NBA Finals Backlash

This year’s NBA basketball finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic attracted more than the usual spectators. Student and labor activists have assembled outside the teams’ arenas in protest.

According to United Students Against Sweatshops, the NBA has a $125 million deal — said to be the largest deal of its kind in sports — with the Russell Corporation, which makes the NBA’s backboards, basketballs and uniforms.

But the activists complain that Russell is engaging in anti-labor practices. They cite a November report from the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a labor-rights monitoring group representing 185 universities and colleges, as well as a January report from the Fair Labor Association (FLA). WRC charges that Russell closed its Jerzees de Honduras factory in large part because workers there had formed a union. FLA did not go so far as to make the same accusation, but said the company did engage in a series of anti-labor practices including physically threatening union leaders and supporters.

Russell — which is owned by Fruit of the Loom, and, subsequently, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway — provides similar services for pro football and baseball teams, and several universities and colleges. The company says it closed the Honduran plant along with eight other factories solely due to the economic downturn.

Students have managed to convince nearly 50 universities to cut their ties with Russell over the issue in recent months, including the University of North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Harvard and Florida.