Opinion: Cut ties with VF Corp

Chancellor Carol Folt thought she would quell the student outrage against licensee partner VF Corporation with her decision requiring future partners to sign the The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

But she has not.

VF Corp., a company which has publicly refused to sign the accord, remains a licensee partner due to a technicality of the statement’s wording.

Effectively, this decision has shabbily solved a public relations problem and strongly indicates the University’s preference for profitable partnerships over guarantees that garment workers are adequately protected.

The stipulation that requires all future partnerships to sign the accord and for clothing bearing UNC logos to be produced outside of Bangladesh suspiciously allows VF Corp. to remain a licensee partner under technicalities.

VF Corp. stopped producing collegiate apparel in Bangladesh last year, according to an inspection performed by the Workers Rights Consortium, though the company continues to run more than 50 other contract factories in Bangladesh. According to a press release from UNC’s Student Action with Workers, the partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Greensboro-based VF Corp. is worth more than $200,000.

In other words, UNC apparel will be produced under ostensibly safer conditions than before, but its money will still be going to a company that has not yet demonstrated a full commitment to improving worker conditions in Bangladesh.

VF Corp. continues to skirt the lines of ethical business practice by refusing to commit to the only reliable measure of accountability for outsourced products: The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.

The company has made efforts to bolster relations with UNC-Chapel Hill through meetings last year between CEO Eric Wiseman and Folt.

It knows the University is a valuable client — UNC-Chapel Hill’s share of the system’s contract amounted to 60 percent of system royalties paid out to VF Corp.

Driven by the threat of rising manufacturing costs, VF Corp. seems to have refused to take full responsibility and has instead turned to halfhearted solutions, like the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, of which VF Corp. is a co-founder.

Unlike the legally binding and independently audited agreement within the accord contract, the alliance allows for a board of company stakeholders to oversee the entire assessment process, starting with the selection of auditing parties by standards of their own discretion.

On Jan. 7, UNC-system President Tom Ross issued a memorandum allowing for UNC-system universities to choose between the accord and the alliance at their discretion.

While leaders at UNC-Chapel Hill undoubtedly made the right choice by going with the accord, the University’s tailored statement takes some of the pressure off VF Corp. to take stronger action.

The manner in which members of this institution come to such ethical decisions leaves its mark on a global community.

We therefore urge Ross’ offer to be carefully considered and taken even further — ideally sooner than the next factory fire.