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
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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
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David Sumner, Noon, MUWH
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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
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and Stage
Lisa Freinkel, 8:00 a.m.-4:50 p.m., MUWHF
ENG 352/CRN 42614
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Brian Whaley, 10:00 a.m., MUWH
ENG 394/CRN 42605
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John Witte, 1:00-2:50 p.m., MUWH
ENG 399/CRN 42615
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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
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