Motion for next guild council, Supply chain justice

As a next step in the WRC campaign I want to get the guild to lead by example and affiliate to the WRC on its own. This will cost the guild £500. However it will make us the first organization in the UK with a ethical procurement policy that deals with discrimination and gender equality with effective independent monitoring.

It will show a working of example of effective ethical procurement in the UK and help our efforts to get the university to sign up. In the process we will show that Birmingham students are not only committed to civil liberties and equality but are innovative and determined.

There are other benefits for students as well; The WRC helps arrange internships abroad for students interested in human rights work via their unions. Signing up to the WRC would be an opportunity for Birmingham students seeking this kind of work.

The guild is already committed to spending this money and signing up to the WRC, however this motion changes our commitment to signing up as a student union rather than jointly with the university.

It is currently backed by the following

Lincoln Smith Oxfam, Matt ward LGBTQ officer, Allan Ssesanga ethnic minorities officer, Emma Cooper LGBTQ officer (elect) , Laura Beckman Ethical and Environmental officer (elect), Catharina Paul Women’s Officer (elect), Rob Hunter VPEA (elect), Joseph Moses ARAF (elect) and Lizzy Bell people and planet

Any changes or edits, please message me or discuss here

Guild Council Notes:

1. The WRC is a US-based independent labour rights monitoring organisation, conducting investigations of working conditions in factories around the globe. Their primary focus is the labor practices of factories that make apparel and other goods bearing university logos.

2. In December 2009 The Worker Right Consortium Fruit-of-the-Loom-campaign, organized by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) and USAS, was the first time student pressure has forced a company to reopen a factory and re-employ all the workers EVER, The Guild was thanked for its part in bring campaign to the UK.
3. 186 universities and colleges are affiliated worldwide to the WRC but, as yet no organization in the UK has taken this step. Signing up would make the guild the first UK organization to do so and show we are a group of progressive and innovative students.

4. The WRC supports union organising in developing countries and actively tries to empower workers is the only monitoring organization that deals comprehensively with Gender Equality. Other codes only mention gender issues, with reference to general discrimination. The WRC deals with gender specific employment related issues like maternity & paternity leave, occupational health, housing, childcare and work family balance provision.

5. The WRC helps arrange internships abroad for students interested in human rights work via their unions. Signing up to the WRC would be an opportunity for Birmingham students seeking this kind of work.

6. Signing up the WRC as a union would cost £500.

a. Assurance that our ethical policy is being implemented
b. Reputation Protection from negative attention of being involved with Unethical practice.
c. Opportunities for students such as internships
d. Positive publicity of being the first UK organization to sign up

Guild Council Believes:

1) As part of the £8 billion spent in the higher education sector on purchasing we have an ability and a responsibility to use our expenditure to contribute to lower carbon emissions, and aid development in the Global South, whilst maintaining a strong commitment to upholding human rights.

2) The Fruit of the Loom campaign success must be followed up.

3) There needs to be global strategic frameworks in place to make workers unionising globally the rule not the exception.

4) That the worker rights consortium is the most effective and most appropriate structure of support for workers rights in university supply chains.

Guild Council Resolves:

5) To lobby the University to affiliate to the WRC.

6) To join the University in affiliating to the WRC, in the event of the university affiliating.

7) To look into proportionally sharing the cost of affiliation with the University.

8) For the Guild, until the University does affiliate, to the lead by example by signing up to workers rights consortium on it own.

9) To encourage all other student unions and universities to follow suit.

Guild Council Mandates:

1. For the President of the Guild with the EEO, to write to the Vice Chancellor the director of HAS, all members of the senate, council and executive, encouraging the University to sign up to the WRC and explaining why the Guild has done so.