UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said Wednesday he is committed to working with peer universities to protect workers' rights by pressuring apparel manufacturers to adopt stricter disclosure policies.
Representatives of the UW-Madison Labor Licensing Policy Committee and the Student Labor Action Coalition met with Wiley to discuss volume disclosure. The LLPC wants companies manufacturing UW-Madison-licensed products to be responsible for reporting the number of items manufactured at a given facility.
UW-Madison junior and LLPC member Liana Dalton said the issue was urgent, as garment workers in Indonesia are rapidly losing their jobs. She said companies are moving orders from factories in areas with higher pay or the opportunity for workers to organize to areas with little worker protection.
\I think it is very important that we make the pinnacle issue freedom of association,"" Dalton said.
Wiley said though volume disclosure is something he is interested in working toward, any volume data received from manufacturers should be verifiable. He also stressed the importance of working with other institutions.
""There are things we can do to make ourselves feel good but won't have any real impact,"" Wiley said. ""And I'm not interested in just grandstanding or posturing.""
The chancellor did not offer a specific number of universities he would like to see involved.
Dalton said a majority of UW-licensed goods are being produced under poor workers' rights conditions. She suggested working with non-governmental organizations, the Workers' Rights Consortium and speaking to the workers themselves in order to find solutions.
""We have to progressively move toward further mechanisms for supporting workers so they aren't being systematically abused in our name,"" Dalton said.
LLPC member Jane Collins said the group was disappointed with the school's decision to renew an apparel contract with Adidas, saying it represented a missed opportunity for the company to lead the area of disclosure. Wiley said he saw it as simply the renewal of a previously-approved deal.
""Something really important had changed ... and that is the end of the quota system,"" Collins said.
The quota system placed limits on the number of apparel items the United States could import from a given country. With the limits gone, many companies are moving orders to countries without such laws.
""I feel like, by doing nothing, by not moving forward, we're being complicit in the abuse that's taking place,"" Dalton said.
