A four-day sit-in at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ended Friday afternoon when administrators agreed to adopt an ambitious slate of anti-sweatshop policies. The assertive agreement raises the bar for university participation in the monitoring and regulations of the factories that produce college-licensed products.
UNC-CH will demand full public disclosure and an investigation into requiring a living wage. Administrators also said they will not sign on to the Fair Labor Association-a national monitoring coalition with representatives from industry, college and human rights groups.
The recommendations were released April 22 in a report from the Licensing Labor Code Advisory Committee, which was commissioned by Chancellor Michael Hooker to investigate sweatshop issues and to debate participation in the FLA. The LLCAC comprises faculty, staff and student representation-including two of the sit-in participants.
Just one day later, Interim Chancellor William McCoy signed on to the recommendations. McCoy is filling in while Hooker is on medical leave.
"We are excited by the initial agreement," said Marion Traub-Werner, a senior and sit-in participant. "It is an important beginning to a long process."
Pete Andrews, LLCAC co-chair and chair of the faculty at UNC-CH, said he would like to believe that the recommendations would have been adopted with or without the protest.
Andrews stressed that the university has not rejected the FLA; it will just wait until the association is strong enough to meet the standards for independent monitoring.
"We think the FLA could lead to the implementation of a credible monitoring system," he said. "We just didn't see the case that it was quite there yet." Any alternative monitoring process is "just all up in the air right now," he added.
The FLA, which Duke joined last month, has been criticized by activists because manufacturers can recommend factories to be monitored and because monitors' visits will be announced beforehand. Because of these weaknesses, UNC-CH administrators committed to continue negotiations with the FLA while exploring alternative monitoring options.
This was bad news for the FLA, which some say needs the support of large public universities like UNC and Michigan.
In the long run, however, some hope this move may strengthen the FLA.
"I think that every time a major university decides to stay out of the FLA because it is too secretive...," said Trinity senior and Students Against Sweatshops founding member Tico Almeida, "this creates pressure for the members of the FLA to fix all of its flaws."
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