Mathylda Dulian | Photographer
GW-branded polo shirts hang in the Campus Store in the University Student Center basement.
Most factories producing GW-branded apparel investigated for workers’ rights concerns have improved their labor policies as universities work to ensure branded-apparel workers are treated fairly by employers.
GW is one of 146 colleges and institutions that reports data on the factories that produce their apparel to the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that investigates labor rights. The WRC has investigated at least 14 factories since 2002 that produce GW-branded apparel like jackets, hats and shirts and discovered cases of wage theft, unpaid severance, the firing of union leaders and mandatory prayers for workers.
The Worker Rights Consortium investigated more than a dozen factories GW listed on its most recent quarterly report, released Oct. 1, with factories where investigations previously found wrongdoing improving their workplace conditions. Nine investigations found violations relating to wage theft, unpaid severance, injury compensation or benefits, and eight investigations found unfair labor practices related to unionization efforts in factories like the retaliatory firing of workers trying to organize. Four investigations found health and safety issues and two found gender discrimination.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r