The lead article in Monday's edition of The Spectrum ("No Sweat for UB
Apparel," Nov. 7), while significant for giving the students an update on the
Worker's Rights Consortium campaign lead by their fellow students, had a few misleading statements.
First, Dennis Black's quotation that "UB was in full compliance with state law prior to affiliation in spring 2005 with the two national monitoring groups and is in full compliance today" is correct. However, state law did not demand that universities take into account the labor practices of their licensees. Previously, state law had required that the university do their licensing with the lowest bidder. That law changed several years ago when the university was given the ability by the state to not go for the lowest bidder. Therefore, the option was open for them to begin considering labor practices of their licensees through an external monitoring board. This is when UB Students Against Sweatshops stepped in and when (last semester) the university signed on to such a monitoring board: the Worker's Rights Consortium.
When Scott Nova of the WRC states that "there are certain obligations of affiliation, and (UB is) fulfilling them," this only means that the university is paying affiliation dues. At the present time, a committee within the university to attend to the labor practices of UB's licensees does not exist. However, UB Students Against Sweatshops is working with the administration and faculty to set up such a committee by the beginning of the spring semester.
When the article states that "UB now has in place a code of conducts for the companies it does business with, only working with those businesses that treat their workers humanely," this is true only in that the university has a code of conduct. This code has yet to be amended in light of WRC affiliation. This will be the first task of such a committee.
As such, the caption stating that a UB student is looking at a sweatshirt that is guaranteed sweatshop free is false. While WRC affiliation was a key step in the campaign for recognizing worker's rights by the university, there is still much work to be done by the students, the staff, the faculty, and the administration. If you are interested in helping with this campaign or in learning more about how UBSAS is able to effectively bring about change on our campus, come to the UBSAS meetings on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. in the Capen Caf?(c).
The Spectrum regrets the error regarding the photo caption in ONo sweat for UB apparelO (Nov. 7).
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
