U of Houston affiliates with the Worker Rights Consortium : Houston Indymedia

On October 15 the UH chapter of the United Students Against Sweatshops won one of its sweat free campus campaign's goals. The main goal of our campaign is for the University to sign on to the Designated Supplier's Program (DSP). In order to sign on to the DSP a university must be a member of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).

The WRC is an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe. Their purpose is to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States. See http://www.workersrights.org/ for more information.

This means that the University of Houston has to:

# Adopt a manufacturing code of conduct and work toward the incorporation of this code into applicable contracts with licensees.

# Ask licensees to provide the WRC with a list, updated regularly, of names and locations of all factories involved in the production of their logo goods.

After the University pays the fee and sends the affiliation letter to the WRC we will be able to use that affiliation as leverage to push the University to force licensees to correct labor violations or risk losing their contract with the University of Houston.

For example last fall United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) chapters at WRC affiliated schools across the country pushed their school administrators to pressure New Era Cap after labor law violations where uncovered in its non-unionized plant in Mobile, Alabama. Because New Era resisted, the University of Wisconsin-Madison terminated its contract with them.

USAS chapters, the WRC, the Teamsters union and the NAACP worked together to publicize the problems at the New Era factory. Then in February 2008, after the workers voted to unionize, New Era signed a three year contract with the Teamsters local.

Learn how USAS members investigated the complaints: http://dailyuw.com/2008/2/7/students-investigate-worker-rights-violations/.

Learn more about the New Era victory here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS221361+13-Feb-2008+PRN20080213