Duke's dirty laundry

In his inauguration speech, President Richard Brodhead told us why he came to Duke: “I was lured here by the spectacle of a school that has established itself in the top rank of research universities and professional schools but that habitually connects the pursuit of knowledge with the search for the social good.” I was lured here for the same reason—as a high school student I was just as impressed by Duke's #1 campus activism ranking in Mother Jones as I was with its placement in U.S. News and World Report.

Unfortunately, we are not living up to our reputation as a champion for the social good. Last spring, Duke University Health System outsourced its laundry to the Angelica Corporation. New workers were hired and paid on average $1 less per hour than their Duke predecessors. In exchange for a $4.5 million dollar yearly contract with DUHS, Angelica promised to get DUHS’s laundry done efficiently and with attention to the rights of its workers. William Donelan, DUHS executive vice president, told the Duke community he “looked forward to having Angelica as a corporate neighbor.” As recent findings of the National Labor Relations Board show, however, Angelica is not a good neighbor. Seventeen charges brought against Angelica on the national level have been found to have merit by the NLRB, and 17 charges specific to its Durham facility are still under investigation. These federal investigations should alarm us both as citizens and as scholars.

Our rhetoric currently falls short when it comes to our treatment of workers on our own campus. In the past, Duke has been a leader in the anti-sweatshop movement. We were one of the first schools to join the Workers' Rights Consortium, an independent monitoring group whose goal is to ensure university logo gear is sweatshop-free. Just last March, Duke suspended its contract with Lands' End when the company blacklisted union workers at an El Salvador factory. As a result of pressure from Duke and other universities, Lands' End was compelled to end its abusive practices and compensate blacklisted workers. In August, the University renewed its contract with Lands' End with a clean conscience knowing that it had improved the lives of these Salvadoran workers.

Fortunately, Durham County had the social conscience to rescind its contract with Angelica in lieu of its violation of the Durham County living wage ordinance as well as Angelica's shady record on worker rights. If a company's practices are unacceptable for Durham County, why are they acceptable for Duke University?

In the mean time, workers at the Angelica plant are asking us to help them defend their rights. This is a workforce made up almost exclusively of Latinos and African-Americans. Many of these workers face challenges most Duke students can only imagine: They struggle to pay rent, buy food and take care of their children, all while providing DUHS with the cleaning services it needs. Angelica workers who have dared to stand up to their employer and struggle for union representation often face retaliation in the workplace. The Durham NLRB charges paint a picture of the intimidation, harassment, and outright punishment these workers face in their efforts to improve their working conditions and their lives. Some of these workers have been brave enough to speak in front of Durham County commissioners, journalists, and even President Brodhead. But are we listening?

Both Duke and DUHS have Codes of Conduct that outline our social responsibilities: We will not do business with companies in violation of federal law, we will not tolerate union-busting and we will not tolerate any workplace abuses. Recent initiatives, such as the Board of Trustees’ creation of committees to ensure we invest responsibly, are commendable. Even so, we must ask ourselves what greater investment is there than our choice of companies we contract with on our own campus?

If we desire the ease of outsourcing, we must also accept its burdens: Companies like Angelica or Lands’ End never take out their dirty laundry on their own. I agree with President Brodhead that Duke has a duty to uphold the social good, but I believe that without action such claims are meaningless. It is up to us to show Angelica workers that our President’s speech is more than rhetoric and our Code of Conduct is more than a piece of paper—they’re promises.