UW-Madison continues anti-sweatshop efforts

Ahead of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s first Labor Licensing Policy Committee meeting of the year, LaMarr Billups, senior special assistant to Chancellor John D. Wiley, is available to provide perspective and background on the university’s extensive efforts to curb sweatshop abuses in collegiate apparel.

UW–Madison has endorsed the principles of the Designated Suppliers Program, a proposal developed by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) and the Workers Right Consortium (WRC) to change the way that university-licensed brands select suppliers to manufacture apparel that include university trademarks or logos.

Brands and suppliers are required by universities to adhere to a code of conduct, which guarantees minimum labor standards affecting freedom of association, wages, and health and safety.

However, there are no requirements that brands require suppliers to pay a living wage to workers, guarantee their right to freely associate in labor unions or maintain a certain level of order or length of contract with their suppliers. The DSP program would require brands to limit their selection of suppliers involved in the collegiate apparel business to factories that adhere to the new standards under the DSP.

In December, UW–Madison became the first school in the nation to support the principles of the DSP. At the university’s urging, six other universities and colleges adopted the DSP in principle. Among them were Duke University, Georgetown University and the University of Connecticut.

In January, the WRC convened the seven schools into a working group to develop an implementation plan for the DSP. The working group has grown in membership to 18, including the University of California system.

Each month since January, including a two-day meeting in July that involved 30 representatives of licensed brands, the working group has moved closer to a final draft of an implementation plan that considers the operational, economic and social impact of the DSP.

Final modifications to the DSP implementation plan are now being circulated among WRC affiliate schools, all university licensees and their representative organization, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and other stakeholders. It is expected that if a critical mass of universities and colleges find the final draft of the DSP implementation plan acceptable, the WRC, all of its affiliates, USAS and the collegiate licensees will take action during the next several months to fully adopt and implement the DSP.

The next meeting of the WRC board and the DSP working group will occur Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 23 and 24, in Washington, D.C.

Billups can be reached at (608) 263-5510.