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Workers’ rights continued from page 1 means and staff infrastructure, he said. But before the WRC can start monitoring, some universities hope to have some of their con cerns addressed. Those concerns are: • At least half of the 12 govern ing board seats should be held by university members (currently three seats are allocated to univer sity members, six are reserved for members of the advisory council and three are for members of Unit ed Students Against Sweatshops). • The WRC needs a strategy for industry participation and mem bership. • The financial viability of the WRC needs to be established. • The WRC should explore how it could possibly work in collabo ration with the Fair Labor Associa tion. • WRC members need to dis cuss, define and make operational the concepts of living wage and freedom of association. “It is still not clear how this is all going to shake out,” McDonald said. McDonald, who was elected to serve on a three-member working group to present these concerns to the WRC’s governing board after it is elected, said it was interesting to see that many universities shared similar or identical con cerns. He said dealing with these concerns now is crucial to retain ing and recruiting the members necessary to get the WRC off the ground. “These are not the Three Stooges sitting around,” he said. “This is a bunch of universities, and they’re all are saying the same thing. Let’s get it addressed now.” WRC organizer Maria Roeper said the conference gave WRC members, especially those who did not attend the founding con ference in New York City last month, a chance to get to know each other beyond contact on an e-mail listserve. She said it also al lowed them to get a feel for who to vote for to represent universities on the governing board. Beyond that, Roeper said the meeting helped bring members up to speed on where the WRC is headed next. “Some people needed some clarification on where the WRC was at,” Roeper said. “There’s also a greater understanding on how much needs to get done. ” And that is a lot, McDonald He said WRC organizers and university representatives will have to compromise on the con cerns the universities have brought to the table. One concern is to include ap parel industry representatives in the WRC and give them a voice in deciding what a living wage should be set at and how the moni toring will be conducted. McDonald said just as the FLA has been criticized for its lack of labor representatives, the WRC will continue to be criticized for not giving the industry a voice in the organization. “They’re being excluded, and it can’t happen,” he said. “You just can’t do that.” But Human Rights Alliance member Sarah Jacobson said while the industry should play a role in solving workplace viola tions in factories abroad, they should not be represented on the governing board or in any other decision-making capacity. "That seems very much like having the fox monitoring the chicken house,” she said. "I think we can talk to corporate leaders, but I don't think that they should have decision-making power on a monitoring body.” McDonald, however, said it would not only be fair to give the industry a voice in the WRC, but it would also help the organization financially. Currently, member universities pay 1 percent of their annual gross licensing revenues in membership fees. The University of Oregon earns $300,000 per year in royalty licensing revenues. McDonald said the University is “in the mid dle of the pack” when it comes to fees, with some schools contribut ing as much as $30,000 and others as low as $1,000. “When all is said and done, you would be lucky to get a support staff and office space,” McDonald said. Even beyond financial issues, McDonald said it will be a long road before any monitoring will take place. “It’s more than a financial issue. It’s just really how to do it," he said. Jacobson said although there has been no monitoring yet, the WRC has already begun network ing in several countries, including Guatemala and Honduras. “That kind of cross-country sol idarity moves [the WRC] from be ing conceptual to being on its way to becoming a reality,” she said. Jacobson also criticized some college administrators for wanting to include industry representa tives on the WRC. “It’s disturbing to me that the voices of our University adminis trators and the voices of corporate leaders are indistinguishable,” she said. Some WRC organizers have been adamant about stressing that industry representatives have no place on any WRC decision-mak ing body, but McDonald said there will have to be some compromis ing in order to satisfy both WRC or ganizers and university members. “If these voices will persist and become controlling of the WRC, this will not work for us,” he said. Friday, university administra tors also discussed how to define and set a living wage! and how to avoid stepping on the toes of sov ereign states by setting a living wage for them. “Who are we to say how to de fine these kinds of things, and who are we to impose our rules on sov ereign nations?” McDonald said. Despite all these unresolved is sues, McDonald said he returned from the conference confident that these concerns will be solved. “I honestly think this is going to be sorted out over time,” McDon ald said. “I’m not only hopeful; I’m convinced.” McDonald said he expects the future and the structure of the WRC to become clearer after the governing board is elected and some of the universities’ concerns are addressed. “I believe we will know in less than six months whether the uni versities will have an effective role,” he said. He said he was surprised to find out that about half of all WRC members are also members of the FLA. “It made me revisit whether something jointly like this might work,” he said. McDonald said with the WRC lacking industry representatives and the FLA not having labor rep resentatives, he expects these or ganizations will continue to have a hard time gaining new members, although he did not exclude the possibility that the two might eventually merge or that a third or ganization might emerge. “I think it’s going to be a race now between getting labor onto the FLA and business into the WRC,” McDonald said. “It won’t go away.” UNIVERSITY of OREGON It’s not English as usual this summer at the University of Oregon http://uosummer.uoregon.edu/ Introduction to Literature: Fiction Alex Hunt, 2:00 p.m., MUWH Eng 104/CRN 41610 Introduction to African American Literature 1 Adriane Ivey, 11:00 a.m., MUWH ENG 151/42603 Ireland on Page and Screen Eric Reimer, 1:00 p.m., MUWH ENG 199/CRN 42604 Literature of Hawaii Seri Luangphinith, 9:00 a.m., MUWH ENG 199.CRN 42612 The American Road David Sumner, Noon, MUWH ENG 199/CRN 42613 Introduction to Native American Literature James Tarter, 1:00 p.m., MUWH ENG 240/CRN 41615 Women Writers/Cult: Women’s Fiction Anne Laskaya, 11:00 a.m., MUWH Vvj/, ENG 315/CRN 42843 ^ English Novel Richard Stevenson, 1:00-2:50 p.m., MUWH ENG 321/CRN 41617 JULY 17-AUGUST 11 Shakespeare on Page and Stage Lisa Freinkel, 8:00 a.m.-4:50 p.m., MUWHF ENG 352/CRN 42614 20th-Century Literature Brian Whaley, 10:00 a.m., MUWH ENG 394/CRN 42605 Poets of the Northwest John Witte, 1:00-2:50 p.m., MUWH ENG 399/CRN 42615 (a Community Literacy JUNE 12-16 Suzanne Clark, 8:00 a.m.-^:50 p.m., MUWHF ENG 410/510/CRN 42606/42607 CENTURY 20th-Century African American Poetry and Poetics Karen Ford, Noon, MUWH ENG 410/510/CRN 42608/42609 Medieval Romance James Boren, 9:00 a.m., MUWH ENG 425/CRN 41626 BOOK YOUR SUMMER OREGON 2000 SI1VH SESSION JIM T9-AUGUS1II Register by telephone new. Pick up a free summer catalog on campus in Oregon Hall or at the UO bookstore. It has all the informatic - vou need to know about UO summer session.
