Labor practices examined
UNC questions New Era factory
By: Caroline Dye, Staff Writer
Issue date: 1/30/08 Section: State & National
|
The Buffalo, N.Y.-based company produces baseball caps for several major universities. It has refused to allow the Worker Rights Consortium, composed of worker advocacy groups and universities that license their logos, to investigate claims of labor violations in the Alabama factory.
Several UNC students traveled to Alabama earlier this month as part of United Students Against Sweatshops' efforts to raise awareness of reported factory violations.
"Any pressure on New Era is positive," said Salma Mirza, an organizer for the campus group Student Action with Workers. Mirza traveled to Mobile with USAS. She is also a member of the University's Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee, which made the recommendation Tuesday.
Derek Lochbaum, director of licensing at UNC and co-chairman of the licensing committee, said UNC is affiliated with both the WRC, whose investigation New Era resisted, and the Fair Labor Association, another global nonprofit.
Lochbaum said that companies typically distrust the WRC because they think it's biased and that student activists typically distrust the FLA because it includes corporations in addition to universities and labor organizations.
"At the end of the day, we all have the same goal," Lochbaum said, adding that all of the organizations usually work in concert.
Mirza said New Era has tried to prevent factory workers from organizing, firing some employees for supporting unionization.
A lack of job opportunities in Mobile makes employees hesitant to oppose management policies, she said. "We spent time in the community in Mobile. It's hard to find another job like the jobs at New Era."
The NAACP and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union issued a report Monday accusing New Era of unethical practices, including racial discrimination.
"They utilized tactics to really scare employees away from collective bargaining and organization," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau.
He also said New Era required its employees to watch anti-union propaganda.
Shelton said he hopes the management of the Mobile factory will ratify a contract with the Teamsters soon. A majority of the factory employees voted to unionize last year.
He also said he hopes that the factory will follow the same course as its counterpart in Buffalo, N.Y., where employees receive higher wages.
"If Mobile is able to do what Buffalo did, it will be the kind of company you want to do business with."
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is only affiliated with the WRC, has already severed ties with New Era for not meeting WRC employment standards.
During the licensing committee meeting, Mirza proposed that UNC do the same but then amended her proposal at the suggestion of the committee.
The members voted unanimously to require New Era to consent to an audit by the WRC, the FLA or both by the time of their next meeting in February.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Salma Mirza
posted 2/07/08 @ 2:14 AM EST
One, the WRC is not "composed of worker advocacy groups and universities that license their logos." The WRC is an independent monitoring organization that UNC pays to investigate code of conduct violations. (Continued…)
Salma Mirza
posted 2/07/08 @ 2:22 AM EST
Also, you might want to add in that timeline that students affiliated with United Students against Sweatshops held a 3-day sit-in in South building before the University agreed to adopt labor codes of conduct in 1999. (Continued…)
Post a Comment