UW-Madison terminates New Era contract

UW-Madison has terminated its licensing contract with Buffalo, N.Y.-based New Era Cap Co.

In December, the university’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC) recommended that the university end its relationship with the firm after allegations of discrimination and anti-union activity surfaced at one of the company’s factories in Mobile, Ala.

Chancellor John Wiley considered the LLPC’s advice along with the university’s own evaluation of the situation, resulting in the announcement at a LLPC meeting on Jan. 25.

“We decided that New Era is just not a company that we want to continue to do business with,” says Dawn Crim, acting special assistant to the chancellor for community relations. “We are a university that says we want to make sure the best possible conditions are set up (for workers and apparel production). This company currently is not meeting our expectations.”

The company made UW–Madison-logoed baseball-style and knit caps under the license, which generated revenue of $8,351 for the university last year.

As part of university standards, brands and suppliers are required to adhere to a code of conduct. The code addresses workers’ wages, working hours, overtime compensation, child labor, forced labor, health and safety, nondiscrimination, harassment or abuse, women’s rights, freedom of association and full public disclosure of factory locations.

The code aims to ensure apparel is manufactured free of sweatshop-like conditions and is enforced by an independent monitor, the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). Crim says the WRC was barred from inspecting New Era factories.

Similar allegations about the company surfaced in 2002, but the company was allowed to continue as a licensee after it made improvements to comply with the code.

UW-Madison has been a leader among colleges and universities working to curb sweatshop abuses in licensed-apparel manufacturing. The university has contracts allowing more than 450 companies to make products bearing the university’s name or logos. The products are made in approximately 3,300 factories in 47 countries worldwide.