Report of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility 2013-2014 Academic Year	Print Issue
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Report of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility 2013-2014 Academic Year

It is my pleasure to report on the deliberations of the Committee of Manufacturer Responsibility during the 2013-2014 academic year. In accordance with the Code of Workplace Conduct for Penn Licensed Product Manufacturers, the Committee met four times during the semester. For the most part, this year was devoted to implementing recent changes in the operation of the University’s licensing procedures. These included the inclusion of non-apparel items in the Code, and the refinement of a streamlined compliance questionnaire for the University’s licensees.

Code Compliance

As a result of the inclusion of non-apparel items, the total number of licensees rose to 150, compared to 63 the previous year. By June 1, we had received responses from 146 licensees, of which 89 were apparel licensees and 61 were non-apparel licensees. As of that date, four have not returned questionnaires and will not be renewed.

Bangladesh

The disaster at the Rana Plaza complex in Bangladesh, which left more than a thousand workers dead, occurred the same week as the last meeting of last year’s Committee and as a result, the Committee was unable to consider its implications for the University. Over the summer, two efforts were announced by apparel manufacturers to improve safety conditions in the country. The Accord on Factory and Building Safety in Bangladesh was signed by a number of apparel firms active in Bangladesh, as well as by several NGO’s and labor organizations. Partially in response to the Accord, a group of more than two dozen retailers announced the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. The Accord and Alliance agreed on several measures, particularly an enhanced protocol for factory inspection and remediation.  However, the Alliance did not include labor participation, was not a legally binding agreement and appeared to offer more modest financial assistance to the remediation effort.

As is the Committee’s standard procedure, we solicited the advice of our monitoring agencies, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Workers’ Rights Consortium (WRC), on the matter. In addition, the committee’s deliberations were informed by the input of representatives from the Student Labor Action Project that met with a subset of the full committee. The FLA position was that both the Accord and the Alliance were responsible responses to the threat to the safety of Bangladeshi workers.  In October, the WRC adopted the position that the Accord was “the surest way for licensees to protect the safety of workers.”

During the fall, the Committee deliberated on the issue and developed a position that was consistent with the advice provided by the WRC. As a result, it unanimously approved a motion that recommended that the University require its apparel licensees that manufacture collegial apparel in Bangladesh to sign the Accord. The recommendation was forwarded to the Office of the University Secretary in December and the University accepted the recommendation. Verification of compliance with the policy was tied to the annual renewal of licensee contracts and would become effective on July 1, 2014.

Penn’s decision to require licensees to sign the Accord puts the University at the forefront of efforts to address the urgent situation facing the apparel industry in Bangladesh. We look forward to next year’s activities, which will entail monitoring compliance and exploring issues that arise relative to this new requirement of our licensees. The Committee will also monitor the extent to which manufacturers may move operations to other countries to avoid the costs associated with providing a safe working environment for their workers.

On behalf of the Committee, I want to express my appreciation to Jacqueline Miraglia, from the Penn Center for Innovation, for her able staffing of the Committee and overseeing the licensee compliance process and to Loren Kole, who assisted her as the Committee’s intern.

It has been a privilege to serve as chair of the Committee during the past year, and I look forward to the coming year.

—Mark J. Stern,
Chair, Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility
Kenneth L. M. Pray Professor of Social Policy & History

Members of the Committee on Manufacturer Responsibility
Mark Stern (Chair), Social Policy & Practice
Steven Kimbrough, Wharton
Jon Shaw, PPSA
Yessenia Gutierrez, CHAC
Amit Pjari, CHAC
Aidan McConnell, Undergraduate Assembly
Gabrielle Nagler, GAPSA

Ex Officio members
Jessie Burns, Provost’s Office
Leah Popowich, President’s Office
Christopher Bradie, Business Services
Sean Burke, Office of the General Counsel
Leslie Mellet, Office of the Secretary