The Labor Licensing Policy Committee voted unanimously (with one voting member absent) Friday that the University of Wisconsin should request wage information from its UW logo apparel licensees. The LLPC will submit the recommendation to the chancellor when they finish the draft of the request.
Wilt Sanders, a UW academic staff member and LLPC voting member, said the basic thought of this request is to prevent factories from paying below country minimum wages or the normal industry wage.
Sanders said a factor in the call to action was to establish a principle now as a preventative measure rather than a punitive decision.
“I don’t think there’s any particular accusations at this time,” he said.
Within the code of conduct of licensing UW apparel or products, factories must at least pay the minimum wage of the country or the going rate of the industry, Sanders reported, adding that the higher of the two wages should be paid.
“You have no way to make sure they’re paying at least the minimum wage,” he said, adding UW must first define what companies are paying before any decisions should be made on all of the producers’ payment policies.
Student Labor Action Coalition member Samantha Ashley said that a decision to reveal factories’ payment to laborers would help prevent “sweatshop”-type practices and further develop UW’s code to licensees to improve the conditions of workers in factories that produce the Badger novelties.
Ashley added that the Workers’ Rights Consortium, a labor-monitoring group UW joined in 2000, is very concerned of fair-labor practices.
“It’s just hard to know what’s going on; [these factories] are so far away,” she said, explaining many factories are located in foreign countries, including Vietnam and Indonesia.
“It’s really a huge step,” she added, but did say it was not out of the ordinary for universities to ask wage information.
“Western Michigan just got wage disclosure,” Ashley reported.
Sanders was hesitant to talk about what the ramifications of this recommendation would be, adding the LLPC’s job is to make recommendations to the chancellor, and the chancellor would be the individual to act on such advice.
Sanders commented that the chancellor has shown responsibility in fair-labor policies in past decisions with becoming one of the founding members of the Workers’ Rights Consortium.
Sanders also said the suggestion could take some time until final action begins because Wiley might want to further look into the issue or check into the legal consequences of requesting wage disclosure.