From: Erin McGrath (erin.mcgrath@workersrights.org)
Date: Mon Jul 01 2002 - 16:42:17 EDT
Dear Colleagues:
As you know, earlier this year, the management of New Era Cap Company informed us that they were willing to begin working with the WRC on our assessment of working conditions at the company's Derby, NY production facility. On April 16, members of the WRC assessment team met with New Era management and their attorneys, along with two representatives of WRC affiliate universities -- Peter Webber of Syracuse University and Larry Williams of Notre Dame. New Era provided us, at the meeting, with a large volume of documents in response to long-standing WRC information requests. As I explained in my note to you after the meeting, while we viewed this as a positive step, we wanted to reserve judgment as to the company's intentions, in light of their previous unwillingness to provide information or otherwise cooperate with the WRC's assessment. Specifically, we wanted to review and analyze the documents the company had provided in order to determine whether they were responsive to the WRC's information requests.
After review of the documents and other follow-up, it is our conclusion that New Era has made a good faith effort to provide the WRC with necessary information and that the company is endeavoring to cooperate reasonably with the WRC's assessment efforts. There is some requested information the company has not yet provided, but they have made it clear that they are open to supplementary information requests and that they will work with us to attempt to ensure that we have what we need to complete our assessment. This is welcome progress and I am pleased to be able to report it to you.
As you know, the WRC had delayed completion of our full report on the Derby facility because of our desire to obtain management's input. Now that management has decided to supply requested information and cooperate with the WRC assessment, we can complete our work and issue a second report. Because much time has passed since our preliminary report, it will be necessary for our assessment team to re-interview workers and conduct other follow-up fact gathering. This will allow us to assess current conditions at the Derby facility and to note changes that may have occurred since our preliminary report was issued. This will cause some delay in the completion of our work; however, we will endeavor to complete the report as rapidly as possible.
We will keep you posted on our efforts. Please feel free to contact me if you have any thoughts or questions.
Sincerely,
Scott Nova
Scott Nova
Worker Rights Consortium
5 Thomas Circle
Washington DC 20005
voice 202.387.4884
fax 202.387.3292
www.workersrights.org
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