Workers Rights Consortium
Description
The Workers Rights Consortium was created as an alternative to the Fair Labor Association, by college and university students and administrators and labor rights experts, in order to provide to colleges and universities only the chance to see real labor codes of conducts enforced. The WRC is completely independent from companies in the Apparel Industry. The interesting factor about the WRC is that it was created by people concerned about the sweatshop situation, rather than by the companies in the apparel industry themselves, attempting to calm and provide a sense of security to their customers. The Workers Rights Consortium intends to reach out to factory workers and make means available to raise claims and/or demands regarding their working conditions. Because of this, the WRC does not issue certifications of companies that make them "sweat-free". Rather, the companies are under constant inspection.
Mission
This statement has been taken from the WRC site, workersrights.org:
- The WRC's mission is to:
- keep our affiliate colleges and universities informed about conditions in the factories producing the goods that bear their names and logos
- work with our affiliates to end worker rights violations wherever they are identified
- raise public awareness about workplace conditions in apparel and other industries
- educate workers about their rights under college and university Codes of Conduct, and
- through all of these efforts, help workers gain greater respect for their rights and real improvements in their conditions of work.
Relevance
The importance of the WRC stems from three main points:
- The organization is independent from the apparel industry, and thus, it is not influenced by the interests of the large corporations that partake in Labor Exploitation
- The organization was created by concerned students, not to satisfy a demand for a certain label that says "sweat-free" but rather to actively enforce codes of conducts that will improve Labor conditions
- According to the organization, the best measure of the conditions of workers are the workers themselves. Instead of periodical checks of factories, which can be manipulated, the WRC contacts workers at factories and provide a channel in which they can file complaints on Labor Conditions.
History
The WRC was originally created as an alternative to the FLA by students and Labor experts. The organization grew from a couple of members to over 150 nowadays. In January 2006, the WRC published a Statement in which it supported the Designated Suppliers Program by USAS and that its new focus was to actively engage in the enforcement of it.
WRC vs. FLA
What is the FLA?
- "The Fair Labor Association (FLA) is a good example of a public-private partnership that can legitimize the compliance activities of multinational companies."
- (Fair Labor Association, 2006, p.3)
So, what's the difference?
- The WRC and the FLA are two distinct organizations, with different approaches to labor rights enforcement and different scopes. Any comparison of the two must start from the recognition that their projects are fundamentally different. The WRC works with local NGOs to empower workers to report labor rights violations in order to assist colleges and universities in enforcing their codes of conduct. The FLA seeks to accredit apparel brands as in compliance with FLA standards by requiring that companies adopt monitoring programs.
- (United Students Against Sweatshops, 2004, p.2)
In January 2001, Marion Traub-Werner, one of the founders of USAS approached national and international media with documented footage and strong evidence of sweatshop conditions of labor in Kuk-Dong de Atlixco in Mexico, a subcontractor of Nike. This was no news, big corporations use sweatshops. Nevertheless, the relevance of this event was that Nike, and especially that particular factory in Mexico was supposedly approved under FLA regulations.
This event allowed for students organizations to prove what they already suspected, association with the FLA did not provide a guarantee of being a Sweat-Free University. In the words of Naomi Klein:
- "[Nike] says that they have a very strict code of conduct and that they are a part of the FLA [...]. ALso, it hires external control corporations that make sure that the 700 factories that produce their merchandise follow their rules[...] The students have rejected this view, because they consider that corporations cannot control themselves."
(2002, p.80)
Currently, the Kuk-Dong factory, now renamed Mexmode, is under WRC monitoring, and has succesfully achieved sweat-free conditions.
To read a comparison between the two organizations constructed by USAS, follow this link:
Why join WRC?
The Workers Rights Consortium, even though it does not guarantee that member schools are sweat-free, is actively striving to achieve that goal. Affiliation with the WRC can provide independent information on working conditions at factories that supply colleges and universities with apparel. A sweat-free commitment cannot be solely comprehended by affiliation to the WRC, but any commitment would be incomplete without it.
Recent Collaborations
There have been recent collaborations between the WRC and the FLA. Joint conferences and meetings have occurred in which both organizations have agreed to work together to achieve common goals. In fact, the FLA's Executive Director has publicly stated that both companies are "complimentary", and that colleges and universities should aim to joining to both organizations.
To read Harvard University's letter to Harvard Students Against Sweatshops when he communicated that the university was to affiliate to the WRC, in addition to their previous affiliation with the FLA, follow the following link:
http://hcs.harvard.edu/~pslm/hsas/summersletterdec03.pdf
Currently, Dickinson College is only affiliated with the Fair Labor Association...
