Sweatshop Foes Lobby University

Seven members of Harvard Students Against Sweatshops (HSAS) met yesterday with top University officials to discuss the possibility of Harvard joining the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC)—a step HSAS favors.

Representatives of HSAS, which works under the auspices of the Progressive Student Labor Movement, spoke with General Counsel Anne Taylor and Senior Director of Federal and State Relations Kevin Casey.

Casey the administrators who replaced former University Attorney Allan A. Ryan Jr. as the administration’s key contacts on labor issues.

Casey said they are still “fact-finding,” and have no timetable for when they might make an “informed recommendation” regarding the WRC to University President Lawrence H. Summers.

The WRC is a non-profit monitoring agency founded by unions, non-governmental organizations and universities to prevent overseas sweatshop labor.

Casey said the appointment of WRC Executive Director Scott Nova and the establishment of by-laws to govern the organization have changed the playing field since former University President Neil L. Rudenstine declined to join the consortium.

Casey said he and Taylor plan meet with Nova in the coming weeks to discuss the WRC.

Yesterday’s meeting between HSAS and Harvard officials, which Casey termed “very productive,” was the second between the group and the two administrators, and the first since Summers became president in July.

“We actually wanted to reconnect with a new administration in place,” Casey said.

“Anne and I have always been open...it has been a trademark of our conversations [with students],” he said.

But Alex B. Horowitz ’02, a member of HSAS, said that although Casey and Taylor did not voice “any significant objections” to joining the WRC, he could not gauge their actual commitment.

“We won’t know how open they’re being until we see where they’re going,” he said.

“It’s very easy for Harvard to join,” said Horowitz, who noted that 86 universities, including four in the Ivy League, have already joined the WRC, and the organization began its monitoring operations this summer.

“The Rudenstine administration dragged its feet,” Horowitz said. “We would expect that [Summers] would take steps towards joining in the calendar year.”

Harvard is already a member of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), another monitoring organization, but Horowitz said HSAS is “unconvinced” that the FLA will change working conditions.

“If the administration drags its feet and tries to wait out the situation, we’ll return to more public action,” Horowitz said.

“If their real interest is in information, we’ll be focused more on meeting and dialogue. The administration will decide which path to take,” he continued.

—Staff writer Ross A. Macdonald can be reached at jrmacdon@fas.harvard.edu.