At the I Love LA store in the Los Angeles International Airport, a display offers tourists a choice of two UCLA hats and a blue visor.
Though the UCLA campus is just more than 10 miles away, the labels on the headgear ““ “Made in China,” “Heisman Reebok, Bangladesh” and “Made in Taiwan” ““ indicate that the globalization of apparel manufacturing makes the university as interconnected with other countries as the airport in which the hats and visor are sold.
The worldwide production of goods bearing the UCLA label also means that enforcing labor practices for the university’s licensed products is a complicated process rife with obstacles.
In the last year, licensees brought in approximately $1.3 million in the domestic market and $543,000 from international royalties, according to Cynthia Holmes, director of trademarks and licensing for Associated Students UCLA.
ASUCLA has the authority to manage the commercial use of UCLA trademarks, which are owned by the UC Regents.
Over the past decade, student protests and the university’s concern have pushed the UC to ensure fair labor conditions in the manufacturing of its products.
However, problems with implementation and disagreements about best practices have limited the university’s ability to ensure that its code of conduct to ensure fair labor, adopted in 1998 and revised in 2000, is being followed.
“There are a lot of variables out there, so I’m very anxious to know ““ even though the story may not be good ““ to know what it is and figure out the next steps,” Holmes said.
UCLA has a more complicated situation than other UC campuses because it markets products overseas through international licensees.
Along with the roughly 300 license holders based in the United States, there are also international companies securing subcontractors around the world to manufacture UCLA-labeled products.
Subcontracting exponentially increases the number of companies the UC must monitor for labor violations ““ the Excel file listing subcontractors contains 5,069 entries.
“When we developed the code of conduct, our office was very aggressive in issuing this out in all new contracts,” Holmes said.
Each licensee is required to submit factory disclosure lists to Holmes’ office.
“Of course, it all depends on whether what was given to us is accurate. I think there’s definitely some questions there.”
The UC has an advisory committee that convenes regularly to discuss labor issues, and the university has signed on with two labor-monitoring organizations, the Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium.
However, those two groups disagree about how to ensure fair labor conditions, which has tied the hands of universities working to ensure fair labor.
“There’s been a lot of back and forth,” Holmes said. “And because there’s a lot of disagreement about what the right approach is, we haven’t made forward momentum as fast as I think we could.”
Holmes said the UC is still searching for a comprehensive approach to deal with the labor associated with its licensees but wants to keep working for labor rights in the meantime.
“I think the UC has been proactive ““ very involved in the national dialogue ““ but I think we have a lot more to do.”
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