Spring Break
University waiting for full story on Russell Athletic violations
Mark Scialla
Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: News
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According to Workers' Rights Consortium Executive Director Scott Nova, Russell Athletic has violated fair-labor practices at its Honduras factory. In early 2008, Russell Athletic closed its Jerzees de Honduras factory, along with seven others, citing economic reasons for the closure.
Jerzees de Honduras was Russell Athletic's only unionized factory in the country, which Nova claims has been the target of intimidation and abuse because workers were trying to organize unions. WRC claims the closing of the unionized factory was illegal and contrary to university codes of conduct.
"We believe Russell is in a severe breech of university codes of conduct," Nova said.
"Russell spent an enormous amount of time and energy trying to intimidate workers."
As a result of the controversy, some universities and colleges have cut business ties to Russell Athletics, including Harvard, Purdue and Rutgers universities.
According to Director of the URI Bookstore Paul Whitney, "the current display space of Russell items is approximately 16 percent of our clothing department."
Whitney said he does not believe URI is in contradiction of WRC principals because the items in the bookstore were not traced back to the Russell Athletic factory in question. Whitney also said he does not think all of the facts from both sides of the issue are present and that some of the WRC's claims are not true.
"It's just their perspective, No. 1," Whitney said. "No. 2, the first thing I did was double-check the product. None of our product came from that factory."
Whitney said he is closely monitoring the information from both sides and will wait until he has enough valid information to make a decision.
"My approach to this is to make sure we get the facts in total," Whitney said. "I won't knee-jerk respond."
Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Dougan said he thinks URI is in compliance with the WRC's principals and thinks that it would be harmful to Honduran workers if URI boycotts Russell Athletic.
"Do you boycott an entire company because of the actions of one plant?" Dougan said.
Dougan said he trusts Whitney's decision to continue selling products from Russell Athletic.
"The bottom line is none of our products come from this factory," he said.
According to Russell Athletic's response to the allegations, its garment workers in other factories expressed no interest in organizing. Russell Athletic also claims that approximately 25 factories were closed in Honduras as a result of the economic struggles of early 2008.
According to Nova, in 2007, Russell Athletic illegally fired 145 workers trying to organize in two Honduran factories. Russell Athletic denied its actions then admitted to the firings later and rehired the workers after media attention.
"The goal is not to have universities stop doing business with Russell Athletic," Nova said. "It's to get Russell Athletic to change its behavior. The goal is to get Russell Athletic to respect the rights of workers."
Under pressure from the now defunct URI Students for Social Change, URI agreed to join the WRC in 2007. According to WRC, each university or college that affiliates itself with the organization agrees to uphold its principals pertaining to doing business with certain vendors who do not respect workers' rights.
