Indiana University Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee

Type: Policy

Status: Ongoing

Source File: http://www.indiana.edu/~wrciu/

Description:

Indiana University's licensing code of conduct requires all licensees to ensure certain basic rights of workers who create IU-licensed products. The University is affiliated with the Worker Rights Consortium, a non-profit organization created by college and university administrators, students and labor rights experts to assist in the enforcement of manufacturing Codes of Conduct adopted by colleges and universities. There are more than 135 colleges and universities affiliated with the WRC.

The Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee is comprised of concerned faculty, staff, and students on the IU-Bloomington campus. The committee chair is Dean of Students Richard McKaig. The Committee generally meets every three weeks during the academic year. Our purpose is to make sure IU's licensing code of conduct is enforced. In response to factory updates provided by the WRC, we contact our licensees and ask them to exert pressure to improve working conditions.

Indiana University's former President Adam Herbert had agreed in principle to the Designated Suppliers Proposal put forward by United Students Against Sweatshops. This plan would require that licensees procure a certain percentage of their garments from factories approved by the WRC as upholding worker rights. The implementation of this program is now on hold, due to anti-trust concerns of current official(s) of the United States Dept. of Justice.