WRC Annual Meeting – May 4

February 16, 2017

Dear Colleagues,

I write to invite you to the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Worker Rights Consortium University Caucus. As you know, the meeting will take place on Thursday, May 4, in Washington, DC.

It is a one-day meeting. We will start at 9:00 a.m. (light breakfast will be available from 8:30 a.m.) and conclude at 4:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies in downtown DC (at 640 Massachusetts Ave., NW).

I hope you will be able to join us. We have much to report and there are many key topics to discuss.

Among the issues we will cover are:

• the Hansae Vietnam case and the related issue of factory access for university monitors
• important developments in cases involving unpaid wages and severance and the broader issue of how to achieve restitution at factories where past code violations have deprived workers of legally mandated compensation
• the growing problem of government repression of workers engaged in peaceful protest, from Bangladesh to Myanmar to Nicaragua, and the challenges this poses to labor rights compliance in the collegiate supply chain
• changes in trade policy under the Trump Administration and the potential implications for enforcement of labor standards in the garment industry

We will also report on key factory investigations and remediation efforts around the world; provide an update on the work of the Bangladesh Accord, as it enters its final year; and review organizational developments.

There will also be ample time, as always, for university representatives to raise any additional issues of interest or concern.

A detailed agenda will be circulated in the coming weeks. We will also share with you, next week, a list of suggested hotels, convenient to the meeting location. If you have any questions about logistics or the topics we will be discussing, please let us know.

Please RSVP, as soon as is convenient, to Lynnette Dunston at lynnette.dunston@workersrights.org – or feel free just to reply to this message.

I hope to see you on May 4.

Best,

Scott

Scott Nova
Executive Director
Worker Rights Consortium
nova@workersrights.org