For an average student browsing through clothes racks at the
UCLA Store, selecting the best shirt design might be a more
immediate concern than the working conditions in factories where
the products were manufactured.
Students who ignore the brand labels, however, are missing out
on the extra efforts that certain companies take to ensure a good
working environment for their employees.
One such company is TeamX, a factory that manufactures apparel
for the UCLA Store.
The company, which has been operating for 18 months, signed its
first contract with the UCLA Store last year. However, it still has
not decided whether it will renew its contract ““ which
expired on Oct. 1 ““ for next year.
Operating on a worker-owned “cooperative” system,
TeamX allows its employees to invest in the company and work their
way up to become owners of the company. Workers also receive
vacation days, pension, and retirement funds, as well as more than
the minimum wages paid by other factories in the same area.
Despite its numerous worker-friendly conditions, TeamX has found
it difficult to push their SweatX products through a market
dominated by well-established companies such as Russell Athletic.
Last year, the company struggled to make deadlines for the UCLA
Store’s orders.
The company’s delivery records have not been very strong,
said Patrick Healey, general merchandise manager for apparel and
accessories at the UCLA Store. TeamX was also unable to provide
certain products that the store re-ordered, he said.
Healey said that while the store is interested in doing business
with a factory that is local and places emphasis on being
sweatshop-free, it also needs to acquire products in a more timely
manner.
Manouchehr Vaezi, director of operations for TeamX, said the
small-scale structure of the company allows it to produce only what
is ordered, and so it must process a large number of orders to
cover the cost of production.
“The UCLA Store sometimes orders a very small quantity
from us, and because we don’t have an inventory to pull from
like other big companies, it is not viable for us to process those
orders,” Vaezi said.
“We would love to have our products at UCLA, but we also
need to receive more orders from the store,” he said.
TeamX is looking to come up with new products that are different
from what other companies produce, which they will then present to
the store, Vaezi added.
Though TeamX was founded on a sweatshop-free principle, it is
not the only company with fair labor standards. All factories
seeking to sell products to the UCLA Store must meet the guidelines
for employment standards specified in the University of California
Code of Conduct.
Code of conduct compliance is a huge deal for the store, said
Cynthia Holmes, director of trademarks and licensing for the
Associated Students of UCLA.
In addition to having factories abide by the UC Code of Conduct,
UCLA is also a member of the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair
Labor Association, two organizations which work to identify and
remediate problems in factories with poor working conditions for
employees.
Many students said they appreciate the store’s selective
screening of factories.
“It’s good to know that the store is being careful
about the factories they buy from; it prevents a lot of potential
conflicts from boycotters,” said Carrie Stern, a second-year
English student.
The high price of the products is probably an indicator that the
store is only buying from companies with good labor standards,
Stern added.
Holmes said monitoring the conditions in factories is critical,
and licensed companies that do not manufacture their own products
are still responsible for the conditions in factories where their
products are manufactured.
The UCLA Store’s concern with the conditions of workers in
factories prompted its interest in products manufactured by
TeamX.
“That’s why we are very interested in the whole
model of fair labor practices that the SweatX brand was based on,
and we try to be supportive of their efforts and hope that they
will renew their license with us,” Holmes said.