U. of Wisconsin Flagship Ends Ties With Apparel Maker

The University of Wisconsin at Madison announced today that it would end its business relationship with Russell Athletic, which makes apparel with the university’s logo, when its current licensing agreement expires in March. The decision follows a recommendation made late last year by the university’s Labor Licensing Policy Committee in response to questions about why the Russell Corporation, the apparel maker’s parent company, had decided to close one of its factories in Honduras. Worker-rights groups had alleged that the closure was in response to union-organizing activity there.

The university said it accepted the committee’s advice after considering its own evaluation of the situation and reports from independent monitoring organizations, the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association.

The Worker Rights Consortium released a report in November saying it found substantial evidence that anti-union sentiment played a significant role in the decision to close the plant.

The Fair Labor Association said in a report and statements released over the past week that there was some support for the company’s explanation that the factory was closed for business reasons, because of a decline in orders for its products. The association added, however, that its investigators had found evidence of “inappropriate and unacceptable actions” by the company that “raise serious questions about Russell Corporation’s adherence to freedom of association and the protection of workers’ rights.”

The university requires companies licensed to use its logo to have their working conditions observed by monitoring agencies. It canceled a contract with another apparel company last year after that company refused to allow a labor inspection of one of its plants. —Charles Huckabee