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The Rice Thresher
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by Mark Berenson Thresher Editorial Staff Rice Students for Global Justice sent a letter to President Malcolm Gillis Monday urging the university to take a more proactive role in preventing the use of sweatshop labor among its apparel manufacturers. The letter, accompanied by the signatures of 360 students, asks Rice to join the Workers Rights Consortium, a non-profit organization that enforces company compliance with a code of conduct designed to protect workers' rights. The WRC charges a fee of 1 percent of the revenue a university receives from apparel sales, according to its Web site. Based on current sales, Campus Store Manager Michelle Jones Vanderwater said the fee would cost Rice around $4,000 per year. Currently, Rice belongs to the Collegiate License Company, which limits the products to which the Rice logo can be applied. CLC also has a labor code. However, in the letter to Gillis, Wiess College senior Daniel Livorsi wrote that the WRC and CLC codes differ in the wage levels workers must receive and in the information manufacturers must disclose about the factories. The CLC only requires workers be paid the legal minimum wage, while the WRC code of conduct has a wage provision guaranteeing wages that cover the cost of living. The WRC also requires a full public disclosure about factories, but the CLC code has no such provision. "[If Rice joins the WRC], every factory that makes Rice apparel would have to disclose its location and the working conditions in the factory," Livorsi said. About 75 colleges and universities in the United States, including Columbia University and Georgetown University, have joined the WRC. At press time, Rice spokesman Terry Shepard said the university had no comment because Gillis had been out of town and unable to review the letter. Shepard, the Vice President for Public Affairs, said Gillis, an international economist, would be best able to respond to questions.
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