Pitt aligns with Worker Rights Consortium

After almost a year, some student activists found out Monday that they got what they wanted.

The activists tried to persuade Pitt to make a formal agreement they said would provide extra assurance that the University’s apparel was made under fair conditions.

The Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that monitors labor conditions at factories that provide licensed apparel for universities and high schools, received a letter Friday from Pitt. In the letter, Pitt formally agreed to join with the WRC. 

Although Pitt was already using the services of the Fair Labor Association, another group that monitors labor conditions in facilities that produce its licensed apparel, some students argued that affiliating with the WRC as well as the FLA would better protect the welfare of the workers who make Pitt’s apparel.

Senior Joe Thomas, the co-founder and former president of Americans for Informed Democracy on Pitt’s campus, said he was thrilled that Pitt chose to affiliate with the WRC. He and administrators plan to meet Wednesday.

Pitt’s decision came as a surprise to Thomas, who learned about it secondhand. 

Administrators reached out to him and others connected with No Sweat last week to set up a time when they could all meet.

But Pitt had not told him that it was joining the WRC.

He found out Monday night when a friend in the national activist group United Students Against Sweatshops told Thomas that she saw Pitt’s name listed on the WRC’s website as an affiliate. After Thomas’ friend confirmed through an email with a WRC representative that Pitt had affiliated, she forwarded him the message, which said that Pitt had, indeed, joined.

“I think I jumped,” he said.

Pitt spokesman John Fedele said that Pitt wanted to meet with Thomas and others from No Sweat in order to tell them face to face. This particular meeting is currently scheduled for Wednesday evening.

Even after stepping down as president of AID, Thomas served as an adviser in the group and headed its efforts as part of No Sweat, a coalition that advocated affiliation with the WRC. Since the beginning of the 2012 fall semester, Thomas and others involved with the coalition had tried to persuade Pitt to join the WRC by holding events to speak to students about the issue and by meeting with administrators to explain their position.

Unlike the FLA, whose affiliates include retail corporations with a specific interest in profits, the WRC’s affiliates are exclusively universities and high schools.

But the FLA disagrees that this hurts workers’ rights.

Heeral Coleman, a senior spokeswoman for the FLA, said in an email that the companies affiliated with the group must conduct internal monitoring of the factories that make their products.

Members of AID and other organizations that advocated for affiliation with the WRC said that the group takes certain measures to monitor factories that make apparel and other products.

For example, the WRC’s policy mandates that assessors interview employees about labor conditions outside of their place of work. According to the WRC’s logic, this makes the employees less vulnerable to coercion from their bosses or the owners of the factories.

Such measures ensure that the assessors get more honest answers, Thomas said.

While interviews with employees are also among the measure the FLA uses to evaluate conditions at facilities that make products for its affiliates, the assessors are allowed to use their own discretion in where they conduct the interviews.

Coleman said that the services of the FLA and WRC complement each other, and it is not uncommon for schools to affiliate with both.

The FLA did not reply to an email asking Coleman to elaborate on how the organizations complement one another.

Throughout the last academic year, Thomas and others from No Sweat coalition, which included more than 50 organizations, met with Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey five or six times. Vice Chancellor G. Reynolds Clark was also at several of these meetings. The coalition also held events in order to present its position.

Last fall, Fedele told The Pitt News in an email that the University was satisfied with the FLA’s services. In a March email, he said that Pitt was listening to students’ concerns about apparel oversight, but declined to comment further.

Fedele said that Pitt’s administration decided to join the WRC after learning that many universities are affiliated with both organizations. It is unclear when exactly Pitt decided to join the WRC.

“We decided there would be value to the University to have a membership in the Worker Rights Consortium, and that would augment our membership with the Fair Labor Association,” he said.

Theresa Haas, a senior spokeswoman for the WRC, said the WRC received Pitt’s letter of affiliation Friday.

“We welcome the University of Pittsburgh as a new affiliate of Worker Rights Consortium,” Haas said. “We very much look forward to working with administration and students to ensure University of Pittsburgh logo products are made under good working conditions.”

In order to affiliate with the WRC, each year a university must pay 1 percent of the gross licensing revenue, which includes all the official apparel bearing the university’s logo. This amount is calculated based on the previous year. The fee is capped at $50,000.

Coleman said that schools affiliated with the FLA pay the same annual rate of 1 percent of gross licensing revenue, and the is also capped at $50,000 per year.

Thomas said that administrators reached out to members of his group Friday. As of press time, a meeting is scheduled to take place Wednesday evening.

Thomas said he felt that he and the administrators he dealt with during his campaign acquired a mutual respect for each other’s perspectives, even if they didn’t always agree.

“The important thing is that we agree now,” he said.