Efforts to persuade Northwestern to join the Workers Rights Consortium intensified Friday as faculty members took out a signed advertisement in The Daily urging NU to join while movement leaders met with administrators to discuss the sweatshop issue.
Fifty-six faculty members from across the university signed the letter from Northwestern Faculty Against Sweatshops, an organization formed to support students and influence university policy.
“We have a strong feeling when your students are fighting for social justice and democratic values, they should be supported,” said Scott Durham, a French professor and NFAS member. “A lot of complaints these days are about how apathetic students are and how uninterested they are in other people’s needs. It’s really our obligation to step up and support them when they are doing something positive.”
University President Henry Bienen told students he would discuss the issue with the NU Board of Trustees at its June meeting. He also said he may form a committee of students, faculty and trustees to examine the issue.
NU last year joined the Fair Labor Association, to which 135 colleges and universities now belong. The FLA was created to monitor production of apparel and footwear bearing university logos.
But members of Northwestern Students Against Sweatshops say that the WRC, which held its founding conference last month, offers a more rigorous system for monitoring factories than the FLA.
The organizations are similar but have several key differences. For example, corporate representatives hold six of 14 seats on the FLA board, leading to charges of corporate domination. In the WRC, no corporate representatives hold decision-making power.
A second difference — and a sticking point in discussions between administrators and WRC supporters — is the living wage, roughly defined as the wage necessary for an average family to provide for basic needs.
The FLA requires that licensees pay workers only the legal minimum wage or the prevailing industry wage. The WRC plans to require licensees to pay a living wage once the organization can adequately define it.
“It’s obviously something that will have to be different from country to country or region to region, but it’s something that’s necessary,” Durham said. “I just don’t think that people want the NU logo to stand for sweatshop labor — and paying less than a living wage is sweatshop conditions.”
Faculty, students and the Associated Student Government — which passed a bill Wednesday calling for NU to join the WRC — believe NU should be a member of both organizations and support them as they develop.
Eugene Sunshine, senior vice president for business and finance, said administrators were taking faculty input seriously.
“I thought it was a very thoughtful statement,” he said of the faculty letter. “I was very appreciative of the faculty’s concerns and value very highly what those individuals think and say.”
Sunshine has worked with NSAS leaders in an ongoing dialogue over university membership in the organizations. He joined Bienen on Friday in a meeting with Durham, NSAS leaders and ASG President Adam Humann.
“I thought it was an excellent discussion,” Sunshine said. “The president reiterated things he has said before about the fact that we don’t feel wed to anything except the objective. We may well end up joining the WRC at some point, but there are some issues that (Bienen) really wished for us to get more information about.”
In addition to a precise definition of living wage, administrators expressed concerns about the WRC’s monitoring procedures and lack of corporate input.
But NSAS co-founder Neel Ahuja said the administration’s hesitation to join the WRC could prevent the organization from achieving its goals.
“The administrators are saying, ‘We need to wait to see if the WRC is successful.’ NSAS is saying, ‘We need to join WRC to make it successful,'” said Ahuja, a Weinberg sophomore. “Membership is a necessary part of making this work.”
Peter Micek, another NSAS founder, said that although administrators should be cautious, their reservations “should take a backseat (to) the interest of the students.”
“I was disappointed to see that Mr. Bienen and Mr. Sunshine weren’t more motivated to represent the voice of the students and take our concerns and effort into account,” said Micek, a Medill freshman.
