November 16, 2000
UC 'code of conduct' passes test
By Mary Spletter
UC Office of the President
Sweatshirts produced in a country known for human rights violations have been returned
to their licensee after they were found in a University of California at Berkeley
bookstore.
The return was made under the rules laid down in UC's Code of Conduct for Licensees.
"The incident demonstrates that UC's Code of Conduct is working," said
Judith Pacult, deputy to Senior Vice President of Business and Finance Joseph Mullinix.
"Within hours of my notifying the Cal Student Store buyers that these sweatshirts
were discovered in the store, the buyers pulled the products from shelves, other
UC campuses were notified, and I started to work with the company that had sent the
apparel to find out what had gone wrong," said Maria K. Rubinshteyn, director
of the Office of Marketing and Management of Trademarks at UC Berkeley.
The merchandise in question--two styles of sweatshirts--was spotted by a photographer
with the Daily Cal student newspaper. The apparel bore labels indicating that
the garments had been produced in Burma, now known as Myanmar. The material had been
produced by JanSport, a company located in Wisconsin that is among the top 10 licensees
of apparel for the University of California.
JanSport officials notified UC officials that it has so far stopped more than 40,000
units of this product from being distributed to customers and had stopped several
shipments from reaching the United States.
James Koehne, a JanSport vice president, wrote in a letter received by university
officials on Oct. 17 that his company first became aware that merchandise was being
produced in Myanmar in June 2000. Their supplier had moved the factory location "without
our knowledge and permission" from China to Myanmar, Koehne said in his letter.
Despite efforts to isolate and stop shipments of the merchandise, some goods were
mixed with goods made in other countries and a few items were missed during audits.
"The products received by the Cal Student Store came from these two mistakes,"
said Koehne.
"We hope this letter, along with the recall of all products produced in Myanmar,
confirms our commitment to be a responsible vendor," said Koehne.
Since the incident, Koehne and other representatives from JanSport have met on the
Berkeley campus with university officials to discuss the error. Koehne is also slated
to make a presentation at an upcoming meeting of the student/faculty monitoring group,
appointed by Mullinix.
"Our commitment to fair and humane work standards is strong,""said
Mullinix. "We share the students' concern about this issue. We will continue
to review our policies and make decisions that will make us a leader among institutions
that strive for equitable work standards."
In 1998, the University of California became one of the few universities in the country
to adopt a code of conduct for its trademark licensees that manufacture products
with the university's name. In January 2000, UC issued a strengthened code with input
from an advisory group of students, faculty and campus administrators. Another committee
of faculty and students has been named to study and make recommendations on enforcement
and monitoring issues.
UC also has participated in a five-university study of apparel manufacturing in seven
countries. The report, the "Independent University Initiative," was released
in October 2000.
