Malloy: ND will not join Workers' Rights Consortium yet
By KATE STEER
Associate News Editor
At a crucial time in the anti-sweatshop movement, University leaders and activists met Tuesday before a group of interested people to discuss the role that Notre Dame has taken and will continue to take in the near future.
University president Father Edward Malloy opened the discussion by expressing his satisfaction with the involvement of University members.
"I am pleased, when I look at all the great issues of our time that we have people here who are paying attention to economic justice," he said.
Malloy recently established the University's task force on anti-sweatshop initiatives, and praised their work as well.
"[The task force] has been working very hard, periodically issuing reports, and I think I can say with some degree of pride that we have played a very important leadership role in the conversation about this issue," he said.
More than a year ago, the Notre Dame was invited to be a part of the foundation of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), and thus has been able to adapt the organization to the University standards to some extent.
"We felt that our participation [in the FLA] would mean that much greater monitoring [of sweatshops] would go on," said Carol Kaesebier, vice president and general counsel of the University. Kaesebier also serves as the co-chair of the university advisory committee of the FLA.
Malloy also supported the University's actions in participating in the FLA and continued efforts as a part of the organization.
"One of the most significant ways we have been involved up to now is our participation and leadership role in the FLA," Kaesebier said.
The main point of strife between University administration and student activists is bound in the recent development of a new anti-sweatshop organization, the Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC).
"Notre Dame's code of conduct is leaps and bounds ahead of the Fair Labor Association's code," said Maureen Capillo, spokesperson for the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA). "Notre Dame's code, which is aligned with Catholic social teaching, is much closer to the Workers' Rights Consortium code of conduct."
The primary difference between the FLA and the WRC is in the approach to manufacturer's violations of organization standards. The FLA promotes a collaborative effort between the organizations and the corporations to right the violations; the WRC supports full public disclosure of the status of any given corporation's manufacturing conditions.
University administrators tend to support the FLA's approach due to a desire to respect the wishes of those corporations with which the University does business to keep some aspects of their agreements private.
William Hoye, chairperson of the task force, did not rule out the possibility of Notre Dame joining the WRC, but also said that the University's efforts have thus far been unprecedented and in that sense are sufficient.
"Already the task force has recommended, and Father Malloy has approved, the strongest code in the United States on the right to organize," Hoye said. "I believe we're the only university in the United States that is currently undertaking any monitoring of any kind, and we're already in the process of augmenting that, by involving church officials and human rights activists."
PSA member Aaron Krieder expressed dissatisfaction with feelings of contentedness regarding the progress made.
"A year ago, when Notre Dame joined the FLA, there was no alternative," he said. "Since then the situation has drastically changed."
A foundational meeting of the WRC is scheduled for April 7. The task force has requested the presence of a Notre Dame representative at that meeting, but the WRC has declined, stating that only committed members will be able to attend.
Shortly after the foundational meeting, the WRC will hold an informational meeting to make public the decisions made on April 7. The PSA has challenged the administration to commit to the WRC now, so that it can have a voice in the organization's founding.
The University has requested from the WRC information about membership and participation such as a budget and mission statement. Currently, the official stance is that membership in the WRC is not an option until that information can be obtained.
"We believe in trying to support any effort that seems to have promise and that is well structured and that allows us to have a sense about what might be involved in participation," Malloy said.
Capillo challenged the University to live up to that belief by supporting the WRC.
"Is it not our role," she asked, "as a leading Catholic university, to push ourselves to a higher standard and lead the way to the end of sweatshop labor?"
All News Stories for Wednesday, March 22, 2000
