Employees in a Mobile, Ala. clothing factory linked to the Georgetown University Bookstore allegedly work under sweatshop-like conditions, according to several campus groups and factory employees.

In a presentation Tuesday night in the Intercultural Center, the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, the Georgetown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Black Student Alliance united to present the findings of a recent visit to the New Era factory and a student response to Georgetown’s contract with the company.

New Era manufactures caps and athletic apparel that is sold at the university bookstore.

University spokesperson Julie Bataille said the university does not believe that any of its merchandise comes from the Mobile factory.

“I believe that we have confirmed that no GU goods are manufactured at this site, but it may be used as a storage warehouse for a small number of items from time to time,” she said.

However, she did say that the university’s Licensing Oversight Committee has been working with New Era to look more closely at workers’ rights in this factory.

“Georgetown officials have been in dialogue with New Era directly to express concerns about the treatment of workers at this facility and the LOC continues to actively monitor this issue,” she said.

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau and keynote speaker for the event, said that an investigation into the working conditions at this factory has led to some startling findings.

She said that workers at the factory make $8 an hour, placing them well below the poverty line in Mobile. More importantly, she said, the lack of labor union organization remains a major problem; New Era factory workers in Buffalo, N.Y. have successfully unionized and currently make $18 an hour for similar factory-based work.

“One of the key struggles now is organizing with companies like New Era,” she said.

According to Shelton, workers in the Mobile factory are passed over for promotions, which she attributes to the management’s “handpicking” of non-New Era workers to fill higher-level positions.

“We knew we had a major problem on our hands,” Shelton said after visiting the factory and hearing of this purported treatment.

When one employee in the factory started a movement to unionize, Shelton said, workers were threatened with employment termination. They were also required to watch anti-union videos, she added.

Several Mobile factory workers joined the discussion on campus via telephone to answer students’ questions and discuss changes they think should be made at the factory.

Gwen Williams, an employee in the quality control department at the New Era factory, said that management launched an “anti-union campaign” when some employees began to consider unionization as a viable option. Williams said that this “made it a lot harder for us to do our jobs.”

According to Williams, the alleged intimidation tactics included setting the thermostat to 86 degrees when it was nearing 110 degrees outside and the removal of chairs in which workers in the packing department sit while doing their jobs.

Shelton said that, more recently, factory workers have officially voted to be represented by the Teamsters union. Once organized, she said, the workers will petition to gain a salary increase, medical insurance, retirement benefits and 401(k) retirement plans, all of which have been granted to the New Era workers in Buffalo.

Chessa Gross (SFS ’10), a GSC member who recently traveled to the Mobile factory as part of an inspection team, discussed student efforts that call for the university’s termination of its contract with New Era. The bookstore currently sells New Era hats and athletic products.

According to a report issued by Gross, Georgetown’s LCO has had meetings to review and take action upon factory assessment reports issued by the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights monitoring agency. New Era has not allowed the Worker Rights Consortium to perform an assessment of its Mobile factory, Gross’s report states.

GSC has developed a petition which was discussed and circulated at the meeting, urging University President John J. DeGioia to end the university’s contract with New Era.

Jheanelle Brown (SFS ’10), a representative from Georgetown’s chapter of the NAACP, said that she is “outraged ... but not surprised” at the worker treatment in Mobile.

Brown added that she finds the situation in Mobile particularly unacceptable because it is “taking place in an American city under an American vendor.”