Labor Licensing Policy Committee Special Meeting

Well, on Friday we had our special meeting with Gregg Nebel (adidas) and Scott Nova (Workers' Rights Consortium). Wiley came to the beginning 15 minutes of the meeting, and although he acknowledged that the entire garment industry is intentionally designed to exploit workers, he also undermined the committee by pretty much stating that we would not cut the contract because we would not field a naked football team. Gregg Nebel pretty much said he was going to do absolutely nothing to ensure that the workers get their jobs back. There is a job fair coming up that will hopefully get some of the workers new jobs, after a 6 week training session, but adidas is not going to urge factories to hire the blacklisted workers. I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but it seems like the blacklist is still in place. There is an ombudsman hired by the Fail Labor Association helping these former workers out, and one day 21 of them applied at a nearby factory, Chi Fung, and 16 were not even allowed to apply, of the 5 that were allowed to apply, only one was hired (supposedly the others failed the test even though they have worked in the apparel industry for years. Their skills might have atrophied in the 3 years that they were unable to find employment, but it is Chi Fung's own fault since they refused to hire the workers, and there is no reason to believe that these skills would not come back pretty much right away), and the one that was hired was fired the very next day. The ombudsman intervened and she was given her job back, but then fired again almost immediately. Over all, it was a very frustrating 5 hours. I guess that is all the important stuff. Scott Nova talked to us a bit about the WRC and the Designated Suppliers Program and some other stuff that probably isn't very interesting to anybody who isn't on the committee. Let me know if there are any questions!

Labor Licensing Policy Committee March Meeting

Well, we just had our meeting. This meeting was pretty much dedicated to coming up with a plan for next week's meeting with Scott Nova and Gregg Nebel (Friday, April 4, noon, TITU, everyone should come). We had an outside facilitator come in from the Office of Quality Improvement to help us come up with a strategy for our negotiations. With his help, we came up with our bottom-line interest and our best alternative to a negotiated agreement, and also tried to figure out what adidas' interests and BATNA would be. The structure of the meeting is going to be both Scott and Gregg at first, they will each give a brief report answering questions we sent them, then there will be time for us to ask questions, then we will move into the negotiation. When we are finished with that, Gregg will leave, and Scott will talk to us about the role of the WRC, and also the feasibility and implementation of the plan we come up with in the negotiation. Nothing new really came out of this meeting, since the entire thing was dedicated to planning for next weeks meeting, and to see how that plays out, come check it out next Friday, April 4, at noon, TITU!

Labor Licensing Policy Committee February Meeting

So, we had another LLPC meeting on Friday. It was actually a pretty uneventful meeting. We got an update on New Era (UW recently cut the contract). The union and New Era have reached a tentative agreement--yay!--but the University is sticking by its decision to cut the contract, even though New Era seems to think there are some legal issues. Nothing has really changed for Hermosa according to the former workers, we will get a report from adidas when Gregg Nebel visits us on April 4th, along with Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium. A lot of our meeting, and most of our next meeting, was dedicated to planning for the April 4 meeting, figuring out questions to ask, etc. We decided to try and get an outside facilitator so that we can all play the roles of concerned students, faculty, staff, etc., rather than the role of unbiased facilitator. I'm still encouraging people to come to that meeting, or let me know if you have any questions you want me to ask Gregg or Scott, but other than that, nothing else really happened.

