Academic and business leaders from around the region will host a three-part symposium next week on fair trade practices and work conditions in foreign countries that supply goods to the United States. The symposium culminates with a panel discussion on the North Carolina textile industry’s struggle to stay profitable as it follows fair trade practices.
The events, which take place in the LaRose Digital Theatre in the Koury Business Center, are sponsored by the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, and Students for Peace and Justice, with support from the Fund for Excellence in the Arts & Sciences.
Events will be held from 6-7:30 p.m and are open to the public. They include the following:
Monday, Feb. 18, 2008: Pietra Rivoli, author of “Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade”
Rivoli is a professor at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. The inspiration for her book came from student protests at Georgetown.
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008: Jim Keady, director of Educating for Justice, “Try Living on Nike Wages!”
Jim Keady’s passion for social justice was fueled, in part, by being fired from his soccer coaching job at St. John’s for refusing to wear and promote Nike products in support of the school’s $3.5 million endorsement deal with Nike.
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008: Panel discussion on fair trade and the state’s textile industry. “Local textile executives and Love School of Business faculty will discuss the dilemmas that apparel manufacturers face in an industry firmly situated in a global economy. Can a North Carolina company follow fair trade practices and remain profitable?”
The panel discussion will be facilitated by Bill Burpitt, associate professor of business administration at Elon, and will include Sam Troy, executive in residence at the Bryan School at UNC-Greensboro and formerly director of strategic partnerships with the U.S. Department of Commerce; Eric Henry, CEO of Burlington-based T.S. Designs, Inc., an apparel design company; Mike Gannaway, vice president of VF Corporation; and Tom Tiemann, Elon economics professor.