Committee: Stay out of FLA, WRC

The committee finished its work by asking Rodin not to join either group. In its final recommendation to University President Judith Rodin, Penn's sweatshop task force recommended that the University not join either of two sweatshop-monitoring organizations at this time. In a letter to Rodin last week, Howard Kunreuther, the chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Sweatshop Labor, said the committee felt that neither the Fair Labor Association nor the Worker Rights Consortium has yet done enough to address Penn's concerns about balanced representation for colleges and universities on their governing boards. "While both groups have acknowledged our concerns, neither group has fully satisfied them, and we are not comfortable joining either organization at this time," Kunreuther wrote in the letter. He said the committee sought "to ensure reasonable balance between financial support and governance" in both organizations. The committee reached the consensus that it would not be appropriate to join either group until one, or both, adequately addressed the concerns over university representation. Kunreuther said the task force felt that the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility, which will be responsible for enforcing the code of conduct approved earlier this year for licensees that produce University-logo apparel, could do a better job at deciding which organization to join. That committee will be composed of students, faculty and staff and will likely be charged by Rodin in the next week. "It came to the point where we should wait and get more information," said Nursing sophomore Kimberly Colopinto, the Undergraduate Assembly's representative to the sweatshop task force. She noted that many things are still unknown about both groups, particularly how successful the WRC will be in acquiring adequate financial support and whether either organization will listen to students' concerns. Three committee members made a presentation at an FLA board meeting earlier this month, outlining Penn's concerns. But Wharton sophomore Brian Kelly, a member of Penn Students Against Sweatshops who serves on the committee and helped make the presentation to the FLA, said the FLA did not take any action to satisfy Penn's demands for more balanced representation. "[The FLA] gave us the opportunity to present our concerns but didn't address them," he said. Penn had been a member of the FLA until earlier this year, when Rodin withdrew from the organization after a nine-day sit-in in College Hall staged by Penn Students Against Sweatshops. The group wanted Penn to withdraw from the FLA and join the WRC. In a written response to Kunreuther's letter released yesterday, Rodin said she accepted the committee's recommendation to remain outside of both the FLA and WRC until the organizations meet Penn's conditions for membership. "I regret that neither the FLA nor the WRC has fully satisfied the committee's concerns," she wrote. Noting that the WRC is undertaking a review of its governing structure and the FLA plans to examine the composition of its own governing board at a meeting in June, Rodin said, "It seems premature for us to join either organization until they are in a position to act formally on the committee's requests." Rodin said she plans to appoint the members of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility soon and asked that the ad hoc sweatshop committee hold a transition meeting to transfer its work to the new group. PSAS organizer Miriam Joffe-Block, a College senior, said her group is happy that Penn will not be joining the FLA, but still wants the University to join the WRC, which PSAS believes is less influenced by corporate concerns. "The whole group [is] united on the position -- we still want to join the WRC," Joffe-Block said, adding that the FLA is "set up to accommodate industry, not workers' rights." While the University most likely will not make a final decision on joining either of the organizations until the fall semester, Joffe-Block said PSAS members are sure that the University will see things their way in the end. "We're confident that [Penn] will eventually join the WRC," she said. "The WRC is a really positive thing and has gained a lot of support." Membership in the WRC has ballooned over the past few months, going from four schools when PSAS staged their sit-in to the dozens that now belong to it.

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