Harvard Says It Will Delay Decision On Joining Workers’ Rights Consortium

University officials told members of Harvard Students Against Sweatshops (HSAS) that the administration would again delay its decision about whether or not to join the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC) at a meeting Monday.

HSAS members went to the Mass. Hall meeting with General Counsel Robert W. Iuliano equipped with memos outlining the reasons why they think Harvard should join the WRC.

“It was a very cordial exchange,” HSAS member Madeleine S. Elfenbein ’04 said. “They were seemingly receptive to what we’ve had to say.”

After presenting a number of differences between the WRC and the Fair Labor Association (FLA)—which currently monitors the manufacture of Harvard merchandise—HSAS members left the meeting encouraged by the administration’s attitude, said HSAS member Emma S. Mackinnon ’05, who is also a Crimson editor.

University spokesperson Joe Wrinn declined to comment yesterday on the specifics of the meeting.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate to get into the details,” he said.

But members of HSAS said they were disappointed to find that Harvard has no immediate plans to join the WRC, and that administrators want to consider the issue further.

“I, for one, am growing impatient with the increasing absurdity of these meetings. And I know I’m not the only one,” said Elfenbein, who said she has been participating in similar meetings with administrators since she joined HSAS as a first-year.

Though in the past University officials have argued that the FLA is adequate, HSAS members have campaigned for the last four years to get Harvard to join the WRC as well.

The group believes that Harvard’s membership in the WRC would guarantee better collection and sharing of information about conditions in factories. Another benefit, according to HSAS, is that the WRC has no commercial ties to the companies it regulates, unlike the FLA.

“We expect that Harvard shares our concern, and understand Harvard’s membership in the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as an effort by Harvard to address sweatshop abuses—though an inadequate effort,” HSAS said in a memo they shared at the meeting.