President Likins responds to SAS: Sweatshops and The University of Arizona

Vern Lamplot
March 31, 2000


Letter from Dr. Likins to the Students Against Sweatshops
February 16, 2000

Members of the Students Against Sweatshops
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
ASUA
Building 19, Room 215, Box C4
Tucson, Arizona 85721

Dear Members:

I received your letter requesting that I support the Workers Rights Consortium (_WRC_). You further requested withdrawal from the Fair Labor Association ("FLA").

I believe your request that we withdraw from FLA is entirely inconsistent with the commitments I made to you last April, and with your acceptance of those commitments. While you are of course free to request that we mutually agree to a revision of our commitments to each other, I hope you share my conviction that the only way that these commitments can be revised is through mutual acceptance of proposed revisions. I am not prepared to accept the substitution of WRC for FLA into the language of those commitments.

I am personally committed to improving labor conditions worldwide. Accordingly, I willcontinue to review monitoring alternatives as they arise, and I will evaluate the program objectively to determine whether it is worthy of the University_s support.

To that end, the simple talking points and executive summary you provided are not adequate. I would request that you provide directly to the Task Force for their consideration all information related to WRC including but not limited to its bylaws, articles of incorporation, sources and methods of support and income, descriptions of all involved parties, and some description of the means by which the proposed monitoring will actually occur.

In any event, please be advised that I will commit neither to withdrawing from FLA nor to supporting WRC at this time.

Sincerely,
Peter Likins
President

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