PSLM Presses University to End Its Affiliation With FLA

Members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) asked Harvard yesterday to rethink its affiliation to the Fair Labor Association (FLA), a new organization planning to monitor clothing factories around the world.

But the University, which pledged last week to fully disclose the location of factories manufacturing Harvard apparel, has said that while it recognizes students' concerns, it will not sever ties with the organization.

"We want Harvard to pull out of the FLA to send a message to other schools that the FLA is not an adequate path for universities," PSLM member Daniel M. Hennefeld '99 wrote in a statement.

Along with the national United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), PSLM has charged that the FLA has a poor monitoring system, and that it has a policy which lets the group notify companies of upcoming inspections.

FLA was created last November by the Apparel Industries Partnership, a national coalition against sweatshops, and is still in its formative stages.

According to a USAS statement, the AFL-CIO, the Union of Needletrades and Industrial Textiles Employees and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility have all severed ties with the FLA. USAS has called for a national campaign against FLA because it says it is "a weak and insubstantial coverup for continued sweatshop abuses."

But University attorney Allan M Ryan Jr. said Harvard feels that an affiliation with FLA is a step in the right direction.

"We share students' reservations. We don't think FLA on its best day is the only answer," Ryan said. "On the other hand, we're all trying to find the right answer. If the FLA is going to seriously try to make a run at that answer, we're not going to stand in its way."

If Harvard does not choose to end its affiliation with FLA, Hennefeld said PSLM wants Harvard to issue a public statement calling on the coalition to strengthen its sweatshop monitoring and for the University to continue developing its own stricter polices concerning disclosure.

"Harvard has joined FLA half-heartedly," Hennefeld said. "We want them to leave the FLA or highlight what's wrong with it."

Ryan said the University will continue to explore other options in addressing the sweatshop problem, specifically the possibility of working with the American Apparel Manufacturers Association.

"If I, or [President Neil L. Rudenstine], thought the FLA was effective, we wouldn't be spending our time working on something else," Ryan said. "We don't work fast enough for students, but it's been that way for 200 years. Students want things fixed right away."

Michael Posner, executive director of the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights, one of the non-governmental organizations instrumental in the formation of the FLA, defended the group, saying that it hasmuch potential.

"It's a credible system of public oversight,"Posner said. "It's going to take a lot of work;[about] 20 employees will work on this on afull-time basis. It's unrealistic to think theuniversities are going to be able to do a betterjob."

Still, Posner said he welcomes any efforts byHarvard to independently address the sweatshopissue.

Robert K. Durkee, vice president for publicaffairs at Princeton University and a member ofthe Apparel Industries Partnership task force thatpushed for the FLA to include more colleges, saidjoining the coalition is an important first stepfor universities.

"The FLA provides an important service as it isnow," Durkee said.

Still, he said Princeton, like other schools,has created its own policy to supplement the FLA'sapproach to full disclosure. Durkee said he wasespecially concerned with the FLA's attention tothe living wage issue.

"Does it offer everything we might like? No,"Durkee said.

"Living wage needs to remain on the table andbe studied," he added. "[But] I would rather be inthose discussions than on the outside.

"It's a credible system of public oversight,"Posner said. "It's going to take a lot of work;[about] 20 employees will work on this on afull-time basis. It's unrealistic to think theuniversities are going to be able to do a betterjob."

Still, Posner said he welcomes any efforts byHarvard to independently address the sweatshopissue.

Robert K. Durkee, vice president for publicaffairs at Princeton University and a member ofthe Apparel Industries Partnership task force thatpushed for the FLA to include more colleges, saidjoining the coalition is an important first stepfor universities.

"The FLA provides an important service as it isnow," Durkee said.

Still, he said Princeton, like other schools,has created its own policy to supplement the FLA'sapproach to full disclosure. Durkee said he wasespecially concerned with the FLA's attention tothe living wage issue.

"Does it offer everything we might like? No,"Durkee said.

"Living wage needs to remain on the table andbe studied," he added. "[But] I would rather be inthose discussions than on the outside.