Monday, April 3, 2000
They’re all talk
Performing Arts Center announces fifth-season lineup
Annual conference presents children’s literature awards
Computer science professor explains complex programs in graphic detail
Newsmakers
Administrative Changes
University joins worldwide efforts to monitor, improve ‘sweatshop’ working conditions
By Beth Roberts
beth@uga.edu

The controversy over the working conditions under which clothing is manufactured in underdeveloped countries has led UGA to join the Fair Labor Association. Columns spoke with Richard Mullendore, vice president for student affairs, about UGA’s concerns.

Columns: Perhaps you could clarify first: are we talking about athletic uniforms? T-shirts with a UGA logo sold to the public?
Mullendore: All of the above.

Columns: How did UGA decide to join the F.L.A.?
Mullendore: The Clinton administration, working with the Department of Labor, asked that a group be put together to try to seek solutions when this issue came to the forefront a few years ago. Out of that came the Fair Labor Association, or the F.L.A. It has representatives from the major corporations and representatives from universities and other groups.

Columns: Representatives of the clothing manufacturers?
Mullendore: Yes--it is a broad-based organization that is still defining itself. It does have a charter and goals and code of conduct, and it has recently hired an executive director who was an activist for many years.
We are looking for the best way, as an institution, to work toward a worldwide solution. Last fall, Avery McLean from athletics, Tom Jackson from University Communications, and I met on several occasions and looked over all the material available to determine what this university should do. It was apparent to us that the F.L.A. had the potential to improve conditions.
There was another organization in infancy at the time called the W.R.C., or the Workers Rights Consortium. We also looked at that. We were concerned that they took an adversarial approach. They wanted to find out where people were doing things wrong and go in and catch them and expose them.

Columns: I understand there are students who prefer the W.R.C.
Mullendore: Yes, the Workers Rights Consortium is being organized and run by students. They are going to have their organizational meeting around April 7.
We see the F.L.A. working in partnership with these companies to improve conditions, and we felt that was a strength. The students, however, feel that working in partnership with the companies means you may ignore problems. We have met with the students to explain what the university has done, and we’ve told them that we will continue to listen and will meet with them after the W.R.C. has had its first organizational meeting.

Columns: And UGA has committed to the F.L.A.?
Mullendore: We have signed on with the F.L.A. for one year, on a trial basis, and we will be monitoring their efforts.
The other player in this is the C.L.C., the Collegiate Licensing Company. They license all of the materials that are made for the University of Georgia and many other companies and organizations. They have a very strong code of conduct, which requires, for example, that companies disclose the locations of their factories if requested by a university, and we have said that we want them to do so. Some of the weaknesses in the F.L.A. are less important because of the C.L.C. When you put our F.L.A. membership together with our utilization of the C.L.C., we have accountability regarding the locations in which University of Georgia apparel is made and the conditions under which it is produced.

Columns: Is there a local student group involved?
Mullendore: Yes, there is a national group called the Students Against Sweatshops, and they have an organization on this campus.

Columns: What have other universities done?
Mullendore: At the time that the University of Georgia signed on with the F.L.A., we were the 131st member. At that time there were three members of the W.R.C. There are now 134 F.L.A. members and 20 W.R.C. members.

Columns: Is there a cost?
Mullendore: Yes. By joining either organization, the university obligates itself to 1 percent of the gross revenues it generates as a result of the sale of any regalia.

Columns: What has the F.L.A. done so far?
Mullendore: It has started training monitors--non-governmental organizations.

Columns: Already-existing NGOs, such as human-rights organizations?
Mullendore: Right. Corporations are being required to disclose the locations of their factories to the F.L.A., and the F.L.A. will be monitoring a certain percentage on an annual basis.

Columns: Isn’t the sweatshop issue much bigger than college apparel?
Mullendore: That’s a good point, because companies like Nike and Gap only spend a portion of their day making items for colleges.

Columns: Is the F.L.A. dealing with that broader issue?
Mullendore: Yes, because it’s looking at the companies themselves. The F.L.A. has a 14-member board: the director, six company seats, a university seat, and six NGO seats. So they’re looking well beyond university apparel.
Universities tend to be in the forefront in trying to look at issues and ensure corporate responsibility. And this is a sensitive issue. It’s very important to some of our students, and it’s very important to the university. I think that sometimes the students think that we see this as their issue, but none of us wants to think that what we’re wearing was made by some 11-year-old child working 16 hours a day for 16 cents. To think that the university would want that--or that those of us working at the university would want that--is absurd.
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