U. Nevada bookstore ends contract with Russell Athletic

In a response to alleged labor rights violations, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada Bookstore will cease selling popular Russell Athletic items once the store’s current stockpile is exhausted.

The violations are alleged to have occurred at a factory in Honduras and include the intimidation of union leaders. The violations are under investigation by the Fair Labor Association.

“Due to the failure of Russell Athletic to comply with general standards of fair labor, as well as their continued variance from the moral principals of the University of Nevada, the Associated Students of the University have instructed the ASUN Bookstore to cease all orders of Russell Athletic merchandise,” ASUN President Eli Reilly and Sen. Brandon Bishop, the chairman of the senate’s interim committee, wrote in a memorandum.

Bookstore officials were initially against terminating their contract with Russell Athletic before Reilly and the senate agreed otherwise. Even if the officials hadn’t been convinced, the decision by ASUN would have had binding authority over the bookstore, Bishop said.

“It’s a power ASUN doesn’t exercise very often,” Bishop said. “But it’s there.”
Last year, sales of Russell Athletic items totaled more than $276,000, or about 25 percent of the bookstore’s total sales, according to a copy of the store’s financial report. Remaining items from the company will be sold so as not to impact scholarship funding, according to Reilly and Bishop’s memo.

The University of Nevada sales may have a small impact on Russell Athletic, but it is not the only bookstore in the country severing a contract, or debating doing so, with the company.

“Certainly if enough bookstores did it, it would have an impact,” said Mark Pingle, an economics professor at UNR.