We are writing to express serious concerns regarding this university’s business relationship with VF Corporation and its subsidiary brands. JanSport/VF has an abysmal track record of human rights abuses in Bangladesh and the broader global garment industry. We call on University of Louisville to cease all business dealings with JanSport/VF as soon as possible over the company’s serial abuses of workers rights.

As you know, the workers safety crisis in the Bangladeshi garment industry has reached a breaking point. Over 1,500 workers have died in the last three years alone in Bangladesh due to preventable factory fires and building collapses. We are particularly concerned about worker safety violations among JanSport/VF’s suppliers in Bangladesh, where the company contracts with 91 factories that employ 190,000 garment workers. In the last five years, JanSport/VF has been implicated in at least four major factory disasters that have killed and/or injured scores of workers. These disasters render JanSport/VF in violation of University of Louisville own Factory Code of Conduct, which states that University of Louisville “shall provide a safe and healthy working environment to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with, or occurring in the course of work or as a result of the operation of Licensee facilities.”

In 2010, VF was producing at the “That’s It Sportswear” factory in Bangladesh, which burned, killing 29 workers and injuring more than a hundred. The factory had illegal construction, no proper fire exits, shoddy wiring, and locked exit doors. Workers were trapped on the top floors of the factory. Many jumped to their deaths. The North Face/VF repeatedly inspected the factory and yet failed to address the safety hazards that led to this tragedy.

In October of 2012, another VF factory in Bangladesh, Eurotex, burned. While this was a major fire, luckily, no one was killed in the fire because the factory was closed for a holiday. If the fire had occurred during a workday, many could have died. When contacted about this fire, The North Face/VF claimed that their own disclosure data was wrong and they had stopped using the factory.

On June 20, 2014, several workers were injured in a fire at Medlar Apparels, a factory that, according to customs data, has supplied VF with apparel since as far back as 2007. This fire occurred after VF had claimed to numerous U.S. universities to have “completed 100% of its inspections at Bangladeshi factories where VF product is sourced.”

In September 2014, 400 workers fell ill after exposure to toxic chemical at the Texray factory in Swaziland, a VF collegiate factory producing for the University of Louisville and other college campuses. Workers became aware of chemical fumes emanating from a shed adjacent to the factory and immediately reported vomiting, nausea, and fainting. Factory management denied workers the ability to exit the factory and pause working, and it was not until ambulances arrived that workers were allowed to seek medical treatment. VF, despite claims of regular monitoring, provided false information to the WRC.

In the face of these repeated disasters, JanSport/VF should embrace a new approach to worker safety. Unfortunately, it hasn’t. JanSport/VF has staunchly refused to sign an innovative, legally-binding agreement between apparel brands and garment worker unions – now signed by over 190 brands – called the Bangladesh Safety Accord. The Accord departs from the previous corporate factory auditing schemes that have failed to protect workers lives. It requires independent inspections by trained fire safety experts, public reporting of the results of all inspections, mandatory repairs and renovations with financing by the brands to address all identified hazards, and a central role for garment workers and their unions.

Instead of signing the Accord, JanSport/VF has joined forces with Wal-Mart to create a company-controlled, non-binding agreement called the “Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety,” which has been heavily criticized for its lack of meaningful inclusion of garment workers and their unions and its failure to require brands to pay a single cent toward the repair and renovation of unsafe factories. JanSport/VF’s refusal to accept legally-binding responsibility for worker safety has placed it among the most regressive companies in the global apparel industry.

Not only has JanSport/VF been implicated in workers rights violations in Bangladesh, there is also a systemic crisis of labor rights compliance throughout the company’s global supply chain. Consider the following incidents that have been reported in the last four years:

In July 2010, union leaders and workers at E Garment, a supplier of collegiate apparel for VF, including JanSport products, were violently attacked by thugs in collusion with factory management. Yet despite repeated requests to intervene, VF did not take action until after the same thugs staged another brutal attack on union leaders in February 2013.

In December 2010, four Bangladeshi garment workers were killed and 100 were injured in clashes with police outside a factory owned by the Korean-based YoungOne group, a major producer for The North Face, a VF subsidiary, and licensee of The North Face in Korea. At issue was the factory’s failure to pay the country’s rock-bottom minimum wage.
 

In February 2012, the Hawkins Apparel factory in Honduras, which produced apparel for VF Corporation and Jerry Leigh, closed without paying workers approximately $300,000 in legally-owed severance benefits. After the factory closure, other buyers from the factory contributed $250,000 to help these workers, while VF Corporation refused to pay a single cent to assist them.

VF contracts with several factories in Cambodia where, at the end of 2013, hundreds of thousands of Cambodian garment workers went on strike to demand a minimum wage of $160 per month – the amount a government panel found to be the bare minimum required to meet a worker’s basic needs. Responding to calls from factory owners to put down these protests, the country’s military violently intervened, killing four workers, hospitalizing dozens more and jailing 23 others for months. This violent response could have been prevented had VF and other major brands ensured that their contractors agree to pay workers a wage that meets their basic needs.

In January of 2014, a 20 year old YoungOne worker was shot and killed by police during a strike over stolen wages despite promises by YoungOne group to change its practices after the aforementioned 2010 murders. YoungOne produces up to 40% of all of The North Face’s apparel.

On April 2, 2014, an estimated 30,000 workers walked off the job at the Yue Yuen factory, a VF supplier, in China’s largest strike in recent memory. The Yue Yuen workers had been robbed of years of legally-owed social insurance contributions, which VF’s auditors failed to detect or address over a significant period of time.

VF has lost at least 19 university licensing contracts over the company’s failure to comply with these university’s expectations for fair labor practices. These universities have taken a decisive stand for workers rights against the largest branded apparel company in the world.

Unfortunately, compared to the swift action of other U.S. universities, University of Louisville response to these concerns has been sorely lacking. Students have been trying to meet with you on this issue since August and the lack of any meaningful response from the this administration regarding this issue is alarming.

The University of Louisville can and should take a stand to ensure that its name is not associated with a company notorious for egregious labor and human rights practices. As concerned faculty of the University of Louisville community, we believe that it is incumbent upon this university to cease all business with VF Corporation and all of its subsidiaries as soon as possible.