Labor Licensing Policy Committee January Meeting

We had our January meeting yesterday. We introduced a new member to the committee, a representative from AFSCME local 171. Next we had an update on the Designated Suppliers Program. Unfortunately, the letter we (the working group of schools that have signed onto the DSP) were hoping to receive from the Department of Justince stating that there would not be any anti-trust issues did not come through. Instead of a formal rejection that would hurt our case, we decided to withdraw the request until we get a less hostile administration. In the meantime, we talked about University Bookstores at DSP schools voluntarily doing a sort of "DSP-lite," that would be a step in the right direction, but just until the DSP goes through and can be implemented. Next we moved onto licensee updates. A student from our campus went on a USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops) delegation to New Era in Mobile, AL last weekend, and she reported on what some of the current and former workers have said about their issues including racism, favoritism, sexual harrassment, low pay, a bogus point system, as well as other concerns. Dawn Crim informed the committee that our university would not be cutting the New Era contract due to breach of contract over New Era refusing to fully cooperate with the WRC (Workers' Rights Consortium), because of legal issues, but we would instead be cutting the contract for no cause based on the fact that the University does not wish to have a relationship with brands like New Era who engage in these sorts of practices. Dawn informed us that the University would not be sending out a press release or anything about this issue but that she would answer questions that reporters or others may have on the issue. The situation for the former workers of Hermosa has not improved either. There are some things going on with the government that may recover some of the funds to give to the former employees, but those are still in the works. The hiring situation continues to point to a blacklist. On a day when an FLA (Fair Labor Association) ombudsman was to be at a nearby factory called Chi Fung, 21 former Hermosa employees went to try to apply for jobs. All of them but 5 or 6 were turned away immediately, told that they were not qualified even though they have been doing similar work for years, of the 5 or 6 who were allowed in to apply, only 1 was hired on probationary status and fired the next day. This left the workers humiliated (obviously), and only hurt the very limited trust they have in adidas. Next we discussed possible dates for Gregg Nebel (adidas big shot) and Scott Nova (director of the WRC) to come. It will probably be a mega-meeting on a Friday afternoon in March or April. I'll give an update on that when I find out for sure when it will be, because it might be interesting for other people to attend that meeting, and all our meetings are always open to interested students. The next regular meeting will be Friday 2/9 at 2:30 in 67 Bascom. That was pretty much all the interesting stuff.

Labor Licensing Policy Committee December Meeting

We had our LLPC meeting today. We got an update from the UW Bookstore guys about the new fair trade line they've been carrying. It has been very successful. They have sold more in a month than they require a line to sell in a year in order to keep purchasing it. They are still trying to diversify their fair trade clothes with other brands such as Fair Indigo, but as of right now they only have the one brand. Next we got an update on the situation at the New Era Cap Company distribution center in Mobile, Alabama. They still aren't letting the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) conduct their investigation, which violates our contract with them, so the administration has decided that if the WRC isn't granted access to the factory by Wednesday 12/19, we will send a breach of contract letter to New Era. The committee unanimously supported this as well as publicizing our termination of the contract if it comes down to that. Next we talked about the Hermosa situation. Nothing has really changed for the workers in a long time, and we are getting different stories from Gregg Nebel (adidas bigshot) and Scott Nova (executive director of the WRC), but the committee decided that it is not our job to investigate these matters, that is what he pay the WRC to do, so we should trust what they say and the recommendations they make, and the burden of proof is on adidas. We decided that it would be beneficial to invite both Gregg Nebel and Scott Nova to our next meeting (January 25), to clear some things up, so if anyone wants to come show support, it would be appreciated. I don't know for sure if they will be able to make it or what time the meeting would be, but I'll keep everyone updated. We thought that the end of January would be a good time for them to come because there are several things that will hopefully be resolved or have progress by then. The Fair Labor Association (FLA) hired an ombudsman to oversee hiring practices at nearby factories, and that is supposed to be taking place in January. Also (this is unrelated to the specific case), I think we should hopefully be getting the Department of Justice letter about the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP) back around the end of January, so it would be nice to have them here around that time. The DSP would lead to systemic change and worker empowerment, so it's really exciting, and hopefully it will be able to be implemented soon after we get the DoJ letter back, if it is favorable. The codes of conduct are also being looked at by a committee of universities and the CLC. This should take about 6 months, I think, and suggestions will be brought to us. I think that's about it. If anyone has any questions, let me know.