When it comes to human rights, you’re either all in, or you’re out. Regarding sweatshop labor, that’s a reminder MSU desperately needs.
Last year the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was written to hold apparel corporations with factories in Bangladesh legally responsible for the safety and well-being of their employees.
With a push from MSU’s chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops, MSU agreed to cut licensing agreements with any company that refused to sign the Accord.
“Our policy here at MSU is that any licensee who makes or sources MSU apparel needs to sign the Accord,” MSU spokesperson Jason Cody told The State News.
But JanSport, the sole licensee and VF subsidiary that refused to sign the Accord, is still licensed with MSU — even though the VF Corporation sources from 90 factories in Bangladesh and has 190,000 employed workers within those factories.
MSU Vice President for Auxiliary Enterprises Vennie Gore previously told The State News that because JanSport itself does not make or source MSU apparel from factories in Bangladesh, they were not required to sign the Accord.
But just because the backpacks made in these factories don’t display a Spartan logo doesn’t mean the university should wash its hands of the issue.
MSU’s chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops had to pressure MSU to sign the Accord in the first place, and MSU didn’t take it all the way. The university didn’t turn down the positive PR that came with its signature, though.
MSU could become the 16th university to cut ties with JanSport. As the university represents such a diverse community of students and faculty, it should set an example.
Because it’s people our age who are working in these sweatshops in unsafe conditions for paychecks that aren’t even close to a living wage.
If everyone cut ties with the companies that support that kind of tragedy, JanSport and its peers would have to find another means of production. MSU, it’s time to lead the way to make that happen.
Opinion editor Casey Holland did not contribute to this editorial because she wrote an article about MSU’s ties to JanSport.
