Nike Inc, the global sportswear company, recently signed a $4 million contract with the University of Michigan in the US for the right to make and sell clothing bearing the university’s logo.
The contract is worth so much because the university’s teams are strong in the big-money sports of basketball and American football. And with a student population of 40,000, it turns out alumni with the characteristics Nike targets with its clothing: affluent, young and sports-oriented.
The contract Nike signed with the university comes with another set of obligations, however, that reach around the globe to countries such as Cambodia where the clothing is made.
The University of Michigan is one of 74 US colleges and universities that have joined forces to form the Worker Rights Consortium to monitor working conditions worldwide—and issue reports on factories that don’t meet international standards.
“Our goal in Cambodia, as well as other countries where garments are produced, will be to inform the universities of conditions and to work with the companies to improve them,” Scott Nova, executive director of the monitoring group, said Sunday.
Nova is on his first visit to Cambodia, which he says will be one of four countries in the region in which the WRC will work. The others are Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
The WRC, with a $500,000 budget funded by its members and foundations, will work with NGOs in each country to monitor working conditions and investigate complaints.
Last year, both Nike and The Gap terminated their contracts with Cambodia’s June Textile Co after a BBC news program accused June of hiring underage workers. June denied the charge.
Nova said the WRC does not want big companies to cancel contracts when problems are discovered, but to stay and work with the companies to improve work conditions.
“We will find cases where we can make a difference [and work] to create a climate of compliance,” he said.
Nova said the WRC evolved out of a spate of student protests against sportswear giants pocketing profits from goods manufactured under “sweatshop” conditions in poor countries.
What began as individual colleges demanding school-logo items be produced under decent working conditions has become a mass movement, with colleges and universities across the US banding together to pressure manufacturers.
At stake is public opinion and big money. College-logo items make up “about a $2.5 billion industry,” said Nova, and manufacturers do not want to alienate their target market.
He cited the organization’s recent experience at a South Korean-owned factory in Puebla, Mexico, as an example of how the group works. Workers at the Kukdong factory, a major Nike supplier, went on strike in January, claiming the company failed to honor a number of promises involving working conditions.
A team from the WRC investigated, concluding the factory violated child labor laws, fired strike leaders and refused to rehire union workers after the strike. It also reported food in the factory cafeteria was rancid and made some workers sick.
The WRC urged its members to pressure Nike about the case. The ultimate result, Nova said, was that most workers were rehired and a team of Mexican academics is monitoring the situation.
The WRC’s goals include a living wage for workers, freedom of association, women’s rights, independent monitoring of workplaces, and changing employer attitudes.
Now buyers think in terms of quality and price, Nova said. “They need to be thinking of a third criteria: ‘Do you respect workers’ rights?’”
