The Fair Labor Association voted unanimously Tuesday, Oct. 23, to expand its board of directors to include two more academic members. The board, which previously had only one academic representative, will now have three.
Following the vote, the nonprofit labor monitoring group revised its Charter Document to say the board of directors shall consist of six industry representatives, six non-governmental organization representatives and three university representatives.
But University senior Randy Newnham, a co-chair of the Survival Center, doesn’t think the FLA’s addition of more academic members will significantly change the group’s monitoring policies.
“Those who are affected by the policies are not represented on the (FLA) board. I do not think the problem will be solved until workers are represented,” Newnham said.
In an Oct. 24 press release, the board’s chairman, Daniel R. Glickman of Akin, Gump, Strauss, said the actions of the FLA to include more “university representation, increased company participation, two newly accredited monitors, and the expansion of the FLA monitoring program to include products other than apparel and footwear … reflect the deep commitment of all of our stakeholders to improve working conditions globally. The FLA can make a great contribution to ensuring that our trading system is both open and fair.”
Bob Durkee, Princeton University’s representative on the board, also spoke highly of the change.
“The additional university board representation reflects the important role the universities play in the FLA in pressing for improved working conditions around the world, and it makes clear that the FLA governance structure is flexible enough to continue to evolve in the light of experience,” he said.
Board members from Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have joined Durkee, the board’s original academic member.