The University of California has a listening problem.
Last summer, the opportunity to commit UC apparel licensees to more stringent labor codes arose. Instead of doing so, policymakers made a commitment of passive leniency. And what’s worse, individual UCs seem barred from disagreement.
The rise and fall of these ethical standards began with a historic controversy with JanSport – one of UCLA’s main licensees.
In April 2013 there was a disastrous building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh. More than 1,000 people died and more than 2,000 were injured. The Rana Plaza building housed several factories.
The collapse spurred the creation of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. The Accord is a legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to ensure worker safety, disclose factory locations, allow independent inspections and commit to remediation. The Accord is signed by over 200 brands, retailers from over 20 countries, two global trade unions, eight Bangladesh trade unions and four nongovernmental organization witnesses. It is also endorsed by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).
VF Corporation, the parent company of JanSport, refused to sign the Accord and responded by joining the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
VF Corporation is a founding and funding member of the Alliance. Even more dubious is that the Alliance is neither legally binding nor obligates signatories to financial remediation. The Alliance has also had differing factory inspection results compared to the Accord.
During all this time the UC system was monitoring the developments.
The UC Code of Conduct for Trademark Licensees Steering Committee listened to representatives from both the Accord and the Alliance. After a year of investigation, the committee unanimously voted for all UCs to adopt the Accord. But in June, University of California President Janet Napolitano decided differently.
The Alliance is an embarrassingly poor imitation of the Accord. Licensing companies that are part of the Alliance is an affront to the honest efforts of Accord members and an affront to the moral standards of the UC system. The UCs need to be committed to the Accord alone.
The decision by the UC president came as a surprise and disappointment.
“Just like that, the unanimous opinion of the committee was reversed,” says Richard Appelbaum, a UC Santa Barbara faculty member of the UC Code of Conduct Steering Committee.
The reversal was supposedly justified by stating that both the Alliance and Accord have seen progress since inception. But more obviously, the tangible evidence and data from a devoted committee’s work was seemingly overturned by vacuous pleas.
“The head of the Alliance sent a letter to the [UC] president where it says not to believe the allegations made by the WRC and USAS,” said Appelbaum.
The UC president also received a letter from the CEO of VF Corporation stating the company has been “wrongly and unfairly targeted by USAS” and that “we consistently place worker safety as a high priority in every factory.”
Unanimity – difficult to achieve on any issue – reflects the seriousness of VF Corporation’s violations. But the break from this recommendation gives doubt as to how loudly these ethical concerns are heard in the first place, not to mention a conflict of interests.
But the story doesn’t end there. When UCSB tried to hold its licensees to only the Accord, it was barred from doing so.
During the summer of 2015, the UCSB chapter of USAS urged the school to pull JanSport products from its bookstore. After the announcement from the UCOP, Appelbaum and USAS then led an initiative for UCSB to comply solely with the Accord – breaking the UC-wide policy.
“The students and board supported it unanimously and we thought it would be OK to hold UCSB [and licensees] to a higher standard,” said Appelbaum. “But the UC legal office ruling said that the decision [by the UC president for the UCs] was binding.”
The message was clear: no single UC should break from the UC-wide policy on trademark licensing.
Other U.S. universities responded much earlier and more definitively to infringements by VF Corporation.
NYU put all new orders with JanSport on hold in May 2014. Cornell cut ties with JanSport in October 2014. By February 2015, 16 U.S. universities had cut ties with JanSport, and by November 2015, 22 universities had cut ties with VF Corporation. JanSport remains licensed through UCLA.
VF Corporation’s negligence concerning worker safety in Bangladesh will most likely continue. VF Corporation continues to ignore demands and would rather face financial losses from the college market than acknowledge accountability.
The political, economic and ethical interests overlap greatly in these issues. I do not pretend that I am knowledgeable enough to confidently recommend whether it is more within the University’s interests to cut ties or negotiate with JanSport.
But an immediate action is clear: UC licensees should be required to adhere to the Accord.
The announcement requiring UCs to adopt either the Accord or the Alliance was a mistake, and it diminished the UC Code of Conduct Steering Committee’s entire year of work. It is hard enough to investigate and substantiate the histories of apparel companies, but those efforts become worthless and despairing if policymakers do not even listen to these findings.
Labor rights abuses in the garment industry are living and widespread. Change amidst large apparel companies is slow and incremental because we are fighting economic incentive. And change becomes harder to realize the more we grow complicit and impassive. The opportunity to preferentially adopt the Accord among the UCs was a rare chance, but through rare chances come the beginning of change. Last year, we lost this chance.
Drop the Alliance and perhaps we can redeem that chance.