We believe that the University of Texas- Rio Grande Valley should join the ranks of over 180 universities in signing on with the WRC to insure that our clothing is not stained with the exploitation of other human beings in a quest for profits, and at the expense of decent livelihoods. The WRC has a history of successfully helping both garment workers and students work together in order to improve the conditions in which university logos are produced.

As students, as workers, and as community members, we have an obligation to improve our communities- and that means taking the initiate to fight against injustice whenever and wherever we can. We hope UTRGV will sign on with the WRC so as to become a positive example for our communities and which would give students another reason to be proud.

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The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is a non-profit organization created in 2001 by students, labor rights experts, and workers from across the globe with the participation of college and university administrators. The WRC’s purpose is to investigate worker rights abuses in factories producing college-logoed apparel to ensure that the Codes of Conduct adopted by colleges, universities, high schools, and school districts are enforced; these codes are designed to ensure that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing school logos respect the basic rights of workers, such as the freedom to organize a union and dignified wages and working conditions.

When a school affiliates with the WRC, they pass a Code of Conduct for the manufacturers of their apparel. The code of conduct typically includes bans on forced overtime, child labor, bonded labor, and discrimination of any kind, including sex discrimination, and affirms workers' rights to a living wage, a safe work environment, and freedom of association and collective bargaining. The WRC sends representatives to facilities in Global South where the apparel is being produced to monitor whether the code of conduct is being upheld. The WRC then makes annual, public reports on the working conditions in the facilities. When a factory is found to not be upholding the Code of Conduct, the company or companies – often major international brands – who sub-contracted to that factory are usually threatened with the termination of their licensing contract(s) unless they exert pressure on the factory to improve work conditions. As students and workers, we would like to see a world in which people do not have to live and work under exploitative circumstances.