For an average student browsing through clothes racks at the UCLA Store, selecting the best shirt design might be a more immediate concern than the working conditions in factories where the products were manufactured.
Students who ignore the brand labels, however, are missing out on the extra efforts that certain companies take to ensure a good working environment for their employees.
One such company is TeamX, a factory that manufactures apparel for the UCLA Store.
The company, which has been operating for 18 months, signed its first contract with the UCLA Store last year. However, it still has not decided whether it will renew its contract – which expired on Oct. 1 – for next year.
Operating on a worker-owned “cooperative” system, TeamX allows its employees to invest in the company and work their way up to become owners of the company. Workers also receive vacation days, pension, and retirement funds, as well as more than the minimum wages paid by other factories in the same area.
Despite its numerous worker-friendly conditions, TeamX has found it difficult to push their SweatX products through a market dominated by well-established companies such as Russell Athletic. Last year, the company struggled to make deadlines for the UCLA Store’s orders.
The company’s delivery records have not been very strong, said Patrick Healey, general merchandise manager for apparel and accessories at the UCLA Store. TeamX was also unable to provide certain products that the store re-ordered, he said.
Healey said that while the store is interested in doing business with a factory that is local and places emphasis on being sweatshop-free, it also needs to acquire products in a more timely manner.
Manouchehr Vaezi, director of operations for TeamX, said the small-scale structure of the company allows it to produce only what is ordered, and so it must process a large number of orders to cover the cost of production.
“The UCLA Store sometimes orders a very small quantity from us, and because we don’t have an inventory to pull from like other big companies, it is not viable for us to process those orders,” Vaezi said.
“We would love to have our products at UCLA, but we also need to receive more orders from the store,” he said.
TeamX is looking to come up with new products that are different from what other companies produce, which they will then present to the store, Vaezi added.
Though TeamX was founded on a sweatshop-free principle, it is not the only company with fair labor standards. All factories seeking to sell products to the UCLA Store must meet the guidelines for employment standards specified in the University of California Code of Conduct.
Code of conduct compliance is a huge deal for the store, said Cynthia Holmes, director of trademarks and licensing for the Associated Students of UCLA.
In addition to having factories abide by the UC Code of Conduct, UCLA is also a member of the Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, two organizations which work to identify and remediate problems in factories with poor working conditions for employees.
Many students said they appreciate the store’s selective screening of factories.
“It’s good to know that the store is being careful about the factories they buy from; it prevents a lot of potential conflicts from boycotters,” said Carrie Stern, a second-year English student.
The high price of the products is probably an indicator that the store is only buying from companies with good labor standards, Stern added.
Holmes said monitoring the conditions in factories is critical, and licensed companies that do not manufacture their own products are still responsible for the conditions in factories where their products are manufactured.
The UCLA Store’s concern with the conditions of workers in factories prompted its interest in products manufactured by TeamX.
“That’s why we are very interested in the whole model of fair labor practices that the SweatX brand was based on, and we try to be supportive of their efforts and hope that they will renew their license with us,” Holmes said.