Who Licenses with Villanova University?Many Licensing Companies making Villanova University apparel work in sweatshops. A few of the more familiar names are Jansport, Russell Athletics, Nike and Champion.
-To see what vendors Villanova uses check out:
http://www.workersrights.org/search/index.asp?search=Licensee&school=Villanova+University - By clicking on the company you can see what they supply, and where their factories are located
- If you'd like to see the factory reports that are composed by the Workers Rights Consitorium, you can go this website:
http://www.workersrights.org/Freports/index.asp#freports , and check out the latest reports by country, brand, or factory.
What Is Villanova's role?Villanova is affiliated with the United Students Against Sweatshops and the Workers Rights Consoitorium.
The United Students Against Sweatshops is a network of students from different colleges and universities seeking to implement the Designated Supplier Program. Their mission is:
United Students against Sweatshops (USAS) is a network of students in North America who have been organizing for workers' rights since 1998.
As former, current, and future workers, we recognize that we must live the principles that we are taught in the classroom now. As students, we have the power to force our universities to respect the basic human rights and dignity of workers who make our education possible.
We believe our universities must respect all workers in their supply chains-- from those who serve us food in the dining halls, to housekeepers and janitors who clean our dormitories, to farmworkers who pick the food we eat in those dining halls, to the garment workers who make apparel with our universities' name. We support the right of all workers to organize unions and other democratic worker organizations, to earn living wages that meet the basic needs of their families, and to be treated with respect. We believe workers are the best monitors of their own condition in North America and around the globe and deserve a voice on the job.
We define "sweatshop" broadly and use it as a representation of the horrific abuses of the global economy. However, human rights abuses and the repression of working people's struggles is not limited to garment factories in the Global South or in immigrant communities in North America. Sweatshop conditions exist in the fields, in the prisons, on our campuses, in the power relations of a flawed global system. Thus, we consider all struggles for a better world and an alternative to the current structure of the global economy to be directly or by analogy a struggle against sweatshops.
for more information please check out:
http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=226&Itemid=88888913The Workers Rights Consortium is a non-profit organization and an objective third-party that monitors factory conditions abroad.Russell Athletics:
Their mission is:
The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe. Our purpose is to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States.
The WRC conducts independent, in-depth investigations; issues public reports on factories producing for major U.S. brands; and aids workers at these factories in their efforts to end labor abuses and defend their workplace rights. The WRC is proud to have the support of over 175 college and university affiliates and our primary focus is the labor practices of factories that make apparel and other goods bearing university logos. The WRC's mission is to:
respond to worker complaints by investigating allegations of labor rights abuses and documenting worker rights violations where they are occurring;
keep our affiliate colleges and universities informed about conditions in the factories producing the goods that bear their names and logos;
work with colleges and universities, apparel brands and factories, and workers and their representatives to end worker rights violations wherever they are identified;
raise public awareness about workplace conditions in apparel and other industries and promote initiatives to improve respect for labor rights;
educate workers about their rights under college and university codes of conduct, and other private labor codes; and
through all of these efforts, help workers gain greater respect for their rights and real improvements in their conditions of work.
For more information on this organization please go to:
http://workersrights.org/about/Thus Villanova has already agreed to give the Workers Rights Consortium full disclosure of the licensing brands we have contracts with as well as full disclosure regarding what factories these licensing company use.
In addition, Villanova has a public position on labor conditions and Villanova's committment to labor rights.
You can find this here:
http://villanova.cstv.com/licensing/nova-licensing-labor-conditions.htmlAt the site, Villanova refers to a Manufacturing Code of Conduct. I'm not quite sure where that document is, but I know that in order to be affiliated with the Workers Rights Consortium, the code of conduct must address the following issues: wages, hours of work, overtime compensation, freedom of association, workplace safety and health, compliance with local laws, women's rights, child labor and forced labor, harassment and abuse in the workplace, and non-discrimination.
The Designated Suppliers Program is a simple effort to enable Villanova to hold licensing companies accountable to this Code of Conduct.
That means that the VU Sweat-Free Coalition is comprised of 6 student organizations!
