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WELCOME TO THE ARCHIVE (1994-2014) OF THE MAQUILA SOLIDARITY NETWORK. For current information on our ongoing work on the living wage, women's labour rights, freedom of association, corporate accountability and Bangladesh fire and safety, please visit our new website, launched in October, 2015: www.maquilasolidarity.org

Fair Labor Association

The Fair Labor Association (FLA) represents a multi-stakeholder coalition of companies, universities and NGOs. As of January 2007 there are 20 brand-name companies participating in the FLA, including adidas, Nike, Gildan Activewear, Nike, Liz Claiborne and others. These companies have committed to a program of labour standards implementation, monitoring and remediation in order to bring their manufacturing sites into compliance with FLA standards.

Almost 200 colleges and universities are affiliated with the FLA. These schools require their licensees to participate in the FLA licensee program.

The FLA's code of conduct has been criticized by some labour and human rights groups for failing to include provisions for a living wage, adequate protections on hours of work, or sufficient protections for freedom of association and collective bargaining in countries where those rights are legally denied.

The FLA publishes annual reports with information on what each member company is doing to meet their obligations, as well as audit results from individual factories - although the factory is not identified - and aggregate audit results. The FLA also has a worker and third-party complaints mechanism to address problems in member company supply chains.

Recently the FLA has been developing new methods of collaboration between companies, NGOs and local trade unions to address persistent labour rights violations in particular regions, and to develop more sustainable compliance with labour standards.

For more information on the FLA, visit: www.fairlabor.org.