Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Likins to respond to SAS request to leave FLA

Today is the newest Student Against Sweatshops deadline for UA President Likins to decide if the university will withdraw from the Fair Labor Association and join an alternative monitoring system.

SAS presented Likins with a 75-page-book last month that included Nike's relationship with human rights, independent monitoring information and a FLA critique.

Likins said yesterday that he read the book when he first received it and also watched the factory video that was given to him too.

"No, I will not withdraw from the FLA unless the FLA fails to respond," he said. "We've made a lot of progress since April and there is no reason to abandon the process."

UA spokeswoman Sharon Kha said the report about the decision will be released mid-morning today.

"I don't think there will be any surprises," she said.

The FLA board is made up of 14 members from various organizations. There is one seat representing universities.

Student Against Sweatshops spokesman Avery Kolers said the decision wasn't surprising.

"The FLA has done almost absolutely nothing that matters to implementing workers rights," he said. "We have to make to the message that much louder and involve more people."

The organization will be in front of the Administration building on Tuesday to discuss workers' rights in relation to human rights.

Kolers, a philosophy graduate student, said the focus will be getting the university to withdraw from the FLA and join the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring board made up of universities.

SAS will also have a map showing where factories are located.

"The worker rights are basic human rights," Kohlers said. "For some reason in our country, people seem to forget that."