Students investigate worker rights violations

Student delegates from 14 major U.S. universities, including the UW, conducted a three-day investigation in response to complaints of worker rights violations at the New Era Cap Co. facility in Mobile, Ala., in mid-January.

New Era, which has been accused of discrimination and providing unsafe and unsanitary conditions for their workers, produces baseball caps with collegiate logos for the UW and several other universities.

The students, working as delegates of the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) labor rights organization, interviewed past and current New Era employees about their working conditions. The collected testimonies could determine whether universities will continue licensing contracts with New Era.

April Nishimura, the UW’s delegate in the USAS investigation and member of the UW’s Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), said some of the biggest worker complaints were about unfair hiring, promotion and termination.

“People had a lot of different words to describe it,” she said. “Some people said favoritism, some people said discrimination, some people said racism, but it was all pointing to the same dynamics — that basically all the management except for one person was white, and all the workers were black and mostly female.”

Nishimura said SLAP wants UW President Mark Emmert to meet with Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a nonprofit organization formed to enforce university codes of conduct for licensed apparel.

“We’re asking that the University of Washington suspend its contract with New Era until the Workers Rights Consortium is allowed to investigate and their findings are addressed,” Nishimura said. “We’re asking that the UW enforce its code of conduct.”

SLAP hopes that Nova will get the chance to talk to Emmert about the UW’s involvement with New Era when Nova attends the Challenges to Fair Trade conference in Seattle this weekend, Nishimura said.

Fired worker Felicia Walker, a worker fired from the Mobile facility, said New Era discriminates against its workers in regard to pay and promotion.

“New Era needs to stop discriminating against people of color and against women, needs to stop showing favoritism, and needs to give workers the same opportunity [for promotion],” she said.

Several universities have threatened to revoke their licensing agreements with New Era, citing New Era’s refusal to cooperate in an independent audit commissioned by the WRC, according to the USAS press release.

“We want to ensure the products bearing University of Washington marks are being produced under fair labor conditions, and once an audit is performed, and if the findings indicate that’s not the case, we will not hesitate to take steps to discontinue New Era licensing,” said Kathy Hoggan, director of the UW Trademarks and Licensing Office.

Hoggan said the UW has been in constant conversation with New Era and the Fair Labor Association (FLA).

“But we do not have adequate information to take [any actions] yet,” Hoggan said.

Last year, New Era workers at the Mobile facility joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union to address their complaints, which include unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, forced overtime, poverty wages, illegal firings and racial discrimination, according to a USAS press release.

“It’s in the best interest of the company, of the workers and of the union to get a contract, because everybody benefits from it,” said Jim Gookins, the secretary-treasurer of the Local 991 regional chapter of Teamsters. “We’re trying to get a fair deal.”

Tim Freer, New Era’s vice president of human resources, said the cap company refused the WRC’s audit requests because a third of its board members are affiliated with the USAS, and are therefore biased, he said.

Teamsters, on the other hand, is suspicious of Freer, due to his anti-union campaigns prior to investigations and the fact that he serves on the FLA board of directors.

Eight members of SLAP will attend a USAS conference in Miami to receive updates on the conditions at New Era, Nishimura said.

“SLAP cares about this because we’re really concerned that the University uses its public money in a responsible way, and we’re also concerned that workers [affiliated with the University] are treated well,” she said.

[Reach reporter Sara Bruestle at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]