UO TO JOIN FAIR LABOR ASSOCIATION
September 19, 2000
Contact Tom Hager (541) 346-3134, or Maureen Shine (541) 346-3145
MEDIA AVAILABILITY: A media availability with UO President Dave Frohnmayer concerning today’s announcement will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 19, in the Conference Room, Johnson Hall, 1098 E. 13th Ave.
A copy of the UO Trademark Licensee Code of Conduct is available on the web at http://comm.uoregon.edu/licensing/coc.html. Information about the FLA, WRC and national trademark licensing issues is on the web at http://comm.uoregon.edu/licensing.
EUGENE–In an effort to ensure effective compliance with the university’s Trademark Licensee Code of Conduct, University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer announced today
(Sept. 19) that the UO will join the Fair Labor Association (FLA), in addition to its membership in the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC).
"The UO has a strong code of conduct in place guiding our expectations of companies that license our name and logo," says Frohnmayer. "We intend to ensure compliance with that code as effectively as possible. Joining the FLA is a positive step in that direction."
Frohnmayer’s decision was made after careful review of the status of monitoring organizations and is supported by analysis offered in a recent report issued by a University Senate review committee. The committee was appointed by the senate president last spring to review issues related to the UO’s membership in the WRC.
About a quarter of current WRC member universities have dual-memberships, including the universities of Arizona, Iowa, Michigan and North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as Cornell and Brown universities.
"These other universities have reached similar conclusions to our own–that monitoring the production of licensed apparel is a difficult and complex process, involving perhaps tens-of-thousands of manfacturing sites located in numerous nations worldwide," said Frohnmayer. "Within this complex and controversial context, we are dedicated to our original goal of ensuring compliance with our code of conduct, and I believe that participation in the FLA provides an important option toward achieving that goal."
The UO adopted a strong Trademark Licensee Code of Conduct last April, in an effort to ensure that apparel carrying the UO’s marks and name is manufactured under humane working conditions. The code, the result of many months of work by a committee of faculty, students and an alumni representative, outlines the UO’s expectations for manufacturers who use the UO’s name and marks. All vendors requesting the right to use the UO’s name and marks on merchandise are now required to sign this code.
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