When you support the university’s licensed suppliers, you are helping to encourage just and humane working conditions around the world. Washington University in St. Louis supports innovative efforts to protect workers’ rights and remediate abusive working conditions.
We are affiliated with two organizations – the Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium – that work for lasting solutions to abusive working conditions. The university’s licensees are required to join the Fair Labor Association and meet their requirements for licensees.
Fair Labor Association (FLA)
The FLA is a multi-stakeholder organization that works strategically on behalf of workers. WashU has been an active member of the FLA since 2000 and has adopted for its licensed products the FLA “Workplace Code of Conduct,” which is based on the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization.
The university has served on the FLA Board and in leadership positions since 2007; in 2015-16, a MarComm intern participated in the FLA Student Engagement Program; and in 2018-2019, WashU participated in a pilot program of the Fair Labor Association.
Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)
Washington University has been affiliated with the WRC since 2005.
“The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is an independent labor rights monitoring organization, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe. Our purpose is to combat sweatshops and protect the rights of workers who sew apparel and make other products sold in the United States.”
For more information about the Worker Rights Consortium, please visit WorkersRights.org.