University unsure of manufacturers’ working conditions

  CHRIS BACKLEY A student browses through a selection of
BearWear at the UCLA student store last month.

By Nick Yulico
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA sweatshirts students proudly wear may have been made in
sweatshops, though no one at the university is really sure.

Apparel manufacturing is a diffused international industry
““ UCLA hires licensees to manufacture their trademarked
clothing, who in turn spread the work between subcontractors around
the globe.

Though some universities, including UCLA, have adopted codes of
conduct, none have a mechanism for monitoring conditions in
factories, according to Patricia Eastman, executive director of the
Associated Students of UCLA.

The University of California currently has no monitoring process
for factories other than internal monitoring by the licensees who
make the clothes.

“We clearly need a third party to monitor the
factories,” said Cynthia Holmes, general manager of UCLA
Trademarks and Licensing.

An independent counsel commissioned by several universities,
including the UC, to gather information on apparel manufacturing
released findings last month that showed sub-par working conditions
in factories in all the countries visited, including the United
States.

But since it was a blind report, it did not name the factories
in violation, so ASUCLA does not know if the factories were ones
used by its licensees.

“It’s a fact that we have no idea where the UCLA
clothes are coming from,” said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez of UCLA
Students Against Sweatshops.

The purpose of the study was to provide the UC with first-hand
knowledge of the issue, not necessarily to target specific
factories or manufacturers, according to Holmes.

Examples of non-compliance in the Independent University
Initiative report included violations on working hours and overtime
compensation, discrimination against pregnant women, and widespread
health and safety problems.

The report concluded that without any universal monitoring
program, gathering complete and reliable information on the working
conditions in factories is a difficult process.

But some said a third-party monitoring agency is not enough.

“Monitoring is not the only solution, and not necessarily
the best solution,” Benjamin-Gomez said.

USAS is working on organizing a union shop in Los Angeles that
would make clothes for the UCLA store. Currently, there are no
unionized garment factories on the West Coast, according to group
members.

“Students should be able to really know where their
clothes are coming from,” Benjamin-Gomez said.
“It’s hard if you have to travel overseas to visit the
factories. That’s why we’re pushing for a factory in
L.A.”

She experienced the overseas dilemma when she traveled to
Honduras three summers ago to trace the productions of a UCLA
shirt. Once there, she was refused entrance to the factory.

After students like Benjamin-Gomez became aware of human rights
violations in the industry, the UC began looking into working
conditions for factories which manufacture its clothes. It adopted
its first code of conduct in 1998, which superceded the one adopted
by ASUCLA in 1996.

The UC Code of Conduct for Trademark Licenses outlines
employment standards and ethical principles, which UC requires
their licensees to sign.

It revised its code in January to include a full public
disclosure of company names, owners and means of production
involved in manufacturing items bearing the school’s
trademark.

“The enormous undertaking of getting licensees signed on
was a big step in the right direction,” Holmes said.

After the recent IUI report, universities determined an
effective monitoring program is necessary.

Heeding recommendations from the IUI, the UC has established the
Advisory Group on Monitoring, which consists of students, faculty
and human rights advocates, to evaluate and forward recommendations
on what should be done about sweatshop practices.

Some students involved in the process are advocating that the UC
only use domestic manufacturers, which would be easier to monitor
than their counterparts in East Asia. But according to the IUI
report, even factories in the U.S. violated conduct.

Due to such violations, USAS is looking locally in Los Angeles
to help alleviate the problem.

“A lot of work is needed until the code of conduct is
strictly enforced,” Benjamin-Gomez said. “We must
continue voicing our concerns as students, saying these are the
conditions our clothes need to be made under.”