Likins: Nike contract 'in hand'

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat President Peter Likins will meet with Students Against Sweatshops representatives Tuesday to discuss concerns about the UA-Nike contract, now in its final stages. SAS has changed its position, now demanding the UA use the out-clause in the contract if Nike violates human rights.

Students Against Sweatshops said they will no longer oppose the pending Nike contract, but in a meeting with UA President Peter Likins tomorrow will stress ways out of the deal if labor violations occur.

"Now the contract is in hand, and my consultations are in final stages, so this is the time to meet with the SAS group on its own," Likins said Friday in an e-mail interview.

The University of Arizona is negotiating a contract with Nike to outfit 17 UA athletic teams with the company's apparel despite protests by SAS, a group set against alleged abuse of Nike workers in southeast Asia and other regions.

SAS President Arne Ekstrom said Friday that he has assumed the UA will sign the contract and the group has thus altered its request.

He said the group will concentrate on the school's ability to void the contract if Nike does not comply with its code of conduct.

"We would like to know what reports of labor abuses and from what sources it will take for the president to consider action to terminate the contract with Nike," he said.

After an outpouring of national concern about Nike's employment habits, the shoe and apparel manufacturer created a code of conduct in 1994, promising to increase the minimum wage for, and minimum age of, its Asian factory workers. The code was updated in May, and the UA contract contains certain concessions beyond the code.

The UA has an out-clause in the pending contract, enabling the school to void the deal if Nike "knowingly violates its code of conduct or overlooks human-rights violations made by subcontractors."

Ekstrom said Student Against Sweatshops will present Likins with a list of groups, both for-profit and nonprofit, that monitor labor abuses around the globe. He said he hoped the UA would work with one of the groups, using its reports as a guide for determining if Nike is following the code.

"They (investigative groups) can send the reports to Students Against Sweatshops, or the school can contract with them to report any human-rights violations that are noticed," he said.

Ekstrom said the group will also ask Likins to obtain the names of Nike's factories in Asia, making it easier for the UA to police working conditions.

Likins said he is waiting for a final report on the contract from the UA Committee on Corporate Relations before he concludes his evaluation. He said the committee has not yet been given a deadline.