Georgetown, Rutgers, Houston Cut Russell Athletic Ties, Too
Last week I mentioned that Wisconsin had dropped its Russell Athletic contract, but I should have mentioned that Georgetown and Rutgers did, too, the Hoya and Daily Targum reported. The University of Houston cut its ties early last week, and the University of Miami was first on that bandwagon in December.
See? Student activism does work sometimes.
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Reader Comments
Have you ever worked for Russell?
Who are you people that are saying Russell "treats its employees well"? You obviously never worked for them.
I did! I know first hand the lousy way they treat their employees. I worked in one of the U.S. based plants and if conditions were terrible there, I can imagine how bad they are in the Honduras plant!
It was tolerable to begin with, but when Fruit of the Loom bought the company it only got worse. That's one of the reasons I had to get out of there! I don't know how Fruit of the Loom has managed to stay in business the way they treat their employees!
So for all of you singing Russell's praises, I recommend you go work for that company for a little while. I guarantee you'll be singing a different tune real quick!
This fight is worker led.
Check out the articles in the student newspapers! The workers from the factory actually came to the schools to report the horrible intimidation they faced while trying to organize. As for the "American Made" comment - what makes it American Made if the factory is in Honduras?
Furthermore, the Honduran factory HAD a union - one of the only unions in that part of the world - and it was running well. It was RUSSELL that decided to close the factory solely because it opposed union activity. The close had nothing to do with worker productivity.
Schools are cutting contracts to pressure Russell to re-open their factories.
Check out more at www.georgetownsolidarity.org
Anti-Unionism is Anti-American
People who hate unions are mostly suburbanite snobs who've never had to do an honest day's work in their lives. Russell has conducted a campaign of harassment against Honduran workers who've tried to organize themselves in hopes of gaining more leverage to bargain with management. They've threatened labor organizers with violence and issued an "omerta" edict to their workforce. Add to this deplorable behavior the fact that it is in direct violation of their labor practice agreements with the universities in question and it's not hard to see why they are losing their contracts.
Russell needs to learn that they cannot abuse these foreign workers in the name of their profit margin. Kudos to these universities for holding this corrupt company accountable for their unethical actions.
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