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MEDIA ADVISORY

ATTENTION: CITY DESKS, HIGHER EDUCATION AND LABOR WRITERS

 

3/14/00 - File #15277
Contact: Gretchen Kell
(510) 642-3136
grk@pa.urel.berkeley.edu



WHAT:

A presentation at the University of California, Berkeley, about ways to ensure that sweatshop conditions do not occur in factories that manufacture collegiate apparel and other products.

UC Berkeley is holding this event to learn how companies that manufacture these products can be monitored for violations of humane labor and environmental standards. Reporters are welcome to attend.

 
WHEN: Monday, March 20, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation.  
WHERE: Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.  
WHO: Presenters include representatives from four groups that monitor clothing and footwear factories around the world - Workers' Rights Consortium, Fair Labor Association, Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production and Social Accountability 8000. Other speakers include a member of University Students Against Sweatshops; a representative from Sweatshop Watch; and a former garment laborer in the U.S. territory of Saipan who now is an anti-sweatshop activist and a spokeswoman for Saipan's garment industry workers.  

BACKGROUND: The University of California is a leader among educational institutions for adopting a Code of Conduct for Trademark Licensing. The 1998 code, which addresses issues such as wages and benefits, working hours, overtime compensation, child labor and discrimination, was revised in January 2000 and is now among the strongest of its kind in the nation.

Since 1999, a coalition of universities, including the UC system, has been gathering and analyzing information surrounding sweatshops and the manufacture of collegiate products. Its effort, the Independent University Initiative, will produce findings later this year about how members of the coalition can best monitor their licensees.

Until those findings are ready for the UC system to consider, UC Berkeley is considering adopting an interim plan for enforcing the code of conduct. The Monday presentation is a step in that process.



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