees this week, asking them to find some sort of agreement on how to process the data resulting from full wage disclosure. Under the code of conduct, UW requires factories to pay the legal minimum wage or the prevailing industrial wage in the area, whichever is higher.
<p>Billups also added that a major issue involved with labor relations is the ability to organize bargaining groups and labor unions, a requirement in UW’s code of conduct, even though full wage disclosure receives a lot of press.
<p>”Wages are one of the least complained-about [issues],” Billups said. “The highest amount of complaints are the right to association and organize.”
<p>Samantha Ashley, a UW senior and Student Labor Action Coalition member often involved with UW’s Labor Licensing and Policy Committee, said she is excited UW decided to host such a conference and also believes this will raise discussion about labor around UW and the nation.
<p>”That’s definitely one of the goals of the conference,” Ashley said.
<p>Ashley also said discussion among factories that do not comply with the code of conduct is necessary because if UW cuts their contracts, the factories will be able to continue in their poor practices.
<p>”We’re definitely very interested that all the factories comply … but [we need to use the contract’s] influence to advocate for improvement,” Ashley said. “It will work to make conditions better.”
<p>Billups and Ashley also said one of the big talking points of the conference will be how to develop with solutions dealing with wage disclosure and workers’ organization.
<p>UW makes about $1 million in annual revenue from officially licensed products.
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