By
Shana Heiser
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Brown calls WRC vs. FLA argument petty, irrelevant
The struggle to end sweatshop problems nationwide takes precedence over arguments in Tucson over labor organizations' membership, said Sam Brown, Fair Labor Association executive director.
Brown will speak to the University of Arizona and Tucson community about the existing sweatshop situation and about strategies to end sweatshops at 7 p.m. Monday.
The recent active discussion regarding the FLA and Worker Rights Consortium is irrelevant when looking at the bigger picture, Brown said.
"I don't want to stay focused in this petty argument with the WRC," he said. "It has nothing to do with ending sweatshops, my concern is to get out in the field, see the conditions, and stop the sweatshops' conditions."
Brown said that, as far as can tell through brief discussions with UA President Peter Likins, Likins' main concern is similar to Brown's position.
"My understanding is that Likins' concern is how to end sweatshops," Brown said. "It's not engaging in some internal argument which, frankly, may have some meaning to some people in Tucson but doesn't have any meaning to workers in Vietnam - that's the people I'm the concerned about."
Brown follows Richard Appelbaum, WRC advisory council member in the fall semester speaker series. Both speakers were invited and sponsored by the UA Human and Labor Rights Task Force, said Andrew Silverman, law professor and task force chairman.
The FLA will begin full-scale monitoring of factories by the next year, Brown said, with 300 to 400 independent monitors. The organization hopes to monitor 30 percent of the approximately 4,000 factories within the next few years.
The WRC's philosophy contrasts with the FLA's, because Brown said the FLA "actually intends to monitor these factories."
"They rely on self-reporting from the companies," Brown said. "We also have a regular monitoring program which they do not have and do not intend to have."
Factories must be monitored firsthand, Brown said. The FLA will look at the on-ground situation, talk to workers, look at the books, meet with non-governmental organizations, and review health and safety standards inside, among other thing.
"You can only do that if you go there," Brown said. "Unless you are prepared to go monitor factories and look at hundreds of them, you cannot possibly know the circumstances in that factory."
Both organizations have differing visions of how they want to improve and enforce sweatshop regulations, Silverman said. They vary in opinions, thoughts and ideas on what they think will work and not work.
The WRC is not a concern of Brown's, but he said they have "failed to think through the problem clearly and think clearly about a solution to the problems."
"They (the WRC) are a minor blip on the screen," Brown said. "The problem is to actually end the sweatshop conditions, and we are in the process of doing that."
Rachel Wilson, Students Against Sweatshops spokeswoman, does not agree with Brown's comments about the unimportance of the WRC's influence, and she points to recent actions taken against the University of Oregon by the CEO of Nike.
"It's a big enough issue for Phillip Knight to bother pulling a substantial donation from the U of O (Oregon) when they joined the WRC," Wilson said.
Wilson said the FLA monitors go into a few factories from one company and can then certify all apparel from that company as sweat-free, and she sees this as a way for companies to market as sweat-free.
"They are denying that the FLA was set up to hide sweatshops," Wilson said. "We feel so strongly that we have to get out of the FLA because it does actual harm."
