Originally, the FLA’s board included six industry representatives, six NGO/labor representatives, and a mutually agreed-upon chair to which a single additional voting seat was added for a college/university representative to voice the concerns of the 176 colleges and universities that are affiliated.
Though the original intention was to work with companies in a non-accusatory manner, independent labor experts have argued that this setup has prevented the FLA from achieving its goals.
In light of these issues, HSAS has argued that the FLA alone is not sufficient and that Harvard should also join the WRC, which is completely independent of the manufacturers.
“We’ve heard pretty compelling arguments from even the head of the FLA that it can’t supply monitoring both internally and externally in a reliable manner by itself, whereas the WRC is able to leverage a lot of power over companies quickly,” Mackinnon said.
Mackinnon asserted that Harvard’s membership in the WRC would not be mutually exclusive with its FLA affiliation, and that in recent years the FLA and WRC have worked jointly on a number of occasions.
“It’s pretty clear that the FLA can’t do it alone, but the two organizations have had successes in the past by combining their different approaches,” she said.
And representatives from both organizations said that joint membership does not represent a conflict.
“We certainly don’t discourage membership in both organizations, and have even encouraged it,” said Kathy Stevens, the FLA’s university liason. “In my opinion, universities should make their own decisions but there is certainly nothing wrong with membership in both,” said Kathy Stevens, the FLA’s university liaison.
Scott Nova, the director of WRC said that the two organizations are “fully compatible,” with over 75 colleges and universities currently holding joint membership.
“In every case that a university or college has been a member of both organizations it has worked out fine. [The WRC and the FLA] have different approaches but the most effective work has been done through a collaboration of both,” he said.