Russell counts cost of Honduras allegations

Michigan University has become the 12th US higher education institution to stop sourcing sports clothing from the Russell Corporation over the company’s decision to close a unionized factory in Honduras.

The university said an agreement under which Russell made T-shirts, sweatshirts and fleeces with college logos was terminated on 31 March because the company had not complied with its ethical code of conduct, which requires suppliers to guarantee basic worker rights.

Other US universities that have recently ended agreements with Russell include Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown and Rutgers.

All have objected to Russell’s closure in January of its Jerzees de Honduras plant, where 750 of the 1800 employees had joined a union. Managers and the union were in a dispute over work contracts. The Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group sponsored by 185 universities, has claimed Russell closed the factory partly to curtail union influence. In 2007 Russell’s Honduras operation made 145 union supporters redundant but reinstated them after protests by US student groups. However, Russell has said it made its recent decision on economic grounds, and the presence of unionized workers had not been a factor.

Michigan ended Russell’s licence on the recommendation of its Advisory Committee on Labour Standards and Human Rights, which found the company ‘had not respected the employees’ right to association’.

No value has been put on Russell’s loss of revenue but it could run into millions of dollars. Russell is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the huge holding company Berkshire Hathaway.