Oakland Tribune
January 8, 2000
By Ronna Abramson, Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- Responding to pressure from students and human rights groups, the University of California on Friday issued a new, stricter code of work conduct for manufacturers of popular Cal baseball caps and other college gear.

All new licensees and their contractors who manufacture items with UC logos will be required to follow the code, issued by UC President Richard C. Atkinson.

"Now I am pleased that UC has one of the strongest codes in support of humane labor standards," Atkinson said in a statement.

Companies with existing licenses -- about 200 in UC Berkeley's case -- will be required to follow the code as their agreements are renewed, typically every year, said Bud Travers, assistant to the UC Berkeley vice chancellor.

Berkeley nets about $500,000 in licensing fees from the collection of shirts, shorts, caps, mugs and other items bearing the Cal name.

"It looks great. It has all the basic principles that we had been discussing with the UC and the advisory committee," said Jill Esbenshade, the graduate school representative on the advisory committee formed to fine-tune UC's first code.

But Esbenshade and other advocates cautioned that the difficult task of implementing the code -- still a point of contention with the university -- lies ahead.

Students and human rights groups have argued for tapping the expertise of UC students and faculty to set up a pilot monitoring program.

Instead, UC joined Harvard and other universities in hiring outside firms to conduct a study of conditions in the factories that manufacture projects bearing their logos.

UC's code of conduct takes aim at sweatshop conditions, including low wages and long hours, reported at manufacturing plants in the United States and in such countries as Central America, Mexico and China.

UC is the largest university system in the nation to impose such a progressive code of conduct, said Medea Benjamin, director of San Francisco-based Global Exchange.

The stricter code, Benjamin said, adds four major requirements that the group and UC students had been fighting for: that licensees and their contractors pay a living wage; that they do not discriminate against employees on the basis of pregnancy; that they do not discriminate against them on the basis of collective bargaining activities; and that the company names, addresses and other details about licensees, contractors and manufacturing plants be made public information.

The new code of conduct builds upon the university's first code, imposed in August 1998.

That code limited working to 48 hours per week or 12 hours overtime per week; required one day off every seven-day period; and required that no employees be younger than 14 or 15, depending on the country.