THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2010
THE COST OF SCHOOL SPIRIT
VOLUME 123 ISSUE 61
Who's making your CLOTHES
Labor practices behind licensed KU apparel in question, but organizations are working to monitor conditions
BY ANNIE VANGSNES editor@kansan.com
A
blue Jayhawk T-shirt hangs in the Allen Fieldhouse gift shop, but it's the little tag in the collar, not the school spirit, that attracts the attention of activists, student groups and Kansas Athletics Inc. KU fans might not consider the production of Jayhawk T-shirts, hats or even coffee mugs, but there are labor monitors, non-governmental organizations and companies that do.
In every factory throughout the world that produces KU licensed merchandise, the Fair Labor Association is charged with supervising the labor conditions in which someone sewed that shirt. But even with labor monitoring, it's still difficult to track where and under what conditions the merchandise was manufactured.
THE PROCESS
Paul Vander Tuig, KU Trademark Licensing director, said Athletics joined the Fair Labor Association in 1999 when the public was be coming aware of sweatshop conditions. The FLA monitors workers' rights violations and works with factories and companies to improve working conditions.
"The process is so convoluted that this is why the University has to go through a third party and the third party has to have people researching into who the subcontractors are," Clark said.
This year, it cost the University athletic department about $21,000 to be an FLA affiliate, which is about 1 percent of the $2.1 million in gross royalties it receives from KU apparel and merchandise sales.
Kansas Athletics Inc. also coordinates with Collegiate Licensing Company, which works between licensees and Athletics to carry out the decisions Athletics makes. The CLC works with about 180 colleges and universities, including all Big 12 schools.
She said part of the problem is that globalization introduces so many more players into a process as simple as producing a T-shirt.
A lot of that information also depends on how open a company is about who it's working with and how much access it has to the subcontractors that are producing the goods. This is one reason it's difficult for Athletics to know exactly where its merchandise is being produced.
Eve Clark, a doctoral candidate studying globalization, said there are still problems with the labor monitoring system even if Athletics works with the FLA and CLC. The biggest problem is finding accountability because now many large companies subcontract the production of their goods. If there's a violation, a company can direct blame to the subcontractor.
Actually tracking and catching violations is a task in and of itself, Clark said, because different pieces of a product may be produced in different places and then assembled somewhere else.
Liz Kennedy, CLC director of corporate responsibility, said the company handles anything from contracts to artwork approval for product designs. She said although CLC is not related to the FLA, it does what it can to support each university's labormonitoring models.
Vander Tuig said there are difficulties with trying to match company violations to specific factory violations. Although there might be a violation at a certain company's factory, KU merchandise might not have been made at that exact factory. He said if KU items were being produced at a factory in violation, the FLA or CLC would notify him.
"As consumers, it's very difficult for us to find fair wage stuff because usually when you buy a big brand they're not really employing the people anymore," Clark said.
THE GLOBALIZATION FACTOR
"It is this very nightmarish sort of way to figure out whether or not something's fair" Clark said.
It's usually not until there's a protest or movement started by factory workers that people learn about inappropriate labor practices, she said.
"We do have a responsibility once things come out to move forward and look at a more effective wayof examining where things with the beloved Jayhawk come from."
ANDREA PETERSON
Former president, KU Students Against Sweatshops
COMPLAINT FILED
About two years ago a Russell clothing factory in Honduras that produced KU apparel was closed. Russell said closing the factory was a business decision, while another labor monitor, Worker Rights Consortium, and activists said the factory closed because workers had unionized. If the factory closed because of unionization, it would have been a workers' rights violation for the 1,800 employees at the factory.
Vander Tuig said he was notified of after the incident, but Athletics decided not to cut ties with Russell. At the time, about 90 colleges and universities dropped or suspended licensing agreements with Russell. Vander Tuig said although there would be no legal repercussions for canceling a licensee contract, Athletics decided to stick with Russell to try tomediate the situation.
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said he told Russell if satisfactory changes weren't made, Athletics would then terminate its contract.
In November 2009 Russell reached an agreement with the factory workers in which it hired back more than 1,000 workers and agreed to improve its relationship with the union.
FLA VS. WRC
Followers of the fair trade movement have differing opinions on collegiate merchandise when it comes to the two major monitors, the FLA and Worker Rights Consortium.
Last spring, Andrea Peterson, student senator and president of KU Students Against Sweatshops, sponsored a resolution in Senate to encourage Athletics to switch from the FLA to WRC. She said WRC has a much better history of responding to rights violations and has a better system for investigating the violations.
The strengths of WRC were that violations were investigated on an individual basis and it brought in non-government organizations to help, she said.
The FLA has agreements with the licensees and works with them and the factory owners to conduct investigations.
FLA Executive Director Jorge Pérez López said the FLA conducts about 125 to 150 random, unannounced inspections each year. He said it also investigates any complaints, but there are only about two or three a year.
"The question is whether or not that's being enforced and if we're using the most effective monitoring organization to ensure that it's being enforced," Peterson said. "We do have a responsibility once things come out to move forward and look at a more effective way of ex-
Athletics has its own licensee contract that lays out its conditions for fair labor practices, but Peterson said their good intentions may not be enough to change the system.
SEE LABOR ON PAGE 3A
- Kansas Athletics Inc. is part of the Fair Labor Association, a group dedicated to promoting working conditions
- This year, Athletics paid $21,000 to be part of the FLA. That's 1 percent of the 2.1 million dollar revenue Kansas Athletics Inc. makes from its licensed apparel.
- There are more than 200 colleges and universities involved with the FLA, according to the group's website.
Do you consider labor conditions when shopping? Cast your vote at kansan.com/
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MEN'S BASKETBALL | 10A
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WEATHER
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WEDNESDAY
Psychologist talks of religion in society
50 29
AM showers
THURSDAY
51 31
Mostly sunny weather.com
Dr. Darryl Ray will be speaking tonight about a term he calls "religious infection," or the role religion has played in modern culture.
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2010 The University Daily Kansan
INDEX
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Crossword ... 6A
Cryptoquips ... 6A
Opinion ... 7A
Sports ... 1B
Sudoku ... 6A
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