By
Ryan Gabrielson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
SAS members feel 'betrayed,' say UA in violation of commitments
Any decision concerning the UA's affiliation with factory monitoring systems has been put off indefinitely, leaving some members of Students Against Sweatshops feeling ignored.
"It's a major betrayal," said Rachael Wilson, SAS spokeswoman and psychology graduate student, following an SAS meeting late last night to discuss Likins' response to their latest deadline. "That sounds like a stall tactic to me."
In an e-mail to the University of Arizona's deans, directors and department heads, received also by Wilson, Likins said that he won't decide whether the university will remain a member of the Fair Labor Association until he has met with the UA Human and Labor Rights Task Force.
"The task force has apparently made its choice in favor of the WRC (Worker Rights Consortium), but I have been invited by the chairman to meet with the task force for a deeper exploration of related issues," Likins said in the e-mail. "I have accepted that invitation, and will defer membership decisions until after that meeting until I have had an opportunity to consider the ramifications of those decisions."
Andrew Silverman, UA law professor and task force chairman, invited Likins to meet with the task force to discuss their conclusion that the UA should not remain a member of the FLA.
The meeting is expected to take place within the next two weeks, Silverman said.
While Likins will take the issue up with the task force, SAS members said there is nothing to discuss.
"He's in violation of the commitments (in the resolution)," said Shamini Jain, an SAS member and a psychology graduate student. "The bottom line is he's not in compliance."
On Aug. 7, the task force recommended the UA withdraw from the FLA and SAS followed up requesting that Likins follow the task force's recommendation.
All past requests by SAS that the UA withdraw from the FLA have been dismissed by Likins, who argued that the monitoring system needed more time to develop.
The deadline for the FLA to have met all the mandates set out in the resolution - which ended an April 1999 10-day sit-in held by SAS members - was Aug. 1
"We always suspected we couldn't trust him (Likins), now we know we can't," Wilson said.
Whether there will be a public reaction to Likins' decision to postpone his decision is not certain, but a rally originally scheduled for today has been postponed until Aug. 29 at 12:30 p.m. on the Administration building's lawn.
Aside from the politics that have crowded these proceedings, Likins said the university's goal is to ensure that UA products are not produced in sweatshops.
"Clearly, the number-one priority for the University of Arizona in this domain is to ensure that the products manufactured with the name of the university on them are not made in environments in which workers are abused," Likins said.
