The University of California (UCLA) has adopted a new code of conduct designed to make sure its merchandise is not produced in sweatshops.
A joint student and staff committee at the university, which sells $17million of goods sporting its logo, strengthened the existing code by demanding that suppliers must make sure subcontractors pay a ‘living wage’ and guarantee a range of benefits, including maternity leave without loss of pay.
The new wording makes the code one of the strongest of more than 100 adopted by various colleges around the United States in recent years, largely with assistance from the United Students Against Sweatshops pressure group. UCL’s suppliers include the sportswear companies Nike, Reebok and Adidas.
Nike has ended its sponsorship deal with Brown University’s hockey programmes in the US after a dispute over the college’s new requirements on labour standards for clothing suppliers.
Nike declined to agree to work by a code of conduct drawn up for the university by the Workers Rights Consortium, a non profit audit body. Vada Manager, Nike’s director of global issues management, described the code as ‘too onerous’.