Two years of work by UB Students Against Sweatshops culminated Thursday in an open forum with a representative from the Workers Rights Consortium, who met earlier in the day with UB President John Simpson to talk about UB joining the labor rights organization.
"We've been organizing to affiliate with WRC for two years now, and for most of that time we've had a completely unreceptive administration," said Colin O'Malley, a UBSAS member who helped organize the event.
The WRC is an independent monitoring board that ensures that factories where clothing bearing the UB logo is produced are in compliance with labor standards.
"I feel we've given the university plenty of information and reason, and I think we're getting to the point where the administration doesn't have a reason not to join," O'Malley added.
Scott Nova, the executive director of the WRC, said his meeting with Simpson was "a pleasant discussion," but he could not characterize whether Simpson was leaning towards a decision on joining the group.
Dennis Black, vice president for Student Affairs, called Thursday a "listening day," that was part of the natural process of looking into the decision whether to affiliate with the WRC.
Over 60 students and community members came to hear Nova talk about the problems that face the global apparel industry and what his group does to fix those problems.
According to Nova, there are two factors at the center of the problem. One, major brand companies don't actually own factories overseas. Rather, they have contracts with source factories to make products under brand specifications. And because there are far more factories then brand companies, there competition in counties like Indonesia and Mexico is "extraordinarily intense," and it pushes down on wages and workers' rights.
"Very, very few major brands own factories anymore," Nova said. "So when you walk into Nike town, you're very unlikely to find anything made by Nike."
All Nike itself produces, he said, is the image and the commercials.
The second factor, he said, is a lack of effort to enforce labor laws standards.
Because of this dynamic, people began to ask in the 1990s, "Given that Nike doesn't own factories in Indonesia or China that actually make its product, is Nike in any way responsible for the conditions in that factory?" Nova said.
When the answer to that question turned out to be yes, many students formed groups for their universities to become responsible for the apparel that bares their names and logos.
Nova called it "one of the most successful and rapidly successful movements in the history of student movements. Students convinced almost every major university to adopt a code of conduct or move in that direction," he said.
In all this, the role of the WRC is to look into labor conditions in certain factories, evaluate the situation, and help fix the problems, Nova said.
"As a matter of policy, we don't do an investigation unless the workers want it to happen," he said, stressing that the idea is to put the power into the hands of the workers, usually in the form of a union.
UB already has a code of conduct and advisory board, but O'Malley said the board "could use a lot of work" and UB itself has no way of enforcing labor standards like the WRC could. There are 130 universities currently affiliated with the WRC.
Kathy Stevens, a spokeswoman for the Fair Labor Organization, prefaced Nova by talking about how the FLA has worked with colleges and universities to create a more just workplace in Central America.
"The FLA is working with the government, free trade zone, and factories to address the systematic problem of blacklisting in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras," Stevens said. "Our goal is to be able to open up a communication between colleges and our non-government organizations."
Stevens also spoke of the FLA's collaboration with factories to ensure that there is internal monitoring or factory conditions.
"Who knows what is best for the workers but the workers themselves?" she said.
Ariane Fulk, a sophomore art major, said she came to become more informed.
"I'm concerned about workers rights, and I came here really for more information," she said.
O'Malley said he was pleased with the turnout and hoped students walked away with the idea that UB does a have responsibility and role in the fight against sweatshops.
"We, as students, can play a role," he said.
Maura Pellettieri, a freshman English major and UBSAS member, said although she had hoped for a larger turnout, she felt really good about the way the event went.
"People were involved and asked questions," she said. "Sometimes, there's a sense of apathy on campus, and it shows that people can really get involved."
