I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3755
To express the Sense of Congress that American universities and colleges
should adopt rigorous educational merchandise licensing codes of conduct
against sweatshop and child labor for merchandise licensed under their
names or insignias.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 29, 1998
Mr. MILLER of California (for himself, Mr. GEPHARDT, Mr. SMITH of New
Jersey, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. CLAY, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. SAND-
ERS, Mr. SCHUMER, and Mr. KENNEDY of Massachusetts) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce
A BILL
To express the Sense of Congress that American universities
and colleges should adopt rigorous educational merchan-
dise licensing codes of conduct against sweatshop and
child labor for merchandise licensed under their names
or insignias.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 
1. 
EDUCATIONAL 
MERCHANDISE 
LICENSING
CODES OF CONDUCT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that American
colleges and universities should take into account the fol-
lowing in managing the licensing of merchandise bearing
the names or insignia of educational institutions:
(1) American workers have the right to a fair
and safe workplace and to reasonable compensation
under the law, such as under the Fair Labor Stand-
ards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and the
Occupational Safety and Health Act.
(2) Despite United States workplace laws,
sweatshops and other forms of labor exploitation
persist domestically. The Department of Labor has
recovered $23,100,000 in illegally held back wages
for over 45,000 garment workers since 1993, includ-
ing $2,900,000 in back wages in 1997 alone. In
1997, 63 percent of the New York City garment
shops investigated by the Department of Labor were
found in violation of the minimum wage and over-
time provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
And, a recent study commissioned by the Associated
Press found that 13,000 children work in sweat-
shops in the United States.
(3) The use of sweatshop and child labor
abroad for goods imported to the United States re-
mains a problem, particularly in the apparel and
sporting goods sectors, including the use of submini-
mum wages, bonded and indentured labor, and
unhealthy working conditions. The International
Labor Organization estimated there are 250,000,000
underage children working worldwide, in all sectors
of the economy, such as agriculture, services and
manufacturing for domestically consumed and ex-
ported items.
(4) Federal law, including the Trade Act of
1930, bans the importation of products made with
indentured servitude, forced or slave labor into the
United States.
(5) Codes of Conduct are voluntary steps taken
by the private sector.
(6) Rigorous codes of conduct are an important
component of a larger set of tools to reduce sweat-
shop and child labor.
(7) The Apparel Industry Partnership, com-
prised of major retail companies, human rights
groups and labor unions, is seeking agreement on a
code of conduct to reduce the use of sweatshops and
child labor.
(8) American consumers have repeatedly ex-
pressed an interest in buying goods not made with
exploited labor.
(9) American consumers frequently have no
ability to know whether a product has been made
with exploited labor.
(10) Informed consumer choices can be a pow-
erful tool in the reduction of sweatshops and ex-
ploited labor.
(11) The market for college and university li-
censed merchandise such as caps, t-shirts, sweat
pants, 
and 
other 
items 
is 
valued 
at 
over
$2,000,000,000 a year, with 80 percent of the mar-
ket coming from apparel products.
(12) Several universities have adopted codes of
conduct specifically requiring companies that manu-
facture products bearing those universities’ names to
adhere to minimum labor standards both domesti-
cally and abroad, but few universities and colleges,
and none of those with the largest volume of mer-
chandise sales, have labor codes of conduct regard-
ing sweatshop and child labor covering companies
that market their merchandise.
(13) The Association of Collegiate Licensing
Administrators is expected to discuss licensing codes
of conduct at its annual meeting beginning on
May 13.
(b) SENSE OF THE CONGRESS.—It is the sense of
the Congress that all American colleges and universities
should adopt rigorous educational merchandise licensing
codes of conduct to assure that university and college li-
censed merchandise is not made by sweatshop and ex-
ploited adult or child labor either domestically or abroad
and that such codes should include at least the following:
(1) public reporting of the code and the compa-
nies adhering to it;
(2) independent monitoring of the companies
adhering to the code by entities not limited to major
international accounting firms;
(3) an explicit prohibition on the use of child
labor;
(4) an explicit requirement that companies pay
workers at least the governing minimum wage and
applicable overtime;
(5) an explicit requirement that companies
allow workers the right to organize without retribu-
tion; and
(6) an explicit requirement that companies
maintain a safe and healthy workplace.
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