QUESTION: Are New Mexico State University garments sold in the book store and worn by our athletic teams made in sweatshops?

Photo: Nike uniforms and shoes, with money paid to the coaches at NMSU.

NMSU, Do you know which teams wear sweatshop goods?  - Nike uniforms shoes, and money contracts are with the NMSU coaches of the Women's volleyball, and the Men's and Women's basketball teams; At NMSU, The Women's softball and Men's Football coaches have contracts with Adidas. There is money paid, much of which goes to provide teams with uniforms, warm-up garments, and shoes.

We are not asking you to boycott. We want the mostly young women to have that job. We do want you to become aware, and to stand in solidarity with workers who are struggling to get human rights and dignity. Find out what is going on, then make a difference.

Students on 200 university campuses have created pressure through USAS to toughen their licensing codes for apparel contracting, but many observers say they are naive to think they can better the lives of workers in developing nations.  We disagree. From Duke to Princeton university, and in between, USAS is having a tremendous effect upon the $2.5 billion university-licensing and the $183 billion garment-sweatshop contracting  industry.  It is not a boycott, of university-relation to corporate-sweatshop contractors; it is an action to raise the conditions of work in factories all over the world. Students and Faculty standing in solidarity with workers in sweatshops, to improve their working conditions is having an impact. To succeed, we must do more that belong to the corporate-fronted monitoring groups that write PR reports for sweatshop contracting universities. There is a better way.

FACT: NMSU belongs to Fair Labor Association (FLA), which it relies upon to certify monitors of apparel sold in the book store. NMSU pays 1% of its gross licensing revenue to FLA to be a member. FLA is a front organization of Gear for Sports, Levi Strauss & Co. , Liz Claiborne, Inc.  Nike, Adidas, Reebok, and many of the garments made for sale in our book store (See FLA listing).   NMSU has in FLA, perhaps the weakest sweatshop monitoring program of any sizable university in the country.  There is a more rigorous, student-initiated alternative, the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC). 

FACT: The WRC aids colleges and universities with the enforcement of manufacturing Codes of Conduct. The WRC investigates working conditions at factories producing collegiate apparel and other goods, issues public factory reports, and works with our affiliate schools, licensee corporations and local non-governmental organizations to correct problems and improve respect for worker rights (See more on WRC).

What can you do as students and faculty?  Learn the facts. Find out who makes what you buy, and under what conditions.  If you want to do a term project, study the following industries. Learn about codes of conduct, monitoring, and which corporations are getting better or worse.  Find out where women workers are making a difference.  By standing in solidarity with workers in other countries, we can make a difference. You can too.  

	For example, many products carry THE GAME brand name and the NMSU logo: "In violation of THE GAME'S [own] code of conduct, one Asian Sourcing factory in Shanghai reports their work week is 55 hours and on average employees work an additional 10 hours. The Korea factory works 49.5 hours with .5 weekday overtime and 2.5 weekend overtime." NOTE: The Game is relying upon factory managers to self-monitor. Studies consistently report that self-monitoring is about as good as no monitoring.
	For example, JANSPORT Backpacks are produced at: Keng Tau Handbag Company Keng Tau Industrial Zone, Panyu Village, Guangdong Province, China... Why don't the workers leave? Workers are instructed not to punch their time cards for evening or Sunday work. So any company records shown are just fabrications. Upon entering the Keng Tau factories  workers are illegally charged a 60 rmb job deposit and their first month’s wages.
	For example, GEAR FOR SPORTS -  In one factory, workers told us "base pay was approximately $20 per week. However, most operators earned around $26 per week. That means that for a 59-hour work week, workers received approximately 44 cents an hour!
	Action - SARA LEE/CHAMPION/HANES - is sold in the NMSU Bookstore - Can New Mexico State University use its purchasing power to demand that Sara Lee and its Champion/Hanes sweatshops upgrade the quality of their monitoring activities to include full disclosure of all factory locations, a living wage for sweatshop workers, and allow workers the right to organize so that these workers have a voice and some local control over their working conditions?  If Sara Lee refuses to upgrade monitoring and conditions, then perhaps it is time to look for an alternate supplier (See Full Account) . Note, since the women of Kukdong factory in Mexico, fought for their human rights and won some minor pay raises and their independent union, Champion has a contract with Kukdong factory.  The USAS is trying to save these jobs, and work with Kukdong. We think buying form factories that are improving is a way students and faculty of universities can be in Solidarity with heroic women workers.  For more on our  NMSU faculty and student trip to Kukdong, click here.
	FLA and Collegiate Licensing Corporation (CLC) are not doing an adequate or reliable job of monitoring factory conditions in the companies selling products on the New Mexico State University Campus. What to do? Quit FLA, join the Workers Rights Consortium.  Since 1998, the talks and protests on college campuses have caused CLC to upgrade its Code of Conduct, released in November, 2000 by the Collegiate Licensing Company.  See Resolution proposed by Dr. Boje to tough the NMSU code of conduct, and more more effectively monitor its sweatshop contracts.
	- At NMSU, The Women's softball and Men's Football coaches have contracts with Adidas. There is money paid, much of which goes to provide teams with uniforms, warm-up garments, and shoes.  Please click here for more info on Adidas
	- Nike uniforms shoes, and money contracts are with the NMSU coaches of the Women's volleyball, and the Men's and Women's basketball teams (Note: the women's basketball team switched its contract from Adidas to Nike). Please click here for more info on Nike.   Note, since the women of Kukdong factory in Mexico, fought for their human rights in January through September of 2001, and actually won some minor pay raises and their independent union, Both Nike and Reebok have yet to renew their university apparel contract with Kukdong factory.  The USAS is trying to save these jobs, and work with Kukdong. We think buying form factories that are improving is a way students and faculty of universities can be in Solidarity with heroic women workers.  While NMSU does not sell Nike or Reebok in its bookstore, the Nike apparel is part of the attire for the men's and women's basketball teams, and for the women's volleyball teams. If Nike, decides to move its contracts to other university apparel factories, then we at NMSU-USAS would ask that the coaches, sports teams, and fans at NMSU boycott. For now, we invite you to contact, Nike and make your appeal.  There is a sample letter (click here) you can email to Nike's VP, Dusty Kidd at Dusty.Kidd@nike.com For more on our  NMSU faculty and student trip to Kukdong, click here.
	See full study report: Are NMSU products bearing NMSU logo made in Sweatshops? http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nmsu/nmsu_products.html