A summary of the goals of UW-Madison is found on the cover of The Daily Cardinal: \The great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."" Through searching for the truth, the university serves the larger Wisconsin public, but this university has not been honest about its relationship with the sweatshop industry.
Madison students still don't know whether UW-Madison's sweatshirts and other apparel are made under safe working conditions or whether they are still made in sweatshops.
Students on several college campuses brought attention to sweatshop abuses in a wave of sit-ins in 1999 and 2000 that took the universities by surprise. Students at UW-Madison participated by lobbying then-Chancellor David Ward to agree to a licensing code of conduct and cut ties with the corporate-controlled Fair Labor Association. Students encouraged Ward to join the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group controlled by students, workers and community members.
The truth about where and how UW-Madison apparel is being made can only be found through independent investigation. The FLA is governed by sweatshop giants like Nike. It does not disclose factory locations or working conditions. The WRC is an independent array of students, human rights groups and labor rights investigators that fully discloses factory locations and conditions to the public. More importantly, the WRC is not run by the corporate apparel industry, which makes it a reliable watchdog for workers rights.
UW-Madison did join the WRC. But now Chancellor John Wiley is backing away from UW-Madison's commitment to supporting workers' rights. Perhaps Wiley doesn't want to upset UW-Madison's latest corporate sponsor'Adidas. The chancellor would rather share governance of the university with corporations than with the students and public he has been hired to serve.
Earlier this semester, the student Madison Anti-Sweatshop Committee and UW Labor Licensing Committee organized a public forum to compare the two monitoring groups: the FLA and the WRC. The forum was organized to give Wiley a chance to hear public input on which group the university should sign on to. Representatives of the FLA and the WRC were scheduled to have a dialogue with students concerning the merits of both sides. Neither a representative of the FLA nor the chancellor bothered to show up.
The WRC representative clearly outlined the organization's objectives in the forum. The WRC's successful monitoring has resulted in the first independent labor union recognized by the Mexican garment industry last year. Through lobbying and contacting state representatives on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border, the WRC helped these former sweatshop workers win the right to a union at the MexMode factory. The corporate FLA has yet to begin any monitoring.
LaMarr Billups, special adviser to the chancellor, agreed to send a letter to licensees such as Adidas, urging them to contract through MexMode. However, he is now refusing to write this letter. When workers finally overcome sweatshop abuses, UW-Madison should stay true to the goals of the university and support their efforts.
Students have a right to refuse to allow their university's clothing to be made in sweatshops. Currently, the WRC has proven to be the only effective enforcement agency for workers rights. Students and faculty will have an opportunity to meet a delegation from the WRC and the Mexican workers who won the right to a union. This national tour of college campuses will arrive in Madison on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. Check TITU for the exact location.
