Russell Athletic loses schools over unfair labor moves

Over the past month, apparel manufacturer Russell Athletic has lost its contracts with several U.S. universities over allegedly unfair labor practices in Central America.

The University of Minnesota, Cornell University, and Purdue University are just a few of the schools who had or will soon have their licensing rights with the Atlanta-based clothing manufacturer cut.

Their actions are based on a November report by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC)- a labor-rights monitoring group representing 185 colleges and universities. According to the WRC, Russell engaged in unfair labor practices at their Honduras plants which included threatening workers who wanted to unionize. A January report by another workers rights group backed the WRC’s findings; thus, setting in action the chain of schools cancelling licenses with Russell.

A statement by Russell execs denied the anti-labor charges:

"The decision was not related to the unionization of that plant. In fact, we had recognized the unionization of that plant even before the global slowdown, on Oct. 3, 2007. Given that fact, the claim that we were engaged in anti-union activity in closing the plant is clearly false."

Not all WRC-affiliated schools have cut ties with Russell; Princeton University officials decided this week to keep their merchandising deal.

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Online Sources- Minnesota Public Radio, BusinessWeek, MSNBC, ajc.com, The Daily Princetonian, mndaily.com, Journal & Courier,