2008 Woodie Awards
Don't sweat it - Midd gear made in safe working conditions
Caitlin Taylor and Adam Posner
Issue date: 2/17/05 Section: Features
When a student drifts into the College Bookstore in Proctor Hall, an assortment of clothing brands await the shopper. From Jansport to Russell Athletics, Champion to GEAR and Cotton Exchange, the manufacturers that supply Middlebury's insignia wear were chosen for meeting distinct standards in the production of their goods. The process employed to select these companies has evolved dramatically in the last few years.
Among colleges and universities, Middlebury College has been at the fore of the movement banning sweatshops and inhumane working conditions in the factories of their manufacturers. In 1998, the issue of sweatshops was brought to the attention of College Store Manager Bob Santry by four students inspecting the labels of clothing in the College bookstore.
An alliance between Santry and the students quickly developed, and the group of students, Santry and two faculty members founded a group to draft a code of conduct which Middlebury would abide by in their purchasing of clothing. The Code of Conduct, completed in the Fall of 1999, titled "Middlebury College Apparel Manufacturers Code of Conduct" provides the standards of labor and facility conditions that Middlebury would tolerate of its manufacturers.
The tenets established stretch to all corners of the workplace. In addition to banning companies that employ children under the age of 15 and use forced labor, the Code also laid out regulations for health and safety, nondiscrimination, women's rights, working hours, wages and benefits, and harassment and abuse.
This Code of Conduct was later used as a model for the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC) Code of Conduct. Many of the principles founded in Middlebury's Code were incorporated into the codes of schools across the nation in the drafting of their own codes.
The WRC, a non-profit organization, is the primary tool that Middlebury and many other schools use to ensure the quality of the working conditions in factories contracted to produce clothing. It sends officials, typically labor rights experts, to apparel manufacturing facilities to make both announced and unannounced visits.
Among colleges and universities, Middlebury College has been at the fore of the movement banning sweatshops and inhumane working conditions in the factories of their manufacturers. In 1998, the issue of sweatshops was brought to the attention of College Store Manager Bob Santry by four students inspecting the labels of clothing in the College bookstore.
An alliance between Santry and the students quickly developed, and the group of students, Santry and two faculty members founded a group to draft a code of conduct which Middlebury would abide by in their purchasing of clothing. The Code of Conduct, completed in the Fall of 1999, titled "Middlebury College Apparel Manufacturers Code of Conduct" provides the standards of labor and facility conditions that Middlebury would tolerate of its manufacturers.
The tenets established stretch to all corners of the workplace. In addition to banning companies that employ children under the age of 15 and use forced labor, the Code also laid out regulations for health and safety, nondiscrimination, women's rights, working hours, wages and benefits, and harassment and abuse.
This Code of Conduct was later used as a model for the Worker's Rights Consortium (WRC) Code of Conduct. Many of the principles founded in Middlebury's Code were incorporated into the codes of schools across the nation in the drafting of their own codes.
The WRC, a non-profit organization, is the primary tool that Middlebury and many other schools use to ensure the quality of the working conditions in factories contracted to produce clothing. It sends officials, typically labor rights experts, to apparel manufacturing facilities to make both announced and unannounced visits.