Duke joins sweatshop movement
DURHAM
DURHAM — Duke has become the sixth university in the nation to more closely monitor the pay and treatment of workers in factories where garments bearing its university logo are manufactured.
The university’s administration announced earlier this week that it would reduce the number of factories that manufacture Duke merchandise and strengthen previous policies designed to ensure that factory workers are paid a decent wage and can be represented by an employee body within factories. Duke also moved to extend the requirements to third parties who produce Duke goods under license.
In addition, Duke will participate in monitoring factory conditions by the Worker Rights Consortium, a nonprofit organization. It has for five years been a member of the WRC, and Jim Wilkerson, Duke’s director of licensing, chairs its board of directors.
“I’m really excited, and the group’s really happy,” said Lillie Ris, a member of Duke Students Against Sweatshops, which pushed for the changes. “We’re proud because Duke is committed to improving standards in the garment industry.”
The chapter is part of United Students Against Sweatshops, in which dozens of other campuses participate. In North Carolina, they are Elon University and UNC, according to the group’s Web site.
The other five institutions to adopt the stronger standards are Georgetown University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Santa Clara University, University of Maine at Farmington and Indiana University, Ris said.
Duke Executive Vice President Tallman Trask III said in a Duke release that the student group asked administrators in the fall to reduce the number of factories producing branded apparel.
The university will be part of a pilot program with the WRC that requires 25 percent of Duke production to be moved to designated factories that meet the requirements and can be closely monitored. The factories currently are in Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, El Salvador and Kenya, Ris said.
In early 1999, Duke was among the first universities in the nation to require licensees to identify their factories’ locations, university officials said. Since then, Duke has taken steps to improve working conditions, including canceling contracts with companies that didn’t meet standards.
At UNC, Students Against Sweatshops members are on a chancellor’s advisory committee that is “making slow progress” toward a similar agreement, said member Michael Hachey.
“Maybe seeing Duke implement these changes will give our administration at UNC the jumpstart it needs to do the right thing on this issue,” Hachey said.
