Word: wrc
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...fact, there are ways to improve sweatshop conditions without costing Harvard a lot of money or causing workers to lose their jobs. The most important step for Harvard is to join the Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC), an organization of universities that monitors sweatshops and holds management accountable for working conditions. The Harvard Corporation has thus far refused to join the WRC, citing an alleged lack of corporate participation and leadership. The organization was founded only a year ago, and some consider this a drawback as well. In fact, on both counts the WRC has made considerable progress: It was incorporated...
Whatever the WRC's supposed weaknesses, they weren't enough to keep Brown, Columbia, NYU and 59 other major universities from joining. The WRC is the only viable sweatshop watchdog organization which espouses independent rather than corporate monitoring...
...midst of Nike's many specious criticisms of the WRC, however, it has lodged two valid complaints. First, it is unreasonable to demand that corporations pay a living wage without defining what that living wage is. Second, in order for any monitoring group to be successful, it requires corporate input. Sweatshop monitoring exists to provide the public with full and accurate information about the conditions under which apparel is being manufactured, thereby giving consumers the tools they need to make informed decisions about what to buy. Yet, the ultimate end of sweatshop monitoring is to induce changes in the working...
These complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. On April 28 several universities affiliated with the WRC announced their intentions to open dialogue with apparel producers, indicating the organization's pragmatic desire to effect change through discourse while maintaining its principled stance that giving apparel producers a greater say does not entail giving them a seat on the administrative board. However, since the Nike events transpired, the FLA has merely taken another opportunity to demonstrate its corporate servitude and resistance to change, reiterating on April 26 that it could not commit to a policy of full disclosure and independent monitoring...
Harvard has thus far steered a prudent course, remaining affiliated with the FLA while the WRC worked through the complicated process of establishing itself as a functional and legitimate monitoring organization. However, the time has arrived for Harvard to take a new tack. We urge Harvard to withdraw its support for the FLA and join the 46 universities and numerous labor and human rights groups who have decided to back the WRC. Doing so while the WRC is still in its early stages will give Harvard the opportunity to help shape the organization's policies. Harvard would also send...