Members of University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Student Labor Action Coalition met with Chancellor Rebecca Blank Friday to discuss the enforcement of the Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh signed by the chancellor earlier this month.
The agreement requires all university licensees to abide by a code of conduct and ensures workers’ wages and safety inspections in Bangladeshi garment factories. UW-Madison will not cut already existing contracts, but instead only renew contracts with vendors who agree to sign onto the accord.
With contracts coming up for renewal in the next few months, most licensees should be in a position to make a decision regarding the accord by the middle of summer, Blank said.
“My goal is to make sure that we stay in conversation in a way that lets our vendors know we value them and that we want to listen to them,” Blank said. “But there are also certain things that we demand of what they do.”
While expressing excitement about the chancellor’s decision to require licensees to sign onto the accord, SLAC members voiced concerns over UW-Madison’s contract with the backpack brand JanSport.
Although JanSport does not produce materials in Bangladesh and is therefore exempt from the agreement, UW-Madison junior Melanie Meyer explained the company is a subsidiary of VF Corporation, which has historically “not really [been] the champion for workers’ rights that we think our licensees should be.”
SLAC members said VF Corp. could potentially benefit from profits made by JanSport, but Blank said this may not necessarily be the case and is dependent on the financial integration structure of the two brands.
Blank said she will consider SLAC’s grievances but must seek legal advice to clarify the terms of the contract. She added UW-Madison will not be renewing its contract with VF Imagewear, another subsidiary of VF Corp., due to the company’s unwillingness to sign onto the accord.
