Likins 'dedicated' to conduct code, official says

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat UA President Peter Likins

"He (Likins) has been dedicated and committed" to working with the apparel industry to ensure stricter labor standards are enforced, Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman said yesterday.

Herman invited Likins to Washington, D.C., to moderate a forum on code-of-conduct clauses in university contracts with athletic apparel companies.

The forum, held yesterday at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, marked the first time all parties involved with the college trademark industry - students, college officials, manufacturers and retailers - have gathered in one place to focus on labor standards, Herman said.

Labor department official Carl Fillichio said 50 universities sent representatives to the forum. Likins called it "a rather courageous and innovative thing."

The forum, entitled "No Sweat University: Labor Standards and Codes of Conduct," contained three panels that discussed issues such as reaching codes of conduct agreements and implementing them.

Likins moderated the "call to action" panel.

"The challenge is not coming up with codes of conduct. The challenge is coming up with a code of conduct that can be implemented," he said.

Likins said universities should adhere to a uniform national code of conduct, which the Apparel Industry Partnership has already developed.

Formed voluntarily in August 1996 with President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore's encouragement, the apparel partnership is made up of leaders from the footwear and apparel industry, labor organizations, consumer groups and human rights advocates. The group presented Clinton with a national labor agreement in April 1997.

The Strong Workplace Code of Conduct is intended to be adopted voluntarily by apparel companies. It includes prohibitions against child labor, worker abuse, harassment and discrimination.

The code also recognizes workers' rights to organize and form unions, sets a minimum industry wage, a maximum 60-hour work week and mandatory overtime caps.

One of the code's clauses contains a provision for independent monitors to review company policy and practices.

"We can't monitor (working) conditions off-shore, that's why we can come up with an apparel industry code of conduct," Herman said. "The independent monitor is really the key to the code in terms of influencing off-shore operations."

Students against the UA athletic department contract with Nike, which Likins signed in August, claim it would be impossible for university officials to police the shoe company's often-criticized labor practices overseas.

The $7 million deal will furnish the UA's 18 Division I sports teams with Nike gear.

Philip Knight, Nike's chief executive officer, is a member of the Apparel Industry Partnership.

Likins said it is difficult to establish a principle for monitoring apparel companies.

"It's a tall order to create an environment where it is bad business to utilize sweatshop labor," he said. "It is not yet done but progress has been made."

Likins said the code's critics want monitors to have total access to overseas factories and think the agreement gives an unclear definition of a livable wage.

But the solution is not a simple one.

"If we really want to get the problem solved we need to get students, government agencies, college officials and the industry to come to the table," he said.

Michael Lafleur can be reached via e-mail at

Michael.Lafleur@wildcat.arizona.edu.