Center for Peace and Justice Leaders Meeting

Hello all, 

          I just wanted to let everyone interested know that their was a Leaders meeting in the Center for Peace and Justice today and different groups got to discuss the projects their working on and the progress made on their initiatives. 

 I just thought I should let everyone interested know, that the majority of Peace and Justice group leaders at the meeting said they were going to spread the word about the Designated Suppliers Program and the Jerzees de Honduras factory case to their members and that they would be interested in joining a VU Sweat-Free Coalition (VUSFC). 

       some groups that were really interested were include, but is not limited to: 

                   1. Blood, Water, Mission: find out more info about them here

                   2. Students Taking Action Now Darfur STAND: find out more info about them here

                   3. Villanova Environmental Group : find out more info about them here

                   4.  Villanova Face AIDS: find out more info about them here

                   

Bread for the World is actually working on drafting a formal and public statement of support for the VUSFC that I'll be sure to post when we the send it to us at the Progressive Student Network.

And Businesses without Boundaries will allow a representative from the Progressive Student Network to come to their meeting to discuss in more detail about (1)how the apparel industry works right now, (2)what's wrong with it, (3)how Jerzees de Honduras factory is a good example of what happens when workers don't have a voice on the job, (4)how the Designated Supplier Program will work to prevent instances like the Jerzees de Honduras case from happening, (5) What PSN and the Villanova Sweat-Free Coalition is proposing, (6) what other schools have signed on, and (7) what the VUSFC needs from student groups if they decide to support the program.

PSN also has meetings coming up with various faculty members and staff at Villanova to discuss the DSP is greater depth and detail before it is presented by the Mission and Social Justice Working Committee of the Villanova Senate at the April 17 meeting 

          For more info on the Villanova University Senate please check out this link

Thats all for now, but there will be more to come!

In solidarity,

The Progressive Student Network

WRC response to Russell Letter

Hey Everyone, If you have checked out Russell Athletics website recently you would see the black portion of this letter below.  Its their statement about Jerzees de Honduras.  The Blue portion of the letter is the WRC response to Russell's Letter and their efforts to set the record straight.   I was only to get the first page up so far.  When I can get the additional 3 pages up I'll edit this post.

Schools that have cut ties with Russell Athletics

Michigan is the Latest University to End a Licensing Deal with an Apparel Maker

by Steven Greenhouse of the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/business/24sweat/html?_r=1

Cornell Cuts Licensing Ties with Russell Athletic

Associated Press of Business Week

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D96F18JGO

2 More Universities Cut Ties with Apparel Company (Penn State and Cornell)

by Libby Sanders of Chronicle of Higher Education

http://www.workersrights.org/press/ChronicleOfHigherEd02-23-09.pdf

Senate Committee Resolution

On February 19, 2009, a representative of the Progressive Student Network met with the Villanova University Senate Mission and Social Justice Committee to discuss the Designated Supplier Program

The Members of the Mission and Social Justice Committee can be found at:
http://www.villanova.edu/organizations/unisenate/committees/MSJC.htm

Here is a copy of the resolution that PSN presented to the committee





The Committee was supportive of the initiative, and hopefully will present the resolution to the Villanova Senate at their next meeting


The University Senate will be meeting next on March 13, 2009

The VU Sweat-Free Coalition

The Progressive Student Network is working alongside other student groups on campus to successfully implement the Designated Suppler Program.

Just Food, a student organization sponsored by the Center for Peace and Justice formally joined the VU Sweat-Free Coalition today. They are the first Villanova student group to publicly and formally announce their affiliation with the VU Sweat-Free Coalition!

Why The FLA is not Enough

Why The Fair Labor Association is Not Enough:Russell Corporation and ALGI Group

The Companies
• ALGI Group is a New York-based “global compliance solutions” firm that has been selected by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to act as an “independent investigator” of whether Russell Corporation’s decision to close the Jerzees de Honduras plant was motivated by retaliation against the decision of the factory’s workers to organize a union.
• ALGI Group has, however, an existing business relationship with Russell Corporation as a paid consultant on exactly the same issues it is supposed to be ‘independently investigating.’
• ALGI’s own company brochure, posted on its website, states that Russell is part of ALGI’s “portfolio of clientele” (sic).
• The same ALGI company brochure lists Russell as one of the “[c]lients serviced” by ALGI Group in assessing “codes of conduct, management systems training, and remediation.”
• ALGI’s website also identifies Russell as one of ALGI’s “strategic partners.” Investigative PracticesJerzees de Honduras workers have expressed serious concerns regarding the objectivity and thoroughness of the FLA’s investigative practices.

For example:
• ALGI’s investigators arrived at the union’s office for a scheduled meeting with workers accompanied by a Russell company manager, betraying these workers’ confidentiality and potentially subjecting them to retribution.
• ALGI ‘s investigators failed to record or take any notes during their meetings with workers, indicating a lack of interest in, or openness to, their testimony.
• ALGI’s investigators told workers that their testimony was without value unless corroborated by written documents.
• An ALGI investigator also made biased comments regarding proposals made by the workers’ union in collective bargaining, stating that the workers’ proposals were “crazy.” These statements are especially significant because Russell announced its decision to close the plant after the company and the workers reached an impasse in their negotiating positions.
• The Cahn Report, which said that Jerzees de Honduras produced fleece and because of a downturn in the demand for fleece products, Russell was justified in closing the factory, is seriously flawed considering the factory has always produced many types of garments and the worker leaders themselves told students they made sweatshirts as recently as December, 2008