While an MSU anti-sweatshop group continues pressuring administration to change its affiliation with its current labor-condition watching organization, other universities have compromised on the issue.

The University of Illinois recently became the third school in the Big Ten to become a member of both major organizations, the Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium.

The consortium, started by students and human rights activists, appoints independent monitors to oversee labor conditions at overseas factories.

The Fair Labor Association, which MSU is a member of, has been criticized for a lack of factory location disclosure. It’s made up of factory officials who ultimately determine what conditions are fair.

Larry Mann, associate chancellor at Illinois, said the university was interested in helping the consortium - but it wasn’t quite ready to ditch the Fair Labor Association to do so.

“We have been intimately involved in working with the WRC,” Mann said. “They have made a great deal of progress, but it has been very slow going and they are hampered in achieving as much as they can because of limited resources.”

The University of Illinois joined the consortium last spring when the group was just gaining in popularity. Only recently did it join the association.

And both have a lot to potentially contribute to the fight against sweatshop labor, Mann said.

“The FLA is much further along organizationally,” Mann said. “It didn’t seem appropriate to hold onto just one organization anymore.”

Mann said both groups complement each other well. He said the association is good because of its heavy involvement with university officials and corporations, while the consortium’s approach has benefits because of its focus on workers.

“We will continue to urge both these groups to add the parties that are absent,” he said.

Other Big Ten schools with dual membership are the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan.

But MSU President M. Peter McPherson said MSU still does not have any plans to join the consortium anytime soon.

He has, in the past, criticized it for not keeping factory officials involved in factory monitoring. Meanwhile, Students for Economic Justice - the campus anti-sweatshop organization - has continued to request he ditch the association in favor of the Worker Rights Consortium.

“We’ve tried to stay well-informed as to what the WRC organization is doing,” McPherson said, before saying the FLA is “clearly substantially further along in their organizational efforts.”

McPherson, who has worked overseas, said he believes the consortium can play a role in the anti-sweatshop movement. And MSU will continue to follow its progress, said McPherson, who has also in the past said he has concerns with the Fair Labor Association too - such as its lack of university official input on its board.

When the Worker Rights Consortium appears appealing to MSU, the university will reconsider its involvement with the organization, McPherson said.

There is an annual fee for both organizations.

Scott Nova, executive director for the Worker Rights Consortium, said the organization’s fee is one percent of yearly sales from university apparel, with a minimum of $1,000 per year.

The association’s fee is also one percent of yearly sales for schools with licensed apparel, a liaison for the Fair Labor Association said.

And Nova said schools are more than welcome to take part in both organizations.

“We certainly urge schools to join the WRC, but if they also join the FLA, that’s fine,” Nova said. “We don’t tell them to join the FLA or not to.

“We have no position either way.”

But while joining both organizations would appear as giving in slightly to student demands, some SEJ members say it’s not a great idea.

Jane Kilmer, a social work sophomore, said the Fair Labor Association’s rules are easier for universities to follow, but the rules contradict the consortium’s regulations on human rights.

“If a school is a member of both, and they choose to break certain rules, they can be kicked off (one) and still stay on the other,” she said.

“I really feel it is in the university’s worst interest to be a member of both.”

Rachel Wright can be reached at wrightr9@msu.edu.