The Worker Rights Consortium has recently garnered much attention at college campuses across the nation. Still, many in the University community don’t know what the organization does or who is in support of it.
The WRC “comes out of what students were doing against sweatshops,” said Maria Roeper, a spokeswoman at the consortium’s New York headquarters. “Students developed this concept or this vision of how they could change things in sweatshops,” she said.
One part of the WRC’s vision is to make available to consumers information about working conditions in factories that produce university apparel.
“This will let the public make informed decisions about what they buy,” Roeper said.
The WRC plans to gather information through voluntary disclosure on the part of apparel manufacturers, worker complaints and investigations of factories with a history of violations, she said.
In the months leading up to the WRC’s first meeting, April 7, in New York City, organizers consulted with labor and human rights experts and workers from Central America and Indonesia.
The WRC is trying to set up a network of internal monitors, rather than external monitors who are “often given doctored versions of what really goes on in the factories,” Roeper said.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Eugene, joined 31 members of Congress in signing a letter in support of the WRC.
He said he was part of a minority in Congress that wants to overhaul institutions such as the World Trade Organization and change international trade relations.
“We’re very supportive of the WRC,” he said.
In another letter on April 5, DeFazio wrote to University President Dave Frohnmayer and called the WRC “the best way for colleges and universities to ensure that licensed products are made under decent working conditions, without sweatshop labor.”
DeFazio described the WRC as having the necessary principles — public information and public pressure — to be an efficient monitoring agency.
“The WRC requires truly independent monitoring, full public disclosure of information about factories and working conditions, and allows universities to develop flexible penalties for non-compliance,” he stated in the letter.
The local labor community was pleased with student efforts in support of workers’ rights.
“The student movement has been particularly effective in making us aware of the issues,” said Tim Nesbitt, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO.