New Era Cap Company and the Communications Workers of America reached a tentative four-year contract agreement, bringing an end to the 11-month strike at the company's Derby, N.Y., facility, according to a joint statement released June 4.
New Era now hopes to regain its apparel business with institutions such as Duke that let their licensing contracts expire last November in protest of the company's unresponsiveness to labor concerns, said New Era Director of Human Resources Tim Freer. The company supplies licensed apparel to hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide.
"We value all of our licensing relationships with colleges and universities, and we're hoping to get those back as a result of the settlement," Freer said. "We've had constant communications with the universities demonstrating our interest in staying with them."
Meanwhile, the University is awaiting the official vote on the new contract before reconsidering licensing with the company, said Executive Vice President Tallman Trask and Director of Duke Stores Jim Wilkerson via e-mail. Ratification is scheduled for June 21.
The University's contract with New Era expired Oct. 31 and Duke said it would withhold renewal indefinitely, as University officials waited for the company to disclose information on allegations of low wages, unsafe working conditions and anti-union activity.
Members of Duke Students Against Sweatshops first brought concerns about New Era to the table by alerting Wilkerson to the workers' fight and by urging him to suspend the contract.
SAS member and sophomore Allison Brim said the University should wait to re-enter into its contract until the union and New Era have finalized the contract, and only if that contract meets the standards of the workers.
"Only a tentative agreement has been reached," Brim wrote in an e-mail. "If universities act too soon and let up the pressure by re-entering into their contracts with New Era before a final contract is agreed upon, New Era could easily go back on their word."
Following the settlement, Jason Kozlowski, secretary of Local 14177 of the CWA, thanked the national United Students Against Sweatshops for their efforts on behalf of the Derby workers.
"We strongly believe that it is primarily through our coalition that we have been able to bring New Era not only back to the bargaining table, but also to a stance allowing for real negotiations," Kozlowski wrote in a letter to USAS.
"Your work with us, and more so on scores of university administrations, has brought this dispute to national prominence."
Freer denied that pressure from USAS and the suspension of contracts with 12 major universities played a significant role in reaching an agreement with the CWA.
"We were continuing to negotiate all along," Freer said.
"Some negotiations just take longer than others."
Regardless of New Era's claims that continued external pressure did not affect the negotiating process, Brim still felt USAS had a vital role in encouraging the striking workers.
"In a way, the students working on the workers' behalf inspired the workers to continue in their struggle at a point when they thought they had already utilized all of their powers as laborers," Brim wrote.
